LONDON: Formula 1 team Williams Racing announced Tuesday that it has signed a multi-year, multi-million sponsorship deal at its company headquarters with British telecom brand Rokit.
Williams have been on the lookout for a title sponsor ever since Martini opted to end their involvement in F1 after a five-year stint. The team’s performance on track has come under scrutiny as well.
Though not well-known in Europe, Rokit have been making a name for themselves on the sporting scene Stateside, through their sponsorship of NBA basketball team Houston Rockets and NFL outfit Los Angeles Chargers. The smartphone and network provider wanted to boost their global footprint and they decided F1 was the answer.
ROK chairman Jonathan Kendrick commented on the association: “It’s (Williams) a British team, I’m British, my company is British. I love the fact the Williams name has been above the garage for a long time. Others have been and gone. Williams is still standing.
“The other reason, to be blunt with you, is Claire (Williams). It was a great meeting, I bought into her vision, her passion, her drive. After 45 minutes, I was convinced she was the one I wanted to work with.”
Williams deputy team principal Claire Williams added: “It’s next-gen Williams. That’s what we’re doing for this year. Things feel like they are coming together. Our livery is our shop window to the world, hence the revised livery. It’s fresh. To me that says we are a team that’s here to stay and we have a bright future. It’s important for us to convey that message with all the speculation, all this nonsense going around about the team at the moment.
“We’re on a journey, this is a start of a new Williams. That means a new race car and we’ve really stripped everything back in order to make sure we address the weaknesses that came out of last year’s Williams and that’s not the work of the moment. We won’t get everything right straight away, that’s not how it works.
“We have to go through this piece by piece and we will get there in the end. It’s all about progress this year, we have got to make improvements to the team.”
The F1 team was the first this year to launch its new livery, more than a month before the start of the season with the Melbourne Grand Prix in Australia.
