Williams lost 5 million pounds in 2012
Even though Williams managed to increase its revenue during the 2012 season, the rise in its costs was even more significant. This resulted in a loss of 5 million pounds compared to a profit of over 7 million in the previous fiscal year.
The reason for the increase in revenue is obvious: for the 2012 season, Williams had recruited Bruno Senna, who was richly endowed compared to his compatriot Rubens Barrichello. Similarly, Valtteri Bottas had brought two Finnish companies to Grove to fund his year as a third driver. These financial contributions were therefore in addition to the millions paid by PDVSA.
Nevertheless, in detail, the majority of revenue growth came from the activity of its subsidiary Williams Advanced Engineering, which aims to monetize the intellectual property developed by the team. It went from almost zero revenue in 2010, less than 100,000 pounds, to 16.1 million pounds in 2011. A new milestone was reached in 2012, with revenue reaching 37.9 million pounds. This brings the total revenue of the group to nearly 127 million pounds compared to just over 104 million pounds a year earlier.
But its costs have exploded even more rapidly as they went from 33.9 million pounds sterling to over 55.4 million pounds sterling. This shows that the team invested heavily during the 2012 season, which was supposed to materialize in the 2013 results since the development costs of a single-seater are largely impacted on the previous fiscal year to the season. The trend should therefore continue this season since the significant change in technical regulations in 2014 will lead the teams to completely rethink the architecture of their single-seaters.
However, Williams does not view this loss as catastrophic, as the team explains that the loss is due to an accounting technicality that led them not to include in their revenue the £9.4 million paid by Bernie Ecclestone following the signing of a bilateral agreement in April 2012 for the period 2013 – 2020. For obscure accounting reasons, this amount could not be recorded in the 2012 revenue since it can be revoked if the team voluntarily decides to withdraw from F1 before December 31, 2015, which is obviously contrary to the intentions of its leaders.
With the participation of www.Racingbusiness.fr
