JUNE 1, 2018

Williams wins race as F1's slowest bill payer

Williams has emerged as the F1 team that pays its bills the slowest.

Williams has emerged as the F1 team that pays its bills the slowest.

Also struggling on track in 2018, the once-great British team takes an average of 20 days past the due date before it settles outstanding invoices, the business insights company Dun & Bradstreet found.

But interestingly, it was the much bigger-budget teams of Mercedes and Renault that came in next, paying their bills just one day quicker than Williams.

A big gap to McLaren (8 days) followed, with Red Bull-owned Toro Rosso and Red Bull Racing paying bills only 1 day late. Force India and Sauber, both low-budget outfits like Williams, were the only teams to pay bills on time.

No data was available for Ferrari and Haas.

Compared to a year ago, the big mover was Force India, whose payment performance improved by 16 per cent. Williams, however, moved in the opposite direction, with a 14pc bill-paying blowout.

Deputy boss Claire Williams said recently the Grove based team has a tough road ahead, particularly with title sponsor Martini departing at the end of the year.

"We haven't done a good enough job and we need to really dig deep if we're going to make progress this year," she said. "It's going to be a really tough year which is great for the fans, just not so great for us at Williams."

(GMM)