Formula 1 team Williams have launched a High Court case worth more than £1million after a historic Grand Prix car went missing.The team lent the car to a garage owner in Telford, with it being worth £750,000 and only one of nine models.Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya finished fourth and sixth in the 2001 drivers’ standings with the car in questionAFP It was driven during the team’s 2001 World Championship campaign by Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya.The car became a part of the British team’s collection of ‘heritage cars’ to reflect on Williams’ successful history.However, the valuable vehicle disappeared after it was loaned to Shropshire-based Autotech Performance Ltd in 2015 to serve as a showpiece in the garage.The team requested it back in 2021 yet received no response after the company entered liquidation and has been dissolved.Williams are now taking legal action against former Autotech director and shareholder Peter Thorpe, and are seeking the return of the car or a payment over £1m.Lawyers for the Formula 1 team have claimed that Mr Thorpe had the car removed from the garage after wrongly claiming to his company’s liquidators that he personally owned it.While Thorpe is fighting back, insisting he never told anyone he owned the car ‘because he knew this to be untrue’.Additionally, he has claimed he doesn’t know where the car is after explaining that he suffers from a poor memory following a stroke.He has said that he cannot remember speaking to liquidators and that the car was still on site when he last visited in the summer of 2021 before the company was dissolved.Williams has claimed: “When the liquidators contacted the defendant about the whereabouts of the car, the defendant claimed that he had moved abroad to work and would refer the matter to his legal representatives in the UK.Williams believes that Thorpe took the car and continues to hold onto itGetty“It is to be inferred that it was the defendant who removed the car from the premises, or who arranged for its removal therefrom, and the defendant who thereupon took possession and control of it.“Further, it is to be inferred that the defendant retained possession and control of the car, and continues to do so.”However, Thorpe’s lawyer Duncan MacPherson has argued: “The defendant knows that the car was delivered to Autotech by the claimant in 2015 and is aware of the terms of the Historic Car Loan Agreement.“He does not know who in fact owned the car then or now. The defendant closed the business of Autotech on 30 June 2021. The defendant suffered a stroke on 7 October 2018 that caused him cognitive impairment.“The defendant admits that the car was at the premises on 8 August 2021, but does not admit whether it remained there until December 2021, because this lies outside his knowledge.”Additionally, he has claimed Williams is not entitled to any order against him and has disputed the alleged £750,000 value, claiming that the vehicle was a show car without an engine.Several sets of brothers have competed in grand Prix history, including Michael and Ralf SchumacherGettyA Williams spokesperson said: “We have initiated proceedings to recover a car that was lent to a third party and not returned to us.”The high-stakes case is waiting to go before a High Court judge for a full trial.