One of the slightly bigger changes the sport has faced in the last few years was the ban of tobacco advertising on cars. Today we have energy drinks as title sponsors for almost every team.
In the '80s, tobacco sponsorship was a common sight in Formula 1. Philip Morris, thanks to the Marlboro brand, was seen everywhere sponsoring teams and individual drivers, as well as Grand Prix events. Several other tobacco companies were also involved, such as Gitanes with the Ligier team, JPS with Lotus, Camel with Tyrrell, West with Zakspeed, Barclay with Arrows, Skoal Bandit with RAM, and Player's Ltd. as the title sponsor of the Canadian Grand Prix.
In early 2000, the non-tobacco laws forbade all types of advertising, and all but Philip Morris disappeared. Interestingly, Philip Morris is still a sponsor of Scuderia Ferrari, although the team has removed all forms of identification on its cars, including the controversial, infamous bar code.
The new sponsorship boom started in late 2004, when Jaguar Racing was put up for sale by Ford Motor Company after the firm decided that sponsorship in racing was no longer a profitable investment. Red Bull, a company that initially sponsored the Sauber F1 Team between 1999 and 2005, took the bite. The energy drinks company gave up on the Sauber deal and purchased Jaguar to become the first major energy drink sponsor to run its own team in Formula 1. Red Bull Racing continued their cooperation with Cosworth for engine supply and initiated the sport's very first young drivers programme in order to promote new talent and fresh blood for the sport. The team came a long way from their initial struggles to rise as regular title contenders over the past 4 years.
Red Bull was the first to trigger a series of major sponsorship deals as teams realized that this form of sponsorship was the way to go. This season, almost every team (with the exception of Williams and HRT) had energy drinks and alcoholic beverages advertising on their cars. The latest deal was announced by Lotus. The Enstone team established a partnership with Coca Cola and will introduce Burn Energy Drink advertising on their cars from 2013. Rumours are that Coca Cola is seeking to purchase Lotus and initiate its own team in order to compete with Red Bull at the highest level of motorsport. 'Monster' is pursuing the same with Marussia F1, as the team will most likely hit bankruptcy in the coming year and the beverage company would be willing to offer them a solution.
Teams associated with energy drinks and alcoholic beverages in 2012:
Red Bull - Red Bull
Toro Rosso - Red Bull
McLaren - Lucozade
Ferrari - TNT
Mercedes AMG - Monster
Sauber - Cuervo Tequila
Caterham - EQ8
Marussia - Monster
Sahara Force India - Vladivar Vodka, Whyte & Mackay, Kingfisher
No comments:
Post a Comment