F1 team confirms name change for 2025 after signing ‘biggest deal in its history’

For the primary time in nearly half-a-decade, System 1’s sleeping giants Williams have landed a title sponsor which is able to considerably increase the staff’s coffers going ahead

Williams Racing has introduced the “greatest partnership deal” in its near-50-year existence.

The Grove-based outfit has a wealthy historical past in System 1 however has struggled lately. Now led by former Mercedes technique chief James Vowles, the staff is within the midst of an overhaul of its complete operation in a bid to awaken the game’s sleeping giants.

And Williams has now obtained a major monetary increase to its plans. Software program firm Atlassian has been confirmed on the staff’s official expertise associate but additionally, and extra crucially, its title sponsor.

It means the squad will go into the 2025 season formally often known as Atlassian Williams Racing. It’s the first time the staff has had a title sponsor because the takeover of present house owners Dorilton Capital, which was accomplished in August 2020.

When saying the deal on Tuesday, which had already been leaked by way of a social media submit displaying new driver Carlos Sainz in his 2025 package, the staff confirmed the multi-year collaboration with Atlassian is “the largest partnership deal in Williams’ 48-year historical past”.

And staff principal Vowles mentioned: “I’m delighted to welcome Atlassian into System 1 and our evolution into Atlassian Williams Racing. Attracting a title partnership of this dimension and significance is a momentous day in our staff’s illustrious historical past and a significant milestone in our comeback transformation.

“We’re putting in all the correct substances to get this staff again to the entrance of the grid, and in Atlassian now we have a associate that by way of its expertise and instruments will assist unleash our full potential by enhancing teamwork and collaboration proper throughout the organisation. Our values and ambition align completely, and I am enthusiastic about what we will obtain collectively.”

Williams end seventh within the 2023 season, Vowles’ first in cost, which represented a marked enchancment on what they’d achieved in earlier years. Nonetheless, final yr they slipped again all the way down to ninth as a spate of pricy crashes proved pricey in a sporting sense in addition to from a monetary perspective.

Chatting with Mirror Sport, Vowles was nonetheless very upbeat about Williams’ future. He mentioned: “There’s some components that aren’t going as quick as I might like them to be and there is some components which can be transferring quicker than I anticipated them to be. That is the character of adjusting a few thousand individuals inside an organisation.

“What I can say is there’s some good issues coming subsequent yr and a few actually good issues coming in 2026, in order that’s an indication that we’re on a superb monitor. It’s trying good, however you’ve bought 9 different groups attempting to do the identical.”

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