Petronas to be Mercedes title sponsor
Mercedes Grand Prix Petronas artwork concept (click to enlarge)
Former BMW and Sauber sponsor Petronas will switch its backing to Mercedes next year.
The team’s official title will be the Mercedes GP Petronas Formula One Team.
The Malaysian state-owned petroleum company has passed up the opportunity to renew its association with Sauber or join up with the new Malaysian-run Lotus team.
Vice-President of Mercedes-Benz motorsports Norbert Haug said:
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.
Mercedes had previously been backed by ExxonMobil lubricants brand Mobil 1. With much interest in Michael Schumacher potentially joining the team it coukd be significant that Mercedes has not signed a deal with Shell, who Schumacher has been associated with in the past.
Mercedes have issued some revised concept artwork of their 2010 F1 car livery which includes the Petronas branding as well as Aabar, MIG and Graham logos. Merging the Petronas turquoise in with the classic Mercedes silver is going to be a tricky job.
The final livery will be seen for the first time on February 1st at the Valencia circuit, which looks like another indication the teams’ plans for a joint launch have failed.
Read more: F1 2010 Season
thats odd, i read a couple of days ago they wern’t being with any team, only the Malaysian GP
They said they weren’t going to be with any new team after people saw a Malaysian oil company and a Malaysian racing team, and then put two and two together and got five.
Now that’s a surprise…
That’s a bit of a surprise, I thought Petronas would either go back to Sauber or with Lotus, I hope Sauber don’t have any trouble attracting major sponsors.
Second that. Bagging Petronas was quite a coup for Mercedes. Or rather for both sides.
Just one more challenge for Peter Sauber. Hope he gets the team back in shape.
I think with the recent signing of Kobayashi to Sauber i think he will bring Panasonic sponsors there.
whatever, but that silver with green is one ugly thing, bring on the orange!!!
What green? Brawn was white, black and yellow. Ross Brawn said it himself at the beginning of the year: they chose yellow.
Arun was clearly referring to the silver merc picture in this article, nothing was mentioned about the Brawn colours :-S
He said “silver with green” … I’m at a loss to work out what “green” he was referring to, unless he thinks the grass in the background should be pulled out to mae he car look better …
It’s quite obvious he meant the turquoise, it’s commonly called green or blue as it’s somewhere between the two. No need to be deliberately awkward.
Deliberately awkward?
The only thing this mock-up does is add Petronas logos to a mock-up that was pitched back when Mercedes bought Brawn. That original design also included turquoise, and didn’t receive any complaints at the time.
I agree, the car looks hideous with the combination of grey / silver and turquoise / blue / green (whatever you may call those colours).
Even the Malaysian team had some rainbow colors, + we have Renault’s vomit livery. Formula 1 is getting uglier by the day
Bernie, what happened to “improving the show”!!
I think she means the fact you don’t understand what colours people are saying unless it is refered to in the exact name. We all get what Arun meant
PM, everyone seems to get exactly what he means except you. Stop being a prat
A 9 comment arguement that turqoise can be refured to as green or blue.
For the best F1 discussion come to f1fanatic.co.uk
I think that the Black of the carbon fibre, the Silver, and then that beautiful shade of turquoise look great together.
haha, kids, grow up… its just a guess.
Besides all of which, some us here are slightly colour-blind – if nobody told me that was turquoise, I wouldn’t know what to call it, but I still see that it looks ugly as hell on this picture.
pm, since when did the original Mercedes GP livery contain turquoise? I remember it only had silver and carbon fibre…
lol, u r arguing about a colour…
Well that’s a surprise!!
I think the colours would work if they just had the name in turquoise, that’d look well nice
Now that is one ugly livery, at least they will be easy to spot from distance…
So what’s the McLaren going to look like next year if Mercedes concentrate on Brawn?
Will they stay in Mercedes Silver or will they look like a Vodaphone phone box?
When McLaren and Mercedes annouced they would be seperating, McLaren said they would be keeping their current livery.
I have a horrible feeling they’re going to look like they’re sponsored by Dyno-Rod…
New McLaren Livery
Current McLaren shirt…
Here’s a different angle for the Mercedes in its concept livery:
(Hope the image works, otherwise, here’s the link.)
Silver, turquoise, probably Schuey’s red helmet – might as well have some Brawn yellow on it too.
It’ll still look better than the Hondas did – remember the green trousers?
Petronas’ll get more exposure this way but I’d rather see their name in big letters on a Sauber, I don’t like to see sponsors switching to the big teams. Similarly I’ve read about Campos struggling for backing, with all the big sponsors in the Spanish market clamouring to be associated with Alonso and Ferrari. Anyone heard anything about this?
Side-view rendering. Looks way better:
http://www.f1today.nl/cms/thumbnails/show_article.php?filename=../fotos/lk10on4n2.jpg&file=lk10on4n2.jpg
Yeah I assumed it would look more like that anyway. Not too much Turqoise on the car just having Petronas written in Black.
At least it’s better than the ghastly Brawn colours, especially with the clashing yellows in Brazil
I know that made the Renault livery look great compared to that hideous Brawn
Brawn in Brazil was bad, but this has the potential to be much, much worse. Silver and turquoise simply don’t go
Aw I think silver goes with anything, it’s one of those colours that doesn’t clash. I’m looking forward to the new liveries
I agree that this has the potential to be a very bad livery. But remember, Petronas sponsored BMW for 4 years without ever using their corporate turquoise on the car. Perhaps they’ll do the same with Mercedes
Yeah I agree. Shame they didn’t stick with Sauber – a turqoise car like the old Sauber would have looked cool in my opinion
The best-looking cars in turqoise would have to be the late 80s, early 90s Leyton House March’s.
Am i the only one who likes it?
I think it looks great… especially the side view. Oh well i guess its like the renault 09 livery, you either hate it or love it.
How many more times will we see that same image photoshoped before the 2010 season starts?
ARGH, MY EYES!
That’s a big shock. I had assumed that Petronas would do the patriotic thing and back Lotus and/or would re-establish its relationship with Sauber.
Silver and turquoise … that’s just sif as we South Africans would say.
Possible Mclaren livery?
I reckon the McLaren’s would sooner be black with red than orange. I would like them to be orange, though…
Thats ghastly…
Last I heard, McLaren would be running the same livery as they did last year.
Am I the only one that likes the combination of turquoise and silver? I think it looks cool…
“The Turquoise Arrows returns to F1!”
I am very surprised.
This will boost the Petronas brand a lot.
Kudos!