Williams wins lawsuit from former sponsor and gets 27 million

Williams has won a landmark court case. A California court has ruled in favour of the team over a possible breach of contract by former title sponsor Rokit. The sponsor will now have to pay everything it still owes Williams plus expenses.

Williams dragged Rokit into court last year

Williams entered into a sponsorship deal with Rokit in 2019 at a time when the British team was in dire financial straits. The telecoms company thus took over as main sponsor from Martini and was expected to do so for a period of three years. However, in May 2020, the partnership was immediately terminated by Rokit after disappointing results in the first year of the sponsorship deal. Rokit also refused to pay the remaining sponsorship money yet, leading Williams to take the case to court in October 2021.

The judge has now ruled in favour of Williams in the case. Rokit will still have to pay the team all the remaining sponsorship money, an amount that amounts to just over £26 million. In addition, the judge fined Rokit one million dollars and ordered the company to pay all expenses of the lawsuit.

It is a significant victory for Williams, even though the team is now a lot more financially stable than it was at the time of the deal with Rokit. Late in 2020, the team was sold to Dorilton Capital, which, coupled with Nicholas Latifi's sponsorship money, ensured that the team was able to turn the books around again and start focusing on on-track results. For now, those are still some way off, although Alexander Albon has shown this year that there really is something possible with the car.