Petronas has just moments ago announced that it will be the title sponsor of Mercedes GP! This comes as a surprise after it was widely reported that the national oil company will be ending its involvement in F1 as a team sponsor. The choice of Mercedes GP is also unexpected – after all Malaysia has its “own” team in Lotus F1.
The five-year agreement with Mercedes comes after Petronas’ deal with BMW Sauber ended in the just concluded 2009 season. Under this new deal, Petronas will be the title partner to the Silver Arrows works team, which will be officially known as the Mercedes GP Petronas Formula One Team.
The official media statement explains that “this partnership allows related business arrangements with Mercedes that will support Petronas’ international business expansion efforts, particularly in its global lubricant business. The exclusive rights of a title partner and association with the premium, internationally-renowned Mercedes brand will further enhance Petronas and Malaysia’s ongoing global brand positioning efforts. Petronas will also be able to continue to leverage on the extensive international exposure offered by the sport to grow its existing business activities.”
This tie-up also presents Petronas with the opportunity to utilise and leverage on Mercedes’ long motor sport heritage to further supplement its talent development initiatives as part of its contribution towards the development of Malaysia’s motorsports industry, it said.
Petronas will continue to be the title sponsor of the Malaysian Grand Prix, as reported earlier.
Quotes from Norbert Haug, Vice-President of Mercedes-Benz Motorsports and Ross Brawn, Team Principal are after the jump.
UPDATE: The Mercedes GP Petronas Formula One Team’s race car will make its track debut in its new livery at Valencia on 1 February to start pre-season testing ahead of the 2010 season.
Norbert Haug, Vice-President of Mercedes-Benz Motorsports
“We are very pleased to begin our long-term partnership with our new title partner PETRONAS. Daimler, our premium brand Mercedes-Benz and PETRONAS will work together both on and off the track and I am sure that everybody involved will guarantee their absolute dedication to success. PETRONAS’ home base in Kuala Lumpur is located in the middle of a fast-growing region for the automotive industry which makes this new partnership even more valuable. Within the limits of the new Formula One resource restrictions, the Mercedes GP PETRONAS Formula One Team will be well positioned to achieve our goals. We will all strive to present efficient success in the future knowing at the same time that the new Formula One season with some fundamental rule changes will be a particularly challenging one.”
Ross Brawn, Team Principal of the Mercedes GP PETRONAS Formula One Team
“Everyone at Mercedes GP is delighted to confirm our long-term agreement with PETRONAS and we look forward to working closely with our new partner in the future. The collaboration of the premium automotive brand Mercedes-Benz and a company as prestigious as PETRONAS gives our team a fantastic base from which to achieve our ambitions of competing at the top level of Formula One and building on the success of 2009 which saw the team achieve the Constructors’ and Drivers’ Championships. Our plans for the new season are progressing well, as is the development of our 2010 challenger, and we look forward to seeing the car run in the new Silver Arrows and PETRONAS livery at the Valencia test in February.”
Monday, December 21, 2009
Petronas Signs 5-Year Agreement with Mercedes in F1
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Renault for 2-year Suspended Ban; Briatore Ban for Life
The consensus of opinion following yesterday’s meeting of the World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) and the lifetime ban of the Renault team – suspended for two years – was that the team escaped lightly from what has been perceived as the worst case of cheating in the history of Formula One.
Flavio Briatore was handed a lifetime ban from any FIA sanctioned series, while co-conspirator Pat Symonds received a five year ban. The team itself however were not fined and did not have any points deducted as had been widely predicted. Instead the team was forced to pay the costs of the investigation – estimated at US $1.6m - and make an undisclosed contribution to the FIA’s safety programme.
“A suspended two year ban for Renault means nothing, they’re not really going to do that again are they,” Martin Brundle told the BBC. “They’re having to put some money into the safety fund - we don’t know how much. Many will perceive them as having been treated quite lightly compared to say McLaren of 2007.”
FIA president Max Mosley claimed that the penalty handed out was the “harshest one we can inflict,” something that few publicly support given that it is suspended - and diametrically opposed to the punishment faced by McLaren when they were found guilty of breaching the same regulation (Article 151c) in 2007. The WMSC found McLaren guilty of possessing confidential data from Ferrari and the team were hit with a US $100m fine - which brings up the issue of collective responsibility as well as parity.
“The FIA cannot have it both ways,” reported the Times.”The bill for the investigation is about $1.6 million, which makes Renault’s sanction roughly $98.4 million cheaper [than that faced by McLaren]”. Spain’s El Mundo agreed, calling crash-gate “a scandal without precedent and almost without punishment.”
The Daily Mail likened Renault’s feat to “The Great Escape”, arguing that the French team “should not only be permanently expelled from the track, but face serious criminal charges.”
