Williams Racing’s F1 team enters new era with fresh, old design

Williams Racing and Formula One have been rapidly evolving. The F1 race team and the sport itself have been on the receiving end of fresh fame and fortune thanks to an influx of new technology, growing audience and increased commercial acumen.

The team is steeped in F1 history with its first race nearly a half century ago. In recent years, it’s gotten new ownership and a cash infusion, opening up the team’s opportunity to more widely market itself and truly compete on the global stage once again.

With technology partner Atlassian on board working to change how the company does business from small projects to race day activities, Wiliams Racing secured fifth place in the Constructors’ Championship and two podium finishes for driver Carlos Sainz in Baku and Qatar. Sainz and Williams’ other driver Alex Albon finished ninth and eighth in the Drivers’ Championship standings, respectfully.

To mark the new leaf it’s turned over, Williams Racing decided to redesign its brandmark. “Where we started with it all is that our old logo, the Williams Racing logo, the design of the logo and the name itself was a bit of a point of contention,” Ed Scott, head of creative design at Williams Racing told Newsweek.

Over its five decades, the company name and brandmark has undergone a rainbow of identities. Each era of design, delineated by the main sponsor at the time, is part of a larger patchwork of design and nomenclature. 

“When Martini came to the end of their [sponsorship] term at Williams, it was decided that [the Williams organization] wanted to try and retain some kind of visual identity and team name and not change anything again and just stick with Williams Racing, which, from a business perspective, made sense. But, I always questioned that,” Scott said.

When Dorilton Capital acquired the team in 2020, the question was raised. “When Dorilton invested into the team, that same conversation came back up again” Scott explained. Three years prior, Liberty Media purchased a controlling stake in F1 and in 2019 the now-famous docuseries “Drive to Survive” premiered on Netflix. 

Conversations Scott was having outside of work drove his persistence on the topic at work. “I spoke to quite the famous celebrity one time on a flight (and I’ve had this same conversation with other people in the past) that said, ‘Oh, who are you? Who? Like, who do you work for? And what are you guys doing? I saw Williams Racing.’ And they always go, ‘Who’s Williams Racing? Is that a horse racing team or what’s Williams Racing?’ And then [I explain] it’s Williams Formula One team, they go, ‘Oh!’ And then instantly they know who we are.”

The team is no longer Williams Racing, but Atlassian Williams F1 Team. That name was the start of the larger asset redo that included the company’s logo. Looking across a wide variety of options, Scott and his team kept coming back to a the word Williams, avoiding the pitfalls of using a solo “W” brand.

Scott tells the story: “I had a fan once message me with a picture of a W on the top of a hotel in New York, really excited that Williams had now opened a hotel in New York. I said, ‘I’m really sorry to tell you this, but that’s actually W Hotels, not Williams.’” 

Deciding to go with the word Williams made sense on multiple levels. To get there, the team evolved the original Williams logo. Scott said, “For me and the team, it was going back to what our original WF1 logo and reworking it to bring it into the modern era so that it lasts the test of time, and sort of gives that that more modern look and feel, but also retains our soul and heritage.”

That logo can now be seen on Williams branded merchandise, websites, and social media channels as well as the team’s new race suits.