Williams may have scored points rarely in 2022, but the team did enjoy a notable off-track success. Towards the end of last year the District Court of the Central District of California agreed the team’s former sponsor Rokit must pay them over £26.2 million.
The decision was the latest stage of a dispute between the two parties which came to light when Williams announced they had split in May 2020, following their first season in Rokit’s colours.
Rokit describes itself as a creator of innovative technology and premium products, with a range of smartphones, drinks, payment cards and e-bikes among the items it has sold. It is also heavily involved in motorsport sponsorship, having been the primary sponsor for Formula E, IndyCar and World Superbikes teams as well as having its logos appear on all cars in W Series and British Formula 4 and supporting individual drivers such as Nicolas Hamilton, the brother of Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton.
Documents published following the court’s decision shed light on what happened. Williams’ case revolved around three agreements between the two companies. The first covered team sponsorship and started in January 2019 and the second began on the first day of 2020 and applied to a partnership with the Rokit Group’s drink brand. Both were due to conclude at the end of 2023.
In the first agreement, Rokit was to pay Williams £13.5 million each year. A payment of £5 million was to be paid on January 1st in each year of the contract, £5 million to be paid by March 1st in each year and £3.5 million by June 1st in each year.
The second agreement came to a sum of £11 million for each year, with sponsorship instalments of £4 million for January 1st and March 1st, and £3 million by June 1st.
A third ‘Oral Agreement’ totalling $1 million was also made in February 2019 – before Williams had even started a race in Rokit colours. The documents state that was put into writing by Jonathan Kendrick, chairman of the Rokit Group, who emailed Williams’s then-deputy team principal Claire Williams to “confirm I am giving a 1m dollar bonus payable at the end of the year for the team”. Williams sent an invoice for this shortly before the final race weekend of the year in November.
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A second email from Kendrick to the team about payment came three months later, after two of that year’s payment dates had…
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