Williams is one of the oldest teams in Formula 1 next to Ferrari and McLaren F1. Frank Williams is one of the last owners and team principals from the OG era and after his death, his daughter Claire Williams took over the team. Recently, in an interview, Claire Williams told an interesting story about how Williams and Martini together made Scuderia Ferrari eat their own words during the 2014 Formula 1 season. But before we move into that, let's talk about some history.
Martini is an Italian alcohol and drinks brand that was founded in 1863. They have been associated with motor racing since 1968. They are also one of the minor sponsors of Scuderia Ferrari until 2008. In 2014, the Italian drinks brand decided to become the main title sponsor of a Formula 1 team and Williams F1 were the first to secure the deal.
Claire Williams was then the team owner and principal, and she, along with Zak Brown, brought the Martini Brand into the Williams F1 team after many years. The McLaren team boss was a huge marketing guru before entering F1 as a full-time senior role in 2016. But this was not taken well by Ferrari, who were furious at the drinks brand.
It was the first year of the V6 Turbo hybrid era and teams needed sponsors and resources to develop their new engines. Ferrari struggled to keep up with Red Bull and Mercedes in 2014. Claire Williams said Martini was on the verge of signing with Ferrari before she offered them a full livery rebrand of their cars.
In F1, iconic liveries like McLaren-Marlboro, Williams-Camel, and Mercedes-Petronas helped the title sponsors reach their target audiences. But with Ferrari there will not be much change as they always go with their iconic red livery and the brand name will be written somewhere.
Story of Stealing the Martini Deal
Claire Williams secured the deal from Ferrari after she promised them a complete revamp of their cars. Claire said, “I was really proud that I got that contract at the time, because Martini was about to sign a deal with Ferrari. But I think they wanted more than Ferrari was prepared to offer them. The Ferrari livery is the Ferrari livery and you can't really play around with it, but at Williams, we offered them the full livery of our race car.”
She attracted them by allowing them to stick their iconic Martini stripes in her car, which was completely white and visible. Martini then cancelled their deal with Ferrari and signed Williams. This made the Maranello team very angry and they even wrote a letter to them saying, 'We will see you in our rearview mirror next season as you are now sponsoring Williams.'. But Ferrari was made to eat their own words as they had the worst year Formula 1 season since 1993.
In the 2014 F1 season, the Italian team didn't even win one race. Their drivers, Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen, struggled with their cars, which had many reliability issues. Williams, on the other hand, enjoyed huge success, with Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas bringing more points and podiums. Ferrari drivers were always in the rearview mirrors of Williams F1 cars. Williams finished third in the constructors championship behind Mercedes and Red Bull.
Also Read: End of an Era: Williams Racing team to Re-brand for 2025 F1 Season
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