With one of its main sponsors, the Royal Bank of Scotland, a major loser in the ongoing financial crisis, not to mention the fact that several more of its sponsors are from Iceland, a country hit particularly hard, Williams will be delighted to have secured an extension to its contract with Allianz, the banking and insurance company.

The Grove team today confirmed that its long-standing sponsorship engagement with Allianz has been extended, which will take the partnership into its second decade.

Over recent years, Allianz has pursued an award-winning sponsorship activation programme, communicating important consumer messages about road safety and risk management built around the engagement Formula One offers.

Steven Althaus, Head of Marketing Communication at Allianz SE said, "Allianz has built extremely effective international awareness campaigns about road safety and risk management around the themes Formula One provides. These campaigns have directly and positively impacted our core business activities and this is why our programme with AT&T Williams endures. We are delighted to be extending our agreement with the team."

Allianz is part of a wider quorum of AT&T Williams sponsors who have, or will have partnered the team for more than ten years, with other decade-long sponsorships including Accenture and Thomson-Reuters among others.

On the confirmation that Allianz would partner the team into the future, Frank Williams said, "I would like to thank Allianz for their valuable and long term support. Their ongoing association with the team is the greatest validation of our efforts and there is little which can be more satisfying than enduring relationships of this nature."