Williams slam 'inappropriate and unnecessary' pay driver jibes

Williams deputy team principal Claire Williams has slammed critics who have labelled Lance Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin as 'pay drivers' and believes the comments are 'inappropriate and unnecessary' as many teams need the injection of financial backing in order to survive and compete.

Both Stroll and Sirotkin have significant financial support, and many believe the latter in particular was chosen to be a 2018 driver ahead of the likes of the more experienced Robert Kubica for monetary reasons.

“It’s nothing new in F1 that drivers come with money, and thank goodness that they do," she said.

"I think it would be incredibly naive for anyone to make that statement, saying ‘he's just a pay driver.’ It’s great if a driver has financial interests from partners, it’s great for the team, it’s great for the driver.

“This is an expensive sport, not just F1 but at grassroots level as well. We’d miss out on so much talent coming into F1 if drivers didn’t have financial backing supporting them through the junior formulae, and bringing them into F1.

"Partners want to partner drivers, because of their nationality or because or their character or gravitas in a certain market.

Williams provided Fernando Alonso as an example of a driver who comes with financial benefits to the team, even if in his case the money comes from Santander sponsorship.

“It’s nothing unusual. Fernando Alonso, prime example. Santander followed him around every team that he’s been to. You could suggest that he’s a pay driver – I wouldn’t do such a thing.

“I think the terminology or the vocab used around pay drivers is wrong, it’s inappropriate and it’s unnecessary, and I think it puts negativity round a driver that we just should not be doing in this sport anymore."

Williams took offence to the suggestion that money was the only reason Sirotkin was selected as their driver, and claimed that the team would only put suitable performers behind the wheel.

"We would only put talented drivers in our car,” Williams continued.

“This is a dangerous business, and we are not going to put someone in the car just because they come with money.

"And also our decision-making process is so much more complex than just deciding to put a driver into a race car because they have some cash.

“Yes, we’re an independent team, yes, sponsorship is really hard to come by these days, not just for our team, but every team out there. I don’t think many teams have signed new sponsors over the past few seasons in F1.

"So clearly if a driver has some financial backing, that’s an added bonus, but that’s not the foundation for a decision-making process at Williams when we come to make our driver decisions.

"It’s not a factor."