The Williams Formula 1 team recorded a more than £45 million uptick in revenue according to its 2022 calendar year accounts.
Financial statements lodged with Companies House in the United Kingdom this week reveal the team brought in £142.8 million in the year to December 31, 2022.
That compared with £96.4 million the previous year – a £46.4 million increase in revenue for Williams.
The team is in a rebuilding phase and appointed James Vowles as team principal at the start of the year.
His focus has been the long-term health of a team that last won a world championship in 1997.
Last year, Williams finished 10th and last in the constructors’ championship, a result which entitles it to just six percent of the prize money pool paid out by F1’s commercial rights holders, Liberty Media.
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For 2022, that pool was worth north of $900 million.
Prize money is paid out on the income earned by the sport each year, with a team’s entitlement linked to its performance the previous season.
Around half of the profit made by Liberty Media gets paid out to teams through a structure that was simplified with the most recent Concorde Agreement but which remains complicated.
From the prize money pool, a number of initial payments are made; one to Ferrari in recognition of its position within the sport, and another to ‘historic’ teams.
Williams is entitled to a ‘historic’ bonus by virtue of having won the world championship.
Teams that finish in the top three of the constructors’’ championship in the preceding season or who’ve previously won the world championship are entitled to this bonus payment.
Those teams share a pot worth 20 percent of anything the sport earns over $650 million.
Once those figures are made, the remaining pot is divided into two, dubbed Column 1 and Column 2.
Column 1 pays out a set figure to all 10 teams currently competing in the sport and is worth in the region of $35 million for each team.
Column 2 is paid out on a sliding scale based on the previous year’s constructors’ championship, with the winner entitled to 14 percent and 10th receiving six percent.
While precise figures remain a closely guarded secret under the Concorde Agreement, it’s estimated Williams received in the realms of $75 million in prize money, which contributed handsomely to its revenue.
During the 2022 F1 season, the sport’s cost cap sat at $140 million, meaning the Grove squad had more than half of its operational costs covered by the sport itself.
“The 2022 Formula One season was a strong year for the sport, with a full calendar of 22 race events, high levels of fan attendance and a return to racing in familiar locations post-pandemic,” the company stated in its submission.
“The increased number of events combined with the accelerated growth in engagement of the sport in many territories contributed to an increase in the sport’s commercial rights revenue.
“The Company also leveraged the growing marketplace to increase its own fan engagement and to accelerate the development of its brand.
“The Company continued to invest in improving all areas of its operations, both on and off the track within the constraints of the FIA Financial Regulations following their implementation in 2021.
“Whilst the initial car performance was challenging, a clear focus on improving foundational processes and systems translated into promising car development as the season progressed, outperforming the development of the main rivals, with the majority of the team’s Constructors’ championship points earned after the summer shutdown.”
Williams is owned by Dorilton Capital, which acquired the team for $200 million from the Williams family in 2020.
The squad is now worth in the region of $800 million according to Sportico.
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