Renamed Williams To Smoke Out Sponsors.

The Williams team has officially re-branded itself in order to attract new sponsors.


The team's new moniker - Williams F1 - reflects its intention to introduce new, non-tobacco, sponsors to the sport, as it heads towards the gradual phasing out of cigarette money in the next decade. The Winfield brand name has been dropped from the team's official title, despite remaining its major sponsor for 1999.


According to its head of marketing, Williams will now seek to attract leading companies from the computer and telecommunications industries to replace its current sponsors in coming seasons, by basing both its, and the sport's, appeal on "high technology, innovation and winning".


"Some people think that when tobacco sponsorship ceases, Formula One will stop in its current form," Jim Wright told news agency, Reuters, "but this is fundamentally not the case. The general public is becoming more discerning and, in three or four years time, digital television will give the consumer the choice of which car they want to watch throughout a race. We want to make sure it is a Williams."


"We have a simple choice," Wright explained, "Do we continue to run with tobacco sponsorship until legislation prevents us from doing it any further, or do we say it is going to run out in the near future and, therefore, we should look to seek sponsorships from other sources?"


The Grove-based team could also face the withdrawal of its main sponsor following the announcement of the takeover of Rothmans International by British American Tobacco. Rothmans, the parent company behind the Winfield brand, is expected to be absorbed by BAT and see its money diverted into the latter's own team, British American Racing.