Williams entered the 2023 season with a new driver pairing of Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant. Albon joined the outfit in 2022 and was thoroughly impressive in his debut season, whereas Sargeant joined them this year.
Sargeant joined Williams right in the nick of time, with super license points almost becoming a factor roadblocking his F1 entry. The American driver, however, managed to get the required amount of points in F2 that led to him signing for Williams.
While both Albon and Sargeant are immensely talented drivers, they didn’t get the Williams seat for free. As per Business F1, the British outfit is the only one remaining in F1, that still takes ‘rent-a-drivers’. This means a certain individual/organization pays a certain amount of money for them to have their seat secured in F1. As per reports, Albon and Sargeant add a lot of financial value to the Williams team.
Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant are F1’s last “rent-a-drivers”
Business F1 reports that Williams will get $30 million for allowing Logan Sargeant to race in 2023 while the Yoovidhya family is paying $15 million for Albon. This is not a new occurrence at Williams as Sofina’s owner Michael Latifi, paid more than $25 million to have his son Nicholas race in F1 last year.
For bigger F1 teams like Mercedes and Red Bull, this won’t mean as much as it does to Red Bull. The other teams in F1 are profitable through the amount of sponsorship money they have pouring in, but for a team like Williams, Albon and Latifi’s rents cover a lot.
Their driver fees and sponsorship money included, Williams reportedly have about $150 million to work with in 2023.
Williams hoping to make progress after disappointing 2022
Williams is one of the biggest names in F1 history, but the British outfit’s prominence has declined over the years. After spending years as a backmarker, Williams returned to competing for the points quite frequently in 2021, with George Russell even bagging a podium finish in Belgium.
2022, however, turned out to be disappointing once again, with the team finishing last. Early signs in 2023 aren’t promising great things for them heading into the next races, but the team led by former Mercedes boss James Vowles, is desperate to bring themselves back up.
