Williams have ‘healthy’ budget for 2020 Formula 1 season

Williams deputy team principal Claire Williams said the team have a ‘healthy racing budget’ going into the 2020 Formula 1 season after they managed just one point last year.

Speaking during the announcement of a test driver deal with Roy Nissany in Israel, Williams said their budget was healthy and would allow them to invest over the season.

Williams finished 10th in the Constructors Championship last season and we often way off the pace at the back of the field, which means that the team have lost commercial rights money going into this year.

However, during the off-season Williams have signed a number of new sponsorship deals and sold a majority stake in Williams Advanced Engineering to independent privaty equity firm EMK Capital in December.

“Sponsorship is hard, it isn’t easy,” Williams told Autosport.

“We all know that and I don’t think any team is finding the sponsorship market in F1 very easy. Our business model actually relies heavily on sponsorship and it’s never easy. It hasn’t been for the past decades, but we still managed to find a healthy racing budget with which to do what we need to do over the course of the year.

“We have that going into this year. Obviously as you all know, we sold a majority stake in Advanced Engineering, the proceeds of which come into the F1 team, in order to bolster the budget as well. So I have no concerns over the racing budget for 2020.”

Testing starts in just over a months time in Barcelona, with six days of running scheduled between February 19 and February 28.