Singapore newspaper The Straits Times accused F1’s governing body of “one of sport’s biggest cop-outs” and said by not harshly penalising the deliberate crash, the FIA is telling F1’s fans and marshals “that their lives are far less important than possibly losing the support of a car-making giant.”
The New York Times agreed that the FIA had moved to safeguard “the participation of one of its most powerful and wealthy sponsors”, and Britain’s Daily Telegraph said “no one had foreseen quite how lenient the punishment would be”.
The decision clearly pins the blame on three individuals, two of which have been banned from the sport and one who was granted immunity for ‘blowing the whistle’. In the past, ‘rogue’ activities from individuals employed by a team have resulted in the whole team being punished, be that in Formula One or the World Rally Championship.
It is of little surprise that headlines such as “Fury as Renault get easy ride over crash-gate” (The Times), “Renault are lucky to get away with suspended ban” (The Guardian) and “Teams are in the driving seat” (The Independent) are adorning the back pages of our newspapers.
Max Mosley can talk of the WMSC handing down the “harshest” penalty available to the governing body, but he defends the decision to penalise only the individual conspirators rather than revert to the principle of collective responsibility.
“Renault has demonstrated that they have absolutely no moral responsibility for what took place so it would be wrong to impose an immediate penalty,” Mosley insisted. “The blame has been placed where it should be placed and it’s the right decision.”
Clearly not everyone is buying Mosley’s line. Ari Vatanen, an independent candidate to succeed Mosley in October’s presidential elections, said the fact that the world smells an inside deal strengthens his case for “absolutely independent justice” in these sorts of disciplinary matters. World champion Damon Hill agreed. “Knowing what we know, we cannot dissociate this from the power play going on behind the scenes for control of Formula One,” he said.
French industry minister Christian Estrosi. “It is a good thing for French industry and a good thing for the sport in general,” he told L’Equipe.”
Double world champion Mika Hakkinen meanwhile simply wants the sport to move on from the latest controversy. “The show must go on,” he told Reuters. “People who have done wrong, they need a penalty. Life has to go on. I think what is important now is a great grand prix is coming…”
Kimi Raikkonen Signs For Mclaren
Kimi Raikkonen has signed an “outline agreement” to kick off a second tenure with the McLaren team beginning next season, the Mirror newspaper reported on Sunday.
The British newspaper said the 29-year-old Finn, who raced with the Woking based outfit between 2002 and 2006, must first reach an agreement with Ferrari, with whom he is under contract for one more season.
The Mirror cited “paddock sources” in claiming that Raikkonen is prepared to vacate his contracted Ferrari seat in 2010, but only if the famous Italian outfit pays his salary. The newspaper estimated Raikkonen’s 2010 Ferrari contract at nearly US $49m.
The report also said the news ties in with Nico Rosberg’s link with Brawn and the Brackley team’s burgeoning relationship with Mercedes-Benz.
The German manufacturer Mercedes was said to be pushing for Rosberg to replace Heikki Kovalainen at McLaren, but may now have resolved to push the German driver to Brawn and increase its involvement with the Ross Brawn-led outfit.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Formula 1 Crisis Could Be Over As Teams and FIA Come To Compromise
Without a rapid solution to the teams’ FIA standoff, Force India and Brawn will be the next current teams to imminently sign up for the 2010 world championship. Some believe that the current crisis is nearly over and following a Heathrow meeting on Wednesday, the FOTA alliance apparently agreed a compromise that could be accepted by Max Mosley.
But with the Friday deadline looming for next year’s entries, any further delays will result in Brawn and Force India - who like Williams see Formula One as their core and only business - also breaking ranks and lodging the 2010 paperwork. It is understood that, when Sir Frank Williams and team CEO Adam Parr were asked to leave the meeting room on Wednesday, Force India and Brawn did not join the other FOTA members in voting to expel the Grove based team.
As reported on Wednesday, however, the FOTA alliance is unlikely to fracture further, with Mercedes’ Norbert Haug and McLaren’s Martin Whitmarsh receiving much of the credit for the compromise that is now likely to speed towards a handshake deal.
The deal will involve a 100m euro budget cap next year, before Mosley’s €45m figure arrives in 2011. As a sweetener for the teams, one more staff member per team - like Red Bull’s highly-paid Adrian Newey - can be excluded from the cap in addition to the drivers and boss.
FIA President Mosley told La Gazzetta dello Sport this week: “I am willing to compromise, but only if small and new teams can operate with much lower budgets and are not much slower than the others.” The details of the technical compromises are still sketchy, but it is understood that component and informing sharing, and even the sanctioned use of whole customer cars in 2010, could be among them.
Mosley added: “I am very optimistic about a solution. The big and small teams have very different interests and we have to protect everyone.
“Will Ferrari enter by Friday? I think so. I am optimistic and confident. Ferrari is very important for Formula One, but Formula One is very important for Ferrari as well,” he added.
