A FRESH START FOR

Formula 1’s unexpectedly protracted offseason has been painful for many of the teams, but for Williams in particular the resumption of racing couldn’t come soon enough. Declining performance in recent years – and the attendant shrinkage of its prize fund share – meant the team was already under considerable financial pressure when the payments from title sponsor ROKiT abruptly ceased in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Williams didn’t get to become the second most successful F1 team of all time in terms of championship wins by being soft, cuddly, or in any way a pushover. So, its response was quintessentially hard-nosed and unsentimental: it publicly gave ROKiT the rocket and came out fighting. Sir Frank Williams might have moved aside from the day-to-day management of affairs, but the business that bears his name also proudly