It is yet another example, in this early part of the off season, of a structural change in the fabric of F1 teams. We have had Mercedes ending its arrangement with McLaren and buying 75% of Brawn and McLaren setting itself up as a “British Ferrari”.

Williams was set up very much like Brawn; an independent team with a private shareholder structure. Teams of this size are very well placed for the new era of F1. Then there is the Qadback deal to purchase the BMW Sauber team, which hasn’t gone through yet because the team has not been granted Toyota’s vacant slot on the grid.

It’s ironic that Williams has sold to a man called Wolff, as back in 1975 he sold his first F1 racing team to Walter Wolf, a Canadian millionaire oil man who wanted to go racing. That deal didn’t work out too well for Williams and led to him setting up Williams Grand Prix Engineering.

Williams does not want to reveal the extent of the shareholding Wolff will get, but it will appear on their next tax return in around six months time, so we will find out then. But they have resisted many offers to sell equity in the company so this is a significant move.

Williams did reveal that the sale of the shareholding followed along the lines of the split which existed between him and Patrick Head. Williams held 70% of the shares and Head the remaining 30% – so they have both reduced their holding proportionately.

Sir Frank was keen to point out that the move in no way indicated a change of strategy for the team’s management, but was simply about releasing a bit of cash for equity for himself and his long time partner.
“Nothing changes. I will continue with my role, ” said Williams. “Patrick and I are here every day and we will continue to be so. I have no desire at this time in my life to want to stop work.

“The sale is entirely for private motives. I’m 67, I’m not going to live forever. I want to take care of one or two private needs. Patrick and I have never taken a penny out of the business in four decades and it’s time I paid a few bills!”

Williams suggested that the money would be used to pay off his mortgage, but it will be interesting to see how much of it goes back into the business. When BMW left the team in 2005 Williams sold his private plane and helicopter and ploughed that money back into the team. In that time Williams was fighting hard to keep up with the spending arms race led by the manufacturers. Now, although there is no budget cap, there is a resource restriction agreement to keep costs under control.

Williams did acknowledge that he was not getting any younger. At 67 he is the world’s oldest surviving quadraplegic and his care is expensive. I had lunch with him in Abu Dhabi and a long chat in Suzuka and on both occasions he was on great form, energetic and funny, the mischievous twinkle in his eye. He didn’t look like he was about to retire.

There have been some interesting moves around Williams lately, with the sudden decision to go with Cosworth engines after a long negotiation with Renault. There has been some speculation that there is a bigger picture at work with the Cosworth move perhaps linked in some way to Williams and a third party, perhaps bringing a new manufacturer into the sport when the engine formula changes in 2013.

Wolff is the kind of character who might position Williams for the future and then broker it on, given his investments in high tech businesses like HWA in Germany, and his wider connections in the automotive field. There are suggestions that Audi might look at F1 when the new engine formula comes into play.

Who knows, it might be just a simple deal to take on a young, energetic shareholder, but given that it hasn’t happened before with Williams F1 and Frank is talking about securing the company’s future, there is a strong chance that there is more to it than that. Williams admires intellect above all else,

“He’s a very clever young man, ” says Williams of Wolff. “He has one or two investments about which he’s very tight-lipped. It’s also a method of ensuring that everyone who supports this team, namely our partners and workforce are taken care of. The present owners are taking steps to ensure that this all continues. As will inevitably happen, I’m going to get too old to do this one day. So I’d rather not rush into something at the last minute.”

Along with moves like the joint venture in Qatar to develop their composite flywheel technology for commercial use on buses and trains, Williams is very much looking to the future.

* Be sure to get your entries in to the Top Five Drivers competition. The competition will close and I will be posting the results at midnight UK time tonight.

In an article I co-wrote in this weekend’s Financial Times, Parr said, “This week marked the end of manufacturer dominance in F1, something that had been growing for a decade, ” It’s not that manufacturers are not welcome in F1, it’s just that the maths don’t make sense. If you spend $750 million a year to own an F1 team and come ninth two years in a row, you are going to stop. For an independent at times like these you are going to put your head down and keep going, because you have no choice.”

Meanwhile all the stakeholders in F1 are wondering what Toyota’s legal position will be now. They are in breach of contract, having signed the Concorde Agreement in August. Although there is no specific financial penalty written in the agreement, they do have responsibilities and potential liabilities. For instance, as one team principal pointed out to me yesterday, if another team was on the point of signing a title sponsor and that sponsor pulled out because he was unsettled by Toyota’s move, then he could have grounds to sue Toyota.

Many commentators have underestimated what Toyota’s position entails, and it is the complexity of the legal responsibilities linked to being in breach of contract which the Renault board will have been discussing this week, along with seeking an honest assessment from its commercial team of the chances of securing sponsors for next season, with the cloud from the race fixing scandal still hanging over the team. My sources suggest that Renault will definitely compete in 2010, but will review the position again after that. They will be studying what, if any, legal challenges Toyota face during that period.

Unlike Honda and to a lesser extent BMW, Toyota have not done the right thing here; they have signed the Concorde Agreement and then breached it, they have not sought to set the team up to continue in future.

The question of the 13th team remains; will Sauber get it? I’m sure they will, but contrary to rumours this weekend, I understand that Qadback has not yet paid BMW the money for the team, that is contingent on them getting the entry ratified by the FIA.

I spoke to McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh this week and he said that Toyota was ‘not integral’ to F1 – which is a corporate way of saying they won’t be missed – and that FOTA is still in robust shape because its strength is Ferrari and McLaren. Like BMW, Toyota have not helped the manufacturer’s cause this year because they have merely served to prove the accusation that manufacturer’s come and go when it suits them.

Interestingly both sides in the FOTA/FIA war over the summer failed to get all that they wanted in the final negotiations. The FIA wanted the manufacturer’s boards to commit to 2012, not just the race teams, while Toyota and other manufacturers were keen not just for Mosley to stand down, but for Bernie Ecclestone to do so as well. Toyota were looking for different corporate governance for F1 and were reluctant signatories of the Concorde Agreement.

I sense that FOTA as an organisation is weaker now, because it has lost some manufacturer muscle and once the new teams join, they will be much more likely to side with Ecclestone, who holds the purse strings, in the event of a dust up. It also cannot help that Ferrari has once again publicly belittled the new teams this week, saying “Formula 1 continues losing important parts. In exchange, if one could call it that, Manor, Lotus, USF1 and Campos Meta arrived. You might say, “same-same” because it is enough if there are participants. But that’s not entirely true and the we’ve got to see if next year we’ll be really as many in Bahrain for the first starting grid of the 2010 season.”

Over the summer Ferrari said that many of these teams were more GP3 than F1. Some of them are already FOTA members and others have applied for membership – happy families!

Also in that FT article we got a quote from a spokesman for Jean Todt’s new regime at the FIA, who said that the events of this week prove that, “The FIA’s strategy of cost reduction and the encouragement of new independent teams was the right one for the championship.”