JANUARY 7, 2005

Williams's new livery

The new BMW Williams F1 livery reveals a few interesting changes in the relative importance of the various sponsors. The team has signed what is obviously a major new deal with the Royal Bank of Scotland and the RBS logos have replaced Allianz on the engine cover. Allianz has less space than was previously the case and has moved to the cockpit surround where the GlaxoSmithKlein brand NiQuitin CQ was previously seen. The smoking cessation product had a deal with Williams for just one season and has not renewed the arrangement. The backing from Hewlett-Packard, Budweiser and Federal Express are unchanged but Castrol has moved from the cockpit side to the rear wing endplates, having swapped places with Petrobras, which appears to have increased its support for the team. This may be based on the belief that the team will have a Brazilian driver this year although it is still not certain that Antonio Pizzonia will be Mark Webber's team mate. If not it is possible that Petrobras might disappear. The only other addition to the Williams package is the Oris watch company although it is not certain that the logos will remain this big for the rest of the season.