Brexit has hurt Williams F1 team's finances, Claire Williams says

Earlier this year, the FIA approved plans to reduce the cost of a Formula 1 engine supply by €4million for 2018 but Williams suggests Brexit will almost nullify that, as the team pays its engine bill in euros.

"There have been short-term impacts around costs," she said.

"We unfortunately pay for our engine in euros.

"All the hard work we have done to bring the costs down by four million [euros] for 2018 have been counterbalanced."

As an independent outfit, Williams added there were also concerns about the impact an exit from the European Union will have on sponsorship.

"We don't have a mothership like Toto [Wolff from Mercedes] and many other teams, and sponsorship is one of our key incomes," she said.

"The political instability that Brexit has caused has meant there are going to be a lot of business out there who will have to wait and see what they are going to do with their marketing spend.

"That could have implications for us.

"We were having great conversations prior to the referendum and those conversations are slowing down now and people are waiting to see what is going to happen.

"It is a real concern for us and a lots of sports teams out there, but I'm not going to worry too much - we'll will wait and see."

Mercedes boss Wolff said there is an unknown as to the impact it will have on the team's staffing pool.

"First it has a big impact because on a personal level we don't know where it is going to go," he said.

"There are many experts working in Brackley, I'm not sure how that will be handled in the future.

"And Mercedes in Germany, there are many Brits working on DTM.

"It looks like everybody can be impacted by the situation."

But he said as prize money is paid in US dollars and the F1 team receives funding from the Mercedes board in euros, the financial impact is not so much of a concern.

"The weak pound is not so bad for us because we get the income in dollars and mothership subsidises in euros so it's actually quite a good ratio," he said.

"No one really knows what the consequences will be, whether some agreements will be formed.

"In short, there is no short-term impact, I guess."

Force India boss Vijay Mallya said: "We're largely British-centric, so we don't expect Brexit will affect us in any significant way.

"The depreciation in the value of the pound helps as the income is largely in dollars."