ROKiT and Williams parted ways prior to the 2020 season, although they had previously agreed to a two-year extension.
Williams has won a legal battle against their previous title sponsor ROKiT after it was discovered that the team had not been paid the money owing to them under their contract.
Williams was a team in dire financial straits back in 2019, this prompted it to sign a sponsorship agreement with ROKiT, a telecommunications company, as its title sponsor at the beginning of the season.
That year, the team finished tenth and last in the Constructors’ Championship, with Robert Kubica, who had made a return to Formula 1 claiming their single point at the German Grand Prix. Amid their difficulties in the mid-2019 season, ROKiT and Williams agreed to extend their collaboration through the end of 2023.
The emblems of the sponsors were widely displayed on the car during winter testing in 2020, but the world of Formula One was taken aback when the partners abruptly canceled their collaboration.
Williams claimed the main reason behind the fallout was because ROKiT failed to pay the team as per the agreement. ROKiT stated that payments to Williams had been withheld because the team had failed to meet their contractual obligations.
The arbitrator in charge of the dispute, Klaus Reichert SC, denied this claim stating that ROKiT had earlier stated unequivocally that they would pay Williams in full irrespective of the team’s performance outcome. Reichert specifically stated that the sponsor had “unambiguously promised” the funding.
Williams purportedly approached ROKiT for the $1 million they had been guaranteed late in 2019, and the company’s owner Jonathan Kendrick said he would pay them in March 2020. Then it was discovered that a ROKiT employee had sent Williams paperwork suggesting a $24.4 million payment, making it enforceable.
In 2020, Dorilton Capital acquired Williams, marking the first time since 1977 that the team has been sold outside of the Williams family’s ownership. Reichert agreed that the change of ownership had no influence on the case and ordered ROKiT to compensate Williams in the amount of $35.7 million.
This affirmed a judgement made last year in a London court that awarded Williams £26.2 million.
