The Newshound

Williams F1 team sues Telford garage owner for £1m after Ralf Schumacher race car vanishes on loan

From the Newshound archive · first published 7 October 2026.

Peter Thorpe, the former Autotech director who denies knowing the whereabouts of a historic Williams F1 car worth £750,000, citing memory loss following a stroke.
Peter Thorpe, the former Autotech director who denies knowing the whereabouts of a historic Williams F1 car worth £750,000, citing memory loss following a stroke.
A Williams FW23 Formula 1 car, one of only nine ever built, at the centre of a High Court claim after the example loaned to Peter Thorpe's Telford firm vanished without trace.
A Williams FW23 Formula 1 car, one of only nine ever built, at the centre of a High Court claim after the example loaned to Peter Thorpe's Telford firm vanished without trace.

Peter Thorpe, 58, is facing a High Court lawsuit from Williams over the disappearance of the £750,000 FW23 — one of only nine ever built — from Autotech Performance Ltd, his Telford garage, where Williams had placed it on loan since 2015. Williams lawyers allege Thorpe arranged for the car to be removed and falsely declared personal ownership of it to liquidators when the firm wound down. Thorpe denies any knowledge of the car's location, attributing memory problems to a stroke, and maintains he never claimed ownership to anyone.

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

Williams says that when it sought the car's return in 2021, its requests went unanswered, by which point Autotech had already been liquidated and dissolved.

Thorpe, now resident abroad by his own account, insists the car was still on the premises when he last visited in summer 2021 — leaving its current whereabouts a complete mystery.

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