Red Bull set for Infiniti deal
F1 Fanatic round-up
Red Bull are set to announce a branding deal with Infiniti*.
Links
Top F1 links from the past 24 hours:
Red Bull – to Infiniti… and beyond (Joe Saward)
“It looks like Red Bull Racing is not going to be running Renault engines in 2011 – but will switch to Infiniti instead. It amounts to the same thing, of course, as Infiniti is a Nissan brand and Nissan and Renault are partners.”
Red Bull budget boosted as engines renamed Infiniti (BBC)
“Red Bull’s Renault engines will be renamed Infiniti this season in a move that will boost the world champion team’s budget by at least £7m.”
Todt Sees Kubica In Hospital (Speed)
“FIA president Jean Todt on Sunday visited Robert Kubica in hospital.”
Renault: Heidfeld already leading team (Autosport)
“Renault team boss Eric Boullier says it was obvious from Nick Heidfeld’s first few laps in the car that he was the man the squad needed to lead its 2011 charge in the absence of the injured Robert Kubica.”
Formula One pays down private equity debt (The Telegraph)
“Formula One has paid down a large tranche of the $2.8bn (£1.7bn) debt used by private equity firm CVC to buy the motor racing franchise in 2006.”
A1 Grand Prix race firm faces fraud inquiry (The Telegraph)
“The Serious Fraud Office has started looking into companies behind the A1 Grand Prix Series – the collapsed rival to Formula One – whose creditors still claim to be owed more than £400m.”
“This week, I had the chance after the last test in Barcelona to interview Mark Webber about testing so far and his thoughts on the season ahead, particularly his ongoing battle with Sebastian Vettel.”
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Comment of the day
Daniel Lavender is going to the British Grand Prix and has a few questions – can anyone help?
Hi all, have just purchased general admission tickets for me and my brother. It’s our 1st trip to a grand prix, and was wondering where was the best place to watch all the action with our limited general admission tickets? We have tickets for qualifying and race day, any help would be appreciated.
Daniel Lavender
Read more: Silverstone – spectators’ experiences
From the forum
The Official Junior F1 Fanatic PS3 World Championship results are in. After a fraught round 8 in Europe, Asanator crossed the line first, followed by ed24f1 and jamiet19.
Happy birthday!
Three birthdays again today – all the best to Bastardo, Lame2741 and Kevin!
On this day in F1
Happy 71st birthday to 1978 world champion Mario Andretti!
*Update: The headline originally stated the deal would include the re-branding of the engines, which later turned out not to be the case.
Ads21 (@ads21) said on 28th February 2011, 0:08
Since the Renault team seems to be quite schizophrenic at the moment maybe they should join in with Red Bull and call themselves “Infiniti Nissan Lotus Renault Lada GP F1 Team by Enstone racing” Just for brand clarity.
mcmercslr (@mcmercslr) said on 28th February 2011, 0:13
Ha nice one
Dingle Dell said on 28th February 2011, 2:19
Oh, you’ve forgotten their ‘Rover’ sponsor! It should be named as “Lotus Renault Lada Rover GP F1 Team powered by Infiniti Nissan Renault based in Enstone”. LMAO!
Prisoner Monkeys said on 28th February 2011, 8:17
Actually, that’s ot the logo of Rover Cars. If you look carefully, it’s actually the logo of a coal-mining company. I believe the hole in the “O” actually reads “coal”.
Hare (@hare) said on 28th February 2011, 9:21
Not sure someone called ‘Dingle Dell’, has a position of great fortitude when it comes to suggesting others have suspect names… I think that rule applies to a few of us :)
LewisC said on 28th February 2011, 10:19
What’s wrong with Dingle Dell? A great part of a great circuit…
Daniel said on 28th February 2011, 5:37
Shouldn’t that ‘Lotus’ be Proton?
BasCB (@bascb) said on 28th February 2011, 7:23
Lovely name. Almost beats the Ferrari chassis name this year!
Burnout said on 28th February 2011, 7:31
They can’t put Lotus and Team in the same name! Infiniti Nissan Lotus Renault Lada GP by Enstone Racing will have to do :)
US_Peter (@us_peter) said on 28th February 2011, 7:37
Can’t we throw in a Toleman somewhere?
ajokay (@ajokay) said on 28th February 2011, 8:51
Right, so, Toleman Benetton Lotus Renault Nissan Infiniti Lada GP
Surely we can make a comedy backronym out of these names.
mcmercslr (@mcmercslr) said on 28th February 2011, 0:12
When I went to silverstone on ’09 I had general admission and we sat at club. Now the track has been altered and the pits moved with club being the last corner then that’s no longer an option. Not sure where else is good to go. Entry to maggots was wife good in saturday practice but is probably really busy on race day. Need to get in early. Worth a try
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65) said on 28th February 2011, 0:30
Red Bull Racing Infiniti…
hmmm… does anyone see the problem here?
mcmercslr (@mcmercslr) said on 28th February 2011, 0:42
I can see the problem of the pun “to Infiniti and beyond” being overused
Scribe said on 28th February 2011, 0:51
oh god, an they will won’t they. Jake will say it preluding a question. DC will say it akwardly. EJ will crack it like a dad joke.
Brundle I don’t know, last year I started to suspect he’d lost it, wonder whether he’ll be any good now.
