The Williams F1 half-year accounts have been published and, thanks to the delights of full disclosure, we are able to see a fairly dramatic improvement in the team’s financial situation in the course of the last three years. This year the team reported having £36.6 million available in cash on June 30, compared to last year’s £13.9 million and the £2.8 millon that was available at the same moment in 2010.
The team’s six-month turnover also features an impressive hike, rising from £45 million in 2010, to £47.3 last year and £74.3 million this year. The team explains this with the note in the financial report that the team “entered into an agreement with Formula One World Championship Limited and SLEC Holdings Limited to participate in Formula One for the period 2013 to 2020. Williams Grand Prix Engineering Limited received an initial payment, payable immediately on signature of the agreement”.
Doing some basic sums one might be forgiven for speculating that with the growth rate seen in 2011, one might expect to see a figure this year of just under £40 million and that an additional £25 million has appeared from somewhere.
Well, better that they get the cash rather than the likes of Gerhard Gribkowski!
I think it demonstrates how teams cannot afford to wait while they attempt to engineer a deal for fairer distribution of the sport’s revenues, rather than the value of dealing with Bernie. £25 million won’t go very far over the whole duration of this latest deal, but it will do quite nicely for the next year or two.
Small typo Joe -> £50 million instead of £40
Joe,
Now that FW again appears to have better cashflow, would it be fair to expect a better performing car next year?
And they are still only 8th in the WCC well behind Sauber, and Force India. A “what went wrong” analysis from Joe someday would make good reading.
what went wrong? One word, drivers.
And engines.
Do you think this improvement will allow them to go with #BOTTAS next year or do you think they were going to do that anyway (/ had someone else lined up to replace one/both of thier current drivers)
Also how do you rate any of this years gp3 front runners ? Some of the racing there has been a lot more exciting than some of that in f1 although the driving standards are pretty much the opposite. Do you think the lax driving standards creates this or is it just the cars
ps
would love it if you got someone like will buxton on board to gp+ to do some coverage of gp2 and gp3 and maybe some comment on the other sub f1 single seater series.
Buxton… In the same breath as Joe, Peter & David…. REALLY?
Bet I’m not on my own in this view.
Great detective work… with regard to the signatures of the team, we have read a few stories about Mercedes and their current position of being ‘upset’ about not getting due regard through this process.
I was wondering if it is the right time to get your view on why Mr E and F1 would NOT want someone of Mercedes stature, as a motor manufacturer, on the board. Of course I am assuming (never a good thing) that what we read about is true from Mercedes perspective but it still does not answer why F1 would not want Mercedes involvement…
turnover just under 50 million GBP.
Well, let’s hope they can use that to sort out the driver pairing for 2013. They could do with at least one rock to anchor the team to. It would be brave to make Bottas that man but then again, why not?!
petrol dollars from PDVSA and Petrobras have no doubt helped
You always get paid well when you sell your soul to El Diablo!
Is there any breakdown for the financial input from Venezuela?
You can read too much into accounts… just ask Sylt.
Yes . But then it is written in black and white it is easier.
Wow, things got pretty close to the bone there.
Must not think cynical thoughts about the freak performance at the Spanish GP…
Hopefully they will spend some of that money on a driver that can push their car to it’s limits. It must be frustrating to have fielded a good car and watch the drivers throw away points race after race.
Has the Williams F1 share price improved following the account announcement? Will they ever be a buy?
I suspect the return on Justin Wilson shares will be better than on Sir Frank’s.
http://www.hl.co.uk/shares/shares-search-results/w/williams-grand-prix-holdings-plc-gbp0.05/charts
Looks like 50% on the 12 months, mind you things were dire then, now they are just awful.
Thank you for the link.
I suppose the time to consider buying will be if, and when, Paddy Head risks his pot to buy them. In other words, never!
Though I must admit, if Williams F1 “re-positioned” itself as a former F1 Team with engineering research expertise, it would be taken more seriously, and the share price worth watching.
Agreed. Not as a ‘former’ F1 team, but a global engineering concern that uses F1 as a fortnightly shop window would be great. Given their pedigree and provenance one wonders why every manufacturer on Earth isn’t being assiduously chased down for engineering / design contracts, particularly with their KERS expertise… How awesome it would be to learn that the racing team was doing well, but that F1 only accounted for around 20% of Wiliams’ turnover…
Yes, but far from infallible. It was a Williams F1 designed lift shaft and cage down which SSM ignominiously plopped to receive two broken ankles this year.
One would think a fail-safe device, disallowing the door to open if the cage is not at that floor, would be easy to have designed in.
Yes they have been climbing for a while and are around what they were originally issued at again.
Truly interesting will be to see accounts if opposition to Chavez wins presidential race in 3 weeks time.
Only then will we be able to quantify the sums that Williams been getting from PDVSA. One way or another we will bring to light the truth about Williams – PDVSA.
If they have a contract then surely Venezuela will be obliged to see it out, it is after all under PDVSA which being a multinational has to at least appear to be on the level.
Utter BS your argument is. PDVSA is a State owned company. Its expenditure needs to be approved by its board and then by Congress. That never happened in the Williams deal, so PDVSA has no obligation to see the deal through whatsoever. On the contrary, a new administration is likely to try and recoup monies wasted on Maldonado’s little adventure.
Either way, Williams will go down in history as the team that failed to do due diligence and took illegal money from a petro-dictator.
The details of the PDVSA contract are frequently leaked on the internet. Both the initial contract (including escalator matrix) and an invoice from WF1 have made it onto the net thus far. I would have thought someone with such strong views would have spent 30 seconds on google first.
It is far from a secret now.
Williams has a contract and if it isn’t fulfilled can kick out Pastor and move on. If and how PDVSA should pay is an internal matter.
P.S – GP2 cars also run PDVSA branding supporting a couple of drivers. It isn’t just Pastor. It isn’t just Williams.
If you practice what you preach (Google), you would have also noticed that not only have I leaked some of the stuff, I also lobbied and subsequently teamed with a Venezuelan Congressman to get to the bottom of this. We even co-drafted letters that were sent to Williams.
So please, spare me.
Whatever happens to Pastor is neither here, nor there. The fact is, for public monies to be spent, a process needs be followed. That process, as summarized above was utterly ignored. Had Williams been a responsible company, it would have done due diligence, and it would have realised after 20 minutes that entering into multimillion pound deals with a petro dictator could come back to bite them.
If, and this is a big if, the opposition regains power in my country, Williams better prepare for what’s to come. Kicking Pastor out and move on won’t cut it.
Fair enough. I can only wonder then why you continue to ask questions when you already know the answers and have leaked them to thwe world at large. I hope for your sake you know what you are doing.
Seems odd to take it all in one slug as surely it will all be taxed in one year. Would they not take it as instalments over a period? Having said that I am no tax expert.