A throwback that backfired

Williams unveiled a special livery for the Spanish Grand Prix in Madrid and got backlash instead of applause. The design was fine. The date was the problem.

The car being honoured

It is a tribute to the FW07C, the car Williams ran the last time the team raced in the Spanish capital, back in 1981.

Twenty five years since 9/11

The unveiling landed on 11 September 2026, the 25th anniversary of the attacks. That single fact turned a nostalgia exercise into a news story.

Saudi money built that look

The 1981 Williams was heavily backed by Saudi Arabian firms after a team business trip to the Middle East, with Saudia Airlines as main sponsor.

The name on the sidepod

In 1979, a similar looking Williams carried the name 'Bin Laden'. Mohamed bin Laden's construction company had put money into the team.

“the Williams car also carried the name 'Bin Laden'”

Father, not son

The backer was Osama bin Laden's father. The family was enormous, and by that point Osama had reportedly been pushed out of it.

“It was a huge family and I think Osama had sort of been kicked out of the family at the time”

Different car, same colours

The livery copies the 1981 championship winner, not the 1979 car that carried the Bin Laden name. The white, green and navy scheme spans both.

Sainz comes home

The livery also marks Carlos Sainz's home race. He drives for Atlassian Williams at the brand new Madring circuit in his own city.

How Williams pitched it

The team framed the colours as continuity, engineers passing lessons down from the FW07C to today's FW48.

“the livery showcases how our history compounds into progress”

The 1981 reference points

Alan Jones and Carlos Reutemann raced for Williams at Madrid's Circuito de Jarama that year, when the team was a leading force on the grid.

Buxton raises his hand

Pundit Will Buxton, known from Drive to Survive and now covering IndyCar for FOX in the US, questioned the timing on his Up To Speed podcast.

“I love a throwback livery. I'm not convinced the timing of it is wise.”

His actual argument

Buxton did not call the team malicious. He said the colour scheme carries an association people will make on their own, on this weekend of all weekends.

“People will make that link and they will make that association.”

Any other weekend

That was the heart of it. Buxton said the same car in a different week would read as simply cool, and blamed a focus group that failed to focus.

“Any other weekend, you'd be like, 'Oh, that's pretty cool.'”

Fans called it a reach

Plenty of replies pushed back. One American who was 11 in 2001 said one man's actions should not stain his whole family.

“I don't think the actions of one individual shouldn't reflect the rest of the family.”

A stretch, or a distortion

Others went further, calling the link nonsense and saying it misrepresents what Williams is commemorating.

“an unfair and offensive distortion of what the team is actually commemorating”

The other camp

Some fans agreed the week was badly chosen, wondering aloud why nobody in the room raised it before signoff.

“Did no one around the table say 'hmm, maybe not this weekend boss…'”

An easy fix nobody took

The most common suggestion was also the simplest. Run the same livery on almost any other date and the conversation never starts.

“Run it any other weekend and it removes anyone bringing this up.”

What the team principal said

James Vowles tied the car to Williams's climb back up the grid, calling it a link between Jarama and the team it is becoming.

“Our mission to get back to the front of the grid is drawn from, inspired by and informed by everything we've done before.”

Roots, not politics

For Williams the point was lineage. It is one of the few current teams that actually raced in Madrid before, and it won a title doing it.

The lesson for marketers

Heritage branding imports the whole history, including the sponsors. Check the calendar and the old sponsor list before the reveal, not after.