ROKiT, the former title partner of the Williams Formula 1 team, has launched a $149 million legal claim against the Grove-based squad.
The case comes after Williams won a won $35.7m lawsuit against ROKiT in January of last year.
ROKiT signed a three-year deal with Williams ahead of the 2019 F1 campaign to be its title sponsor, which was extended by another two years during the season.
At pre-season testing from Barcelona in 2020, the logos and branding were once again on the Williams car.
But a dispute arose between the parties during the delay to the start of the campaign due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The partnership broke down as Williams claimed it had not received payments that were a part of the agreed deal.
Williams’ award from the following court case was roughly £26.2m in missed payments, as well as $1m in bonus payments.
ROKiT has now responded with its own legal action by seeking compensation for damage to its reputation.
The claims made by the company state that “the arbitrator was not aware of the fraudulent concealment of statements of material facts by defendants that were not discovered until after the arbitration had concluded.”
It added that ROKiT “learned that the car was never capable of performing to the standards that defendants had guaranteed to the plaintiffs, and that defendants were aware of and concealed this fact.”
It claims that Williams “intentionally and fraudulently concealed the fact that Williams Engineering simply did not have enough money to develop the F1 car.”
As a result of this, ROKiT feels that it suffered “significant financial loss and damage to their goodwill and business reputation.”
The sum that it is seeking is “an amount in excess of $149,528,550 dollars.”
Motorsport Week approached Williams for comment, with the team stating: “Williams Racing is aware of this spurious claim.
“Having successfully won an arbitration against ROKiT in the UK and successfully petitioning for the arbitral award to be confirmed by a federal court in the United States, Williams continues to trust in the court processes in regards to this unfortunate matter.”
