11/11/2013
NEWS STORY
As its relationship with Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA comes to an end, Williams turns its attention to its South American neighbour, Brazil.
The partnership of Felipe Massa with Valtteri Bottas means goodbye to Pastor Maldonado and his PDVSA money, however, Williams deputy principal Claire Williams insists that this is the start of something not the end.
"It won't be on the car for next year," she told Reuters, referring to the PDVSA branding that has adorned the Grove outfit's cars for the last two seasons. "There is no (further) connection with PDVSA as obviously Pastor is now leaving the team.
"We wish him well in that new challenge and we have to see where he ends up next year," she continued, "but the Williams team won't have a connection to Venezuela next year."
Without giving anything away, and hinting that the split leaves Williams with a generous severance pay-off, indicating that it was Maldonado who has pre-empted the driver movement at the team, Williams admitted that with Massa on board attention must now focus on Brazil.
The former Sauber and Ferrari star is the only Brazilian on the grid at present, and Williams, which in the past has employed his illustrious countrymen, including Ayrton Senna and Nelson Piquet, aims to exploit the situation.
"I think Brazil is one of the sport's biggest markets, so it's really up to us to go out and commercialise Felipe as our driver," said Williams. "We've been operating and looking for sponsorship in the Brazilian market for a long time now, we've had great Brazilian partners in the past. So we will be going out to Brazil to see what we can do out there."