Williams’ new sponsor Gulf says it has plans to go “bigger and better” than it has in its previous involvement in Formula 1.
Gulf were officially announced as a new sponsor of the Williams team in a “long-term” partnership at the reveal of the FW45 livery on Monday.The oil company’s brand colours have featured on many famous racing car liveries across motorsport over the decades, from the Le Mans winning Porsche 917 to a special one-off livery with McLaren during the 2021 Monaco Grand Prix.
Gulf describe their partnership with Williams as the “next chapter of our iconic motorsport story” and have confirmed they will also support the Williams driver academy and esports teams as part of their partnership.
“Anything we do in the future has got to be bigger and better than before,” Jones told media including RaceFans at the launch of Williams’ 2023 livery.
“We have a lot of Gulf fans around the world. We have a lot of requests for our livery. We want our livery to be special.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
“We’re launching a number of fan-centric activation plans. We always feel that Gulf is the fans’ favourite and we really want our fans to be part of that. So of course we’re looking at different solutions for that right across the Formula 1 spectrum and we’ll be launching activation plans in the near future.”
“We had a great partnership with McLaren, some real highlights,” he said. “The Monaco livery, I guess, being the pinnacle of that.
“But our relationship with McLaren sort of came to a natural end. We achieved everything that we probably could with the McLaren Formula 1 team. And so we started to looking in terms of what was next for us within Gulf for Formula 1. We talked a lot to Williams around their plans, not just for 2023 but for the future. And we really believed that Williams are going in the right direction.
“We believe there’s a lot of good things happening here. It’s very attractive for us as well to have sponsorship across the academy and to esports. Gulf is known as the iconic brand. ‘Iconic’ is sometimes misinterpreted as ‘old’ and esports was very attractive to us because it attracts the younger generation. It brings Gulf into the younger generation.
“I think finally it was the culture here. It’s very much one of passion, very much one of teamwork. We really like what we saw and we felt it was a really good fit.”
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Bringing the F1 news from the source
RaceFans strives to bring its readers news directly from the key players in Formula 1. We are able to do this thanks in part to the generous backing of our RaceFans Supporters.
By contributing £1 per month or £12 per year (or the equivalent in other currencies) you can help cover the costs involved in producing original journalism: Travelling, writing, creating, hosting, contacting and developing.
We have been proudly supported by our readers for over 10 years. If you enjoy our independent coverage, please consider becoming a RaceFans Supporter today. As a bonus, all our Supporters can also browse the site ad-free. Sign up or find out more via the links below:
2023 F1 season
- FIA president cleared of alleged interference in two 2023 races
- First week viewing figures for new Drive to Survive season fall again
- Max who? Drive to Survive season six prefers its favourite faces
- RaceFans’ complete 2023 season review
- The F1 drivers who pulled off the 10 biggest charges through the field in 2023
Proesterchen (@proesterchen)
6th February 2023, 16:20
That’s easy, just 110% the stickers then next time you’re printing them.
Qeki (@qeki)
6th February 2023, 20:27
@proesterchen Maybe next year
Shimks (@shimks)
7th February 2023, 12:06
Brilliant news for Williams.