Needing A New Sponsor Urgently

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Amazing to think a few decades ago sponsors were lining up.

Williams Formula One has revealed their new car design for the upcoming season and to say it is looking fairly bare is an understatement. Rokit and Williams terminated their contract during lock down and even though it is lost revenue I think Williams will still come out of this season ok.

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I actually think it looks classier now. There is so much space on the car that can still be sold. The front wings,the back wing which they have now put their own name on

Back in the days when Williams was at the top of their game the company I worked for was their main sponsor. We received gifts from the other sponsors on the car at regular intervals which I thought was rather dent of them. Nothing major like specialty car cleaning kits and promotional items like key rings,t-shirts and caps. These all add up though and are built into their budgets.

The money we paid back then was substantial to have the majority of the car emblazoned in Rothmans livery. The way it worked back then could be different to how it is calculated now. We paid x amount up front and the rest was on a per lap basis. For example if the car finished the race and won then they would receive more than if the car didn't complete the race as laps were calculated into the overall deal.

We are talking the early nineties now and back then to complete one lap the cost was in the region of $2500. What you have to take in mind is that also included the practice sessions and qualifying before the race itself. Having two cars you are easily looking at close to $1 Million for the 4 days as a running cost for the car itself.

Throw in the team personnel plus accommodation,entertaining sponsors and corporate guests and you are ticking some huge numbers. Formula One is a rich mans sport and since the 1990's has only got more expensive to run. The size of the teams has escalated and doubled and in some cases tripled over the last 25 years.

Williams has got bigger from those days but the success dried up along with the money. Unfortunately sponsors want to get their pound for their buck and you need to be at the top of your game to pull in the top sponsors. This is where Williams messed up as by not going for the top drivers they employed the tactics of drivers paying for their seats.This meant the drivers had to bring sponsors to pay their way and hence pay their salaries as well.

Someone like Lewis Hamilton has certain sponsors that he brings with him like BOSS clothing. You will find the likes of Verstappen,Riccardo,Vettel will also have sponsors that will move wherever they move. The difference is they are top drivers and that is just an added bonus. The drivers Williams have are not going to help in the long run and you will sink further and further away from the podium.

In their heyday Williams did not have to go looking for drivers as drivers wanted to drive for them. Think of the likes of Prost and Senna who left top teams to come drive for them. Senna could have had any seat on the grid but he chose Williams as they were the most innovative team at the time. The designers and engineers were recreating the car and only the FIA stepping in preventing certain ideas did the others catch up. Patrick Head and his team were streets ahead of the other teams on the engineering side and can be compared to what Mercedes are doing right now to all the other teams.

It will be interesting to see where Williams finish next weekend in Austria as a good result is needed to possibly secure a sale this season. This is no secret that Williams are looking to sell a share of their company and if not maybe pull out completely. I don't think that will happen but possibly a new shareholder will be found. I don't think it would take much to turn them around as they have all the tooling machinery required. They just need to find the right chief engineer and designer plus two good drivers. Russel is to young to help develop a car and they need an experienced head much like what Schumacher did for Mercedes when they started out.

I am hoping they can pull this last ditch effort off this season as they have such a good name in the motor racing industry. Formula One needs them as there are too many teams that are just making up the numbers these days.