Williams F1 team sues Peter Thorpe for £1m after £750,000 Grand Prix car vanished while on loan to his Telford garage

From the Newshound archive · first published 7 October 2026.

Williams F1 team is taking former Autotech Performance director Peter Thorpe to the High Court after the historic FW23 race car it loaned him disappeared. The £750,000 vehicle — one of only nine ever built — was lent to Thorpe's Telford garage in 2015 as a showpiece and never returned when Williams demanded it back in 2021. Lawyers claim Thorpe had the car removed and falsely told liquidators he personally owned it before his company was dissolved.

The FW23 was raced by Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya during Williams's 2001 World Championship campaign.

Thorpe, 58, says he has no idea where the car is, attributing his lack of recollection to a stroke he suffered.

He insists he never claimed to own the car 'because he knew this to be untrue' — leaving its whereabouts a complete mystery.