Report names three potential Williams buyers

Three names are in the fray as potential buyers for the struggling F1 backmarker Williams.

That is the claim of Italy’s authoritative La Gazzetta dello Sport, reporting that 2020 race driver Nicholas Latifi’s wealthy father is the frontrunner.

Correspondent Mario Salvini says Michael Latifi has already loaned the British team EUR 22 million amid the corona crisis, "with the historic Williams museum as collateral".

"His son’s career is important to him, but his interest in the sport is broader," Salvini said of Latifi, who already co-owns McLaren and runs Sofina Foods.

The second name linked with the Williams buy-out is another father of a driver - Dmitry Mazepin. The Russian oligarch’s son Nikita races in Formula 2.

Mazepin made a bid for Racing Point some time ago "but the administrator preferred Lawrence Stroll", Salvini claims.

And the third potential Williams buyer is Chanoch Nissany, an Israeli entrepreneur who even took part in a free practice session for Minardi in 2005.

Fascinatingly, Nissany’s son Roy is also a Formula 2 driver, and according to La Gazzetta dello Sport his father "can count on a lot of financial support in Israel".