Formula 1 racing team chief Sir Frank Williams has launched a new multi-million pound conference centre at his Oxfordshire base.

The hi-tech facility is also home to the WilliamsF1 museum, which features 41 famous cars spanning the illustrious history of the team, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year.

The 51,000 sq ft building in Grove can accommodate hundreds of delegates at a time or just a handful in one of ten meeting rooms.

Sir Frank and his manage- ment team see it as an ideal base for the team's sponsors to hold meetings and conferences as well as being open for use by hundreds of businesses across Oxfordshire and the surrounding counties.

He said: "It is very important for us to give our sponsors somewhere professional but at the same time different and interesting for all their clients. We also needed somewhere sensible to put a pool of old racing cars."

WilliamsF1, which employs about 400 people at its Grove site, has been running conferences since 1990. But it recognised the need to develop a new facility to meet growing demand for a venue offering more than just an available room to companies and their clients.

The new centre and museum was formed out of an existing building, originally used to house a BMW-backed project to develop a car for the Le Mans race.

When Le Mans was won by that car in 1999, the building switched to becoming a maintenance and storage facility for the historic race cars. Work to convert it began last June and this week it began taking its first clients with a healthy advanced bookings list already developing.

All of the rooms are named after famous WilliamsF1 drivers including Alan Jones, Ayrton Senna, Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost and Damon Hill.

On Grand Prix days, corporate guests can watch the race with an exclusive trackside briefing from Mr Williams and additional insights from the team.

There are no plans to open the centre to the public at the moment.