The billionaire and bigger picture behind Nissany's Williams deal
Williams has talked up Roy Nissany's attitude as a factor in its decision to make him its F1 test driver, and played down any commercial benefits. Nevertheless, his link to a billionaire offers obvious advantages to the team as it plots a longer-term plan
When Williams announced at the end of last season that Roy Nissany would test in Abu Dhabi, the cynics were quick to suggest that this was the simple exercise of a team at the back of the grid using any opportunity it could to boost its income.
After all, selling track time for some sponsorship cash is hardly a new tactic used by Formula 1 teams up and down the grid.
Share Or Save This Story
Jonathan Noble is Motorsport.com’s Formula 1 editor. Having graduated from University of Sussex Jonathan worked for sports news agency Collings Sports reporting on F1, F3, touring cars and other sports, with articles appearing in The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, Reuters, Autosport and other publications. In 1999 he moved to Haymarket Publishing to become a senior editor at Autosport Special Projects, and one year later he became Autosport’s grand prix editor. In 2015 he moved to Motorsport Network, becoming the F1 editor for Motorsport.com. He is also a member of the Guild of Motoring Writers, and sits on the FIA Media Council.
More from Jonathan Noble
The defining moments of Williams boss Vowles’ rollercoaster season
How F1’s spending rules left Red Bull’s hands tied over top staff departures
Why Toyota’s Haas deal is not an F1 comeback
Haas F1 team agrees technical partnership with Toyota
Jon Noble: The one thing McLaren must leave behind for the title run-in
The McLaren vs Red Bull Miami mystery: An update shake-up, conspiracy or FIA intervention?
FIA prize-giving in Rwanda set to go ahead despite Marburg virus outbreak
FIA makes two leadership appointments
Latest news
Super Formula scraps planned 2025 South Korea race
DJR completes Davison car rebuild after heavy Bathurst qualifying crash
The defining moments of Williams boss Vowles’ rollercoaster season
Podcast: The Best of Super Touring Power 2 - Ray Mallock, John Cleland and Laurent Aiello
Autosport Plus
How McLaren went from back to front in 18 months
Jon Noble: The one thing McLaren must leave behind for the title run-in
Ranking the real 2025 F1 driver line-up pecking order
Will Sauber's C44 go down as F1's best point-less car, or are there better contenders?
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.