Could lead to the young Russian guy as a rookie with Sauber. Still working on witty comment about rookies in F1.
Don't disagree with you. The drinks boys are only in F1 for marketing purposes. They also have a gigantic budget- and don't need to find sponsors. Williams on the other hand has its roots in Motorsport, and has a mighty F1 track record. After Ferrari and McLaren they are the team with more heritage than the rest. I'm specifically excluding Lotus at this stage as the current Lotus car is just flying under a badge of convenience and can hardly be called a genuine Lotus. I guess the point I'm making is that I wish the genuine F1 heritage guys got more sponsor $$$.
Or money from F1 because of the historic value ie what they mean to the sport and its older fan base, I am very happy Sauber has secured this funding. I wish they had it last season, because I think they have a very good chassis.
After reading up on these sponsors...I have to wonder about a couple of them...as in how "long term" they really are. If F1 didn't chase away the tobacco money none of this would be a problem.
F1 didn't chase the tobacco money: Ecclestone and Mosley didn't mind. It's governments that refuse to hold tobacco sponsored events or televise tobacco advertising disguised as sponsorship.
Hehehehe. Peter must have done his best 'Consider Yourself' in front of the main man: Sirotkin Sr. I'm anticipating an entrance into F1 as awe inspiring as Paul Belmondo's. Anyone know what Pechito is in Russian ?
and this is a bad thing ?? Some respect, for govts that have the intestinal fortitude to hold out against the tobacco industry for promoting their disgusting product that brings excruciating pain and death to many thousands, should be shown. What has smoking got to do with F1 or cars in general ? Mind you, that argument could be held for Asprey sponsorship on the Ferraris, but at least that sponsorship doesn't lead to people's deaths. It would be nice to return the sport back to sponsorship from car related products only like Shell, Pirelli, Michelin, Agip, etc Might drop the huge money for them to go racing on but so what, it might just be what the sport needs, I'm sick of seeing cigarette packets and fizzy drink cans going around the track. Then again, I don't like wings on cars either, so what would I know The purity of this is what I enjoyed and why I got into F1 : Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Hungaroring and Sochi More precise would be: Two GPs held in locations formerly part of the Soviet Union. My wording was very casual as Sochi didn't have a GP in Soviet times.
Whilst this may be good news for Sauber's immediate future, alarm bells are ringing for Me! Yes they are getting sponsorship money, but they are also being forced to use drivers who are not going to take Sauber anywhere! I haven't seen anything from Esteban Gutierrez so far that says to Me that he has the talent to succeed in F1, as Perez did, and now they're going to be forced to run another "Meh! driver next season, just to get the money! Sauber are running the risk of becoming a plaything for their sponsors and are losing an element of control over their own team! - Don't believe Me? - Who made the announcement that Gutierrez would be driving for Sauber this season first?: A) Sauber? or B) Carlos Slim Helu? (I'll give you a clue!: It wasn't Sauber! ). If I were Sauber, I'd already be looking for alternative plan to go to in a couple of years because sponsors have a nasty habit of just buggering off when they don't feel that they're getting value for money!, and I can see that happening here!
What do they say about beggars being choosers? There's no way to know but this may be the first step in a buyout.
Mmmm........I'd see that as F1's equivalent of the Russians buying TVR! The eventual end result to Me would be summed up by the words of Jeremy Clarkson: "That's not gone well!"
Sounds about right. Was on Eddies helmet of which I have a (signed) replica, which I used for my own racing IIRC FedEx replaced Asprey as sponsor
The subject of F1 funding is a thorny one. When the CSI then, authorised sponsorship of non-car related products, motor racing sold its soul to the devil. In real terms, F1 is incredibly expensive compared to a few decades away, and automotive product companies (tyres, petrol, Batteries, etc...) just don't make enough profits anymore to finance teams like they did before. I was connected with Shell when it largely sponsored Ferrari, and later McLaren. Spending this budget now would be unthinkable, and it probably wouldn't be enough anyway. Car companies are unrelable in F1: they come and go and invest when the economic circumstances allow it and quickly pull out when there is a downturn: Ford, Toyota, Honda, Mercedes, Peugeot or Renault are just examples. Here today, gone tomorrow ... Governments have invoked health issues to ban tobacco advertising, when the real motive was taxation. Tobacco companies used the enormous profits they made to fuel their huge marketing budgets. Governments got rather jealous on that and decided that profits was better taxed than spent on marketing; so they banned tobacco sponsorship. F1 has to look at highly profitable companies for its next source of funding. Where are they? In IT, communications, the music industry, fashion, leisure, food and drinks, etc...
