Williams and Martini are set to end their sponsorship deal at the end of the 2018 Formula One season. However, this is not really a big surprise.
Williams Martini Racing Formula One team principal Claire Williams recently confirmed that Martini, the Italy-based alcoholic beverage company that has sponsored the team since the 2014 season, will not be returning to sponsor the team after the 2018 season.
Following the 2018 season when their sponsorship deal with Williams Martini Racing comes to an end, Martini are set to leave the sport entirely following a five-year run as a sponsor of the United Kingdom-based team.
Here is what Williams had to say about the matter, according to Motorsport.com.
"“We have discussed extending beyond 2018. While we would both like to do so, the Bacardi Group have told us that they will step away entirely from Formula 1 when our contract expires at the end of this year. They have many brands to support and obviously their strategic priorities evolve over time.”"
At the end of the day, the fact that this deal is set to come to an end is actually not a huge surprise given the fact that Williams failed to replace Felipe Massa with a driver who is at least 25 years old to team up with teenager Lance Stroll.
Here is what Williams team technical head Paddy Lowe had to say about Martini’s sponsorship prior to their selection of 22-year-old Sergey Sirotkin to replace 36-year-old Felipe Massa alongside 19-year-old Lance Stroll, according to Reuters.
"“What’s most important for the team is to pick a driver lineup that will give us the best performance and most exciting racing potential. There are some issues around advertising and Martini but if it came to it, I‘m sure Martini would understand the importance — if that’s what we were to choose — to have the best lineup for racing rather than for advertising. We will cross that bridge if we need to. Age is not a factor in our primary objective which is to pick the best lineup.”"
The advertising and marketing issues that Lowe referenced have to do with the fact that it was a priority for Martini that Williams had at least one driver who is at least 25 years old driving for them due to the fact that Martini are an alcoholic beverage company.
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There have been reports that this is not exactly 100% true, but it isn’t completely made-up, either, and Williams certainly didn’t help their case when they picked Massa’s replacement, especially after it was widely believed that they would select 33-year-old Robert Kubica to replace him.
When Sirotkin was announced as Massa’s replacement, that left Williams without a 25-year-old driver. In fact, Sirotkin, 22, is the older of the team’s two drivers now since Stroll is just 19. The team’s average age of 20.50 is the youngest of the sport’s 10 teams.
It appears as though Williams did come to what Lowe referenced as a “bridge” with their selection of Sirotkin over Kubica, or anyone older than 25 for that matter, but they have not been able to cross that bridge with Martini.
That said, there is nothing to confirm that Williams’ selection of Sirotkin is actually the reason that Martini are not going to sponsor the team beyond the 2018 Formula One season. That would, however, definitely make the most sense.
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As previously stated in another article, Williams still likely won’t be hurting financially. Lawrence Stroll is a multi-billionaire who spent $80 million just to get his son Lance a ride for Williams in the 2017 Formula One season, and Sergey Sirotkin is financially backed by the Russian-based SMP Racing.