Pay driver rhetoric "inappropriate and unnecessary" - Williams

The Grove-based outfit's 2018 line-up is made up of Lance Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin, a relatively inexperienced duo who are both understood to be contributing to the team's budget.

However, talking to the media at the team's 2018 launch event, Williams pointed out that many drivers - including two-time F1 world champion Fernando Alonso - have financial packages attached to them, and that such backing allows talent to come through the ranks.

“It’s nothing new in F1 that drivers come with money, and thank goodness that they do," she said.

"I think it would be incredibly naive for anyone to make that statement, saying ‘he's just a pay driver.’ It’s great if a driver has financial interests from partners, it’s great for the team, it’s great for the driver.

“This is an expensive sport, not just F1 but at grassroots level as well. We’d miss out on so much talent coming into F1 if drivers didn’t have financial backing supporting them through the junior formulae, and bringing them into F1.

"Partners want to partner drivers, because of their nationality or because or their character or gravitas in a certain market.

“It’s nothing unusual. Fernando Alonso, prime example. Santander followed him around every team that he’s been to. You could suggest that he’s a pay driver – I wouldn’t do such a thing.

“I think the terminology or the vocab used around pay drivers is wrong, it’s inappropriate and it’s unnecessary, and I think it puts negativity round a driver that we just should not be doing in this sport anymore."

Williams reiterated that money "was not a factor" in the team's decision to take on SMP-backed rookie Sirotkin, who replaced the experienced Felipe Massa and beat fan favourite Robert Kubica to the seat.

"We would only put talented drivers in our car,” said Williams. “This is a dangerous business, and we are not going to put someone in the car just because they come with money.

"And also our decision-making process is so much more complex than just deciding to put a driver into a race car because they have some cash.

“Yes, we’re an independent team, yes, sponsorship is really hard to come by these days, not just for our team, but every team out there. I don’t think many teams have signed new sponsors over the past few seasons in F1.

"So clearly if a driver has some financial backing, that’s an added bonus, but that’s not the foundation for a decision-making process at Williams when we come to make our driver decisions.

"It’s not a factor.”

Tech chief Paddy Lowe, who previously said Sirotkin had been "the best driver available" to Williams, stressed that the technical side of the team opted for the Russian regardless of any financial considerations.

“The selection process we used for that race seat was incredibly exhaustive, the most exhaustive I’ve ever been involved with, involving the technical team,” he said.

“Sergey was selected simply on merit for his driving. That team know nothing about finances, they’re not involved in it, they weren’t aware of any factors like that. They made the call themselves, on the data.”