Investment Latifi already important; 'Williams has enough money until 2021'

With the news that ROKiT, Williams' main sponsor last season, would be in talks with Mercedes, this investor could indicate that it is leaving a sinking ship. However, according to insider sources around the partial takeover of Williams', that is far from true.

An anonymous source, who is close to the fire and would know a lot about the course of events surrounding the takeover of Williams, has told Forbes that the team is safe until at least 2021. This is possible thanks to the sale of 75 percent of their 'Advanced Engineering' division and an investment of $45 million by Michael Latifi, the father of driver Nicholas.

This source also says that this is not an act of desperation in the midst of the corona crisis, but that the plan has been in place since early 2019. They came out of a very disappointing 2018 and started the new season in a very bad way when it wasn't ready in time for the winter tests in Barcelona.

At that time the team already knew that action had to be taken for the long term and so they did. The sale has been started along the official road, which means that several bidders are welcome, but Latifi is of course at the front of the queue. In total, he would have to put down some 120 million euros for Williams.