By all accounts, a full Gulf livery is in the pipeline for Williams. The strength of the partnership between Gulf and the Williams Formula 1 team will become increasingly apparent during the season when a special FW45 livery is revealed to F1 fans. In the meantime, fans had to make do with an interim ‘fake’ livery on William’s 2022 car.

Gulf, which has become a partner of the Williams F1 team since leaving McLaren, says it is open to the prospect of designing a unique livery during the season as it has done in the past with the McLaren team.

On Monday, the Williams team unveiled the livery for 2023 using last year’s car, and also unveiled a list of new commercial partners including Gulf. The oil company’s logos will appear on the rear wing and nose of the Williams car this year, but the company is open to the idea of a special livery during the season to keep fans happy.

Special Williams Gulf livery

Asked if a special Williams livery is in the pipeline for this 2023 season, Gulf CEO Mike Jones said, “Of course anything we do in the future should be even bigger and better than before.”

“We have a lot of Gulf fans around the world, we get a lot of requests for a [special] livery, and we want our livery to be special.”

“We will be launching a number of fan-centric plans, and we still think Gulf is a fan-favourite brand. We really want our fans to be part of it. So, of course we’re looking at different solutions for that and we’ll launch our plans in the near future.”

Williams’ commercial director James Bower added that the strength of the partnership with Gulf would become increasingly evident from the time the 2023 season begins.

“We have agreed a season-long presence. We think it’s going to be very effective,” says Bower.

“You can think about some of the key moments in a race like refuelling [which has not been allowed in F1 for many years, ed. note], which is linked to the partnership and the pit crew and certain other components.”

“So we are very careful about how we take these iconic assets and bring them to life. I think there’s potential for these things to evolve, as Mike said, into a wider activation with the fans. So what you’ve seen today is really just the beginning and you’ll see more as the team gets on track.”

In 2021, the McLaren team – whose partnership with Gulf ended at the end of last season – unveiled a special Gulf livery for the Monaco Grand Prix that was widely appreciated by fans.

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