Nicholas Latifi's $20 million worth of sponsors won't be missed by Williams, claims team director

James Bower, the Commercial Director at Williams, has rejected the notion of financial loss after losing Canadian driver Nicholas Latifi's sponsorship. The team ended Latifi's three-year stint in F1 last year, which also led to the departure of several sponsors, including Latifi's father's company, Sofina.

Reports suggest this loss was estimated at around £16 million. However, Williams has filled the gap through new sponsorships, including Gulf Oil's reported £4 million deal, along with others such as Duracell and Acronis.

Speaking about the departure of Nicholas Latifi's sponsors and its impact on the team, Bower said to PlanetF1:

"I think we are clearly in a multi-year commercial plan of how we rebuild the team. I think there’s a perception about lost revenue from recent changes where the reality is slightly different."

Bower continued, speaking about the new sponsors coming in and how the team had evolved completely. Bower said:

"We are launching a number of new partners as we go into the season as well so I think we’re in a more robust position than the team has been in for a number of years. And we’re ambitious and aggressive with how are in the market as well and how we investing in building the Williams brand. Of course having Gulf as part of the commercial partner portfolio for that journey is really exciting."

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Williams targeting American markets with new driver signing

Williams has an advantage in the American market with the addition of American driver Logan Sargeant, who will make his F1 debut this season. The British team has an office in America located in New York and has a large fan engagement team led by a former senior vice president of fan engagement for the NFL.

They are investing in fan activities in the U.S. and hope to capitalize on Sargeant's presence.

Despite his solid performance in F2, securing two race wins and fourth place in the championship, Sargeant was over 100 points behind series winner Felipe Drugovich. However, as long as Sargeant scores more points than crashes, he will be a valuable asset for the team, even more so than Latifi's sponsorship money.

Bower said having Sargeant with the team is "extremely exciting" and added that he is ready for F1, despite the team's insistence that his nationality did not play a role in his signing. With the team investing in fan activations and building a center of gravity, Sargeant's presence in the American market will only help them commercially.