Claire Williams: "We are not fighting for survival"

Williams F1 team principal Claire Williams has said that while the team is losing its title sponsor in Martini, it won't be struggling financially in the coming season, as they still have plenty of income. 

Williams are dead-last in the constructors' championship, with only four points scored after twelve races. It should be noted that all of those four points were scored by Lance Stroll. Rookie Sergey Sirotkin is the only driver who still isn't on the board as far as points finishes go.

Another possibly bad wrinkle for Williams is that Lance Stroll might be leaving the team. His father Lawrence was among the people that bought Force India, and it's very likely that he'll take his son's talents with him to the Pink Panthers. With Stroll gone, Williams would lose another big source of income.

"You do not go from P5 to P10 without having a number of weak points in your organization and this is clearly what we have," Williams told the Formula One's website.

"We opted for a fairly aggressive strategy over the winter, we felt we could probably do it, even if we had to influence a significant change.

"It did not go as planned, on top of that we had a bad aerodynamic program - sometimes it happens, it's like that.

So, what's the time stamp for Williams? Is there any danger of them losing financial power, or can they develop slowly and build the team from the ground up?

"I would not be smiling if we did not have the time.

"We are in good financial shape.

"Of course, we always want money.

"Engineers spend as much as you give them.

"But we are not about to sink, we are not fighting for survival."

It should be noted that this interview was taken just a few days before Lawrence Stroll's takeover of Force India. Whether Williams will still have the same confidence in her financial firepower now remains to be seen.