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Williams to announce new title partner and livery
Williams will announce a new title partner as well as unveil its 2019 livery on Monday, February 11.
Martini’s title sponsorship of the team -- which featured an iconic livery -- came to an end after five years at the end of 2018, with Williams finishing tenth in the constructors’ championship last season. With an all-new driver line-up of Robert Kubica and George Russell, the team has secured a replacement title partner that will be revealed on Monday alongside this year’s livery.
Because it could replace Martini, deputy team principal Claire Williams says Williams is in as strong a position in terms of budget as it had been last season.
“So we’re not setting any targets for ourselves this year apart from continuous improvement, that’s really important to us,” Williams told RACER. “We’ve done a huge amount of work over the past year from an engineering perspective so we have to see improvements on the racetrack, and as long as we see those improvements then we’ll be happy.
“This is a long journey for us and we have our expectations very clearly set. From a business perspective we need to make sure we are structurally in the right place, which I believe that we are very close to, if not there already.
“From a financial perspective we’re very comfortable with where we are at the moment. Financially we are fit, we are healthy. We will have there or thereabouts the same budget -- if not a little bit more -- than that which we raced with last year.
“Our revenue last year was £170 million ($220.5m), and that’s pretty impressive for a team that everybody says is going out of business or is going bust. That to me does not mean that the team is going bust or out of business or bankrupt…
“So trying to (quiet) those comments or that speculation would be great progress for us. That’s something that I certainly target this year. I can’t repeat it enough but still people talk about Williams going bust and it’s infuriating.
“I suppose those three things are our key objectives this year: Making sure that we improve the car, making sure that we improve all aspects of our business and to ensure financially that we’re stable for the next three to five years. And we’re well on the path to all of them.”
Chris Medland
While studying Sports Journalism at the University of Central Lancashire, Chris managed to talk his way into working at the British Grand Prix in 2008 and was retained for three years before joining ESPN F1 as Assistant Editor. After three further years at ESPN, a spell as F1 Editor at Crash Media Group was followed by the major task of launching F1i.com’s English-language website and running it as Editor. Present at every race since the start of 2014, he has continued building his freelance portfolio, working with international titles. As well as writing for RACER, his broadcast work includes television appearances on F1 TV and as a presenter and reporter on North America's live radio coverage on SiriusXM.
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