Julian said on 28th February 2011, 6:52
There’s infinite potential for puns. Da Dun Tsss
Hare (@hare) said on 28th February 2011, 9:03
I disown you..
Prisoner Monkeys said on 28th February 2011, 8:25
Aaaaand … Joe Saward is the first.
Jarred Walmsley (@jarred-walmsley) said on 28th February 2011, 2:47
I think it will also involve a name change to Red Bull Infiniti Racing, which rolls off the tongue considerably easier
Prisoner Monkeys said on 28th February 2011, 3:33
No, it will be Red Bul Racing-Infiniti, like Virgin Racing-Cosworth. Infiniti is the engine supplier, not the sponsor.
Jarred Walmsley (@jarred-walmsley) said on 28th February 2011, 6:48
There must be a sponsor deal in there though because of the free engines wouldn’t there?
Prisoner Monkeys said on 28th February 2011, 8:27
All engine suppliers get their name on the cars. But they are not considered to be sponsors. Infiniti is now listed as Red Bull’s engine supplier and will be treated accordingly, so don’t go expecting to see the team renamed as Red Bull Infiniti Racing. It’s Red Bull Racing-Infiniti.
ajokay (@ajokay) said on 28th February 2011, 8:53
Althought Brawn never had Mercedes slapped anywhere on the car. You would have thought Merc would have requested a three pointed star somewhere on the bodywork.
Prisoner Monkeys said on 28th February 2011, 9:04
True enough, but this is still an engine deal, not a sponsor deal.
Fixy (@fixy) said on 28th February 2011, 14:10
@Ajokay – Neither do Toro Rosso or Sauber show Ferrari logos.
Baronetti said on 28th February 2011, 16:44
£6.8 million worth of sponsorship.
mfDB (@mfdb) said on 28th February 2011, 14:41
Who called them Red Bull Racing Renault in the past….um, no one.
They will be called Red Bull, then RBR, then Red Bull Infiniti, but I doubt anyone will actually call them Red Bull Racing infiniti, no matter what they officially call the team.
Hamish said on 28th February 2011, 1:03
Gees that youtube video before you click to play it looks like Mark Webber has spent a night or two with Charlie Sheen!
GeorgeTuk (@georgetuk) said on 28th February 2011, 11:32
I thought that, hard place to stop it. Could of been the Guinness he had yesterday! (he posted on Twitter).
wasiF1 (@wasif1) said on 28th February 2011, 1:35
Does it mean that eight engines which are all Renault powered cost £7m to the customer?
Nick needs to up his game,the car promising so he needs to perform.
The A1 GP may be over but the story behind it isn’t.
BasCB (@bascb) said on 28th February 2011, 7:43
Should be 16 engines (8 x 2 cars, if the no.2 driver is not left to push his ;-))
It might be just half of the cost though.
Anyone heard news about that A10 series that was putting up a website to pick up the idea of A1GP?
Calum said on 28th February 2011, 9:07
There is a deal that engine manufacturers must provide a seasons worth of engines to a customer team for £8,000,000 or less – the Renault deal was a good idea, but the Infiniti deal suits RBR and the luxury car brand.
For RBR, it’s like a £7,000,000 sponsor but or Infiniti it’s better than Title sponsorship because their company name gets published on BBC F1 league table, because engine names do, but title sponsorship doesn’t:
1: Ferrari – Ferrari
2: Mclaren – Mercedes
The above is shown on the league table rather than the example below:
1: Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro – Ferrari
2: Vodafone Mclaren – Mercedes
Trakstar (@trakstar) said on 28th February 2011, 3:05
I like it..RedBull Infinity! has a ring to it.
Hare (@hare) said on 28th February 2011, 9:16
An Infinity Ring?
Gaston said on 28th February 2011, 4:20
I somewhat dislike this practice of rebadging engines, I think it comes off as false advertising. And it opens up the possibility of having ridiculous engine names such as “Playlife”. I mean, come on.
At least this will free up some money for RBR :)
It’s kind of a clash of identities, though. On one hand you have youthful, cool Red Bull, and on the other, you got middle-age, boring Infiniti. Oh well.
Prisoner Monkeys said on 28th February 2011, 5:37
I think you’re confusing Infiniti with Lexus. But then, they do not sell Infiniti cars in Australia (as far as I know), so I don’t know too much about them
GeeMac (@geemac) said on 28th February 2011, 5:52
They sell loads of them here in the UAE…you aren’t missing much! An overly expensive Nissan is every bit as rubbish as you’d expect it to be.
BasCB (@bascb) said on 28th February 2011, 7:26
So that’s a rubbish tasting, overprized drink racing an overprized rubbish engine?
Interesting branding, isn’t it.
I must say the few infiniti cars I encounter on the road (mainly SUVs) really look horrible and bulky with strange lines.
GeeMac (@geemac) said on 28th February 2011, 8:16
I actually wouldn’t throw my money at Red Bull if I was Infiniti. Why you might ask? Well it won’t be great for your marketing department if Red Bull’s Team Principal spends the entire year complaining about how little horsepower your engines produce, which he no dout will.
mfDB (@mfdb) said on 28th February 2011, 14:47
Actually they are quite different than Nissans. Most people think the G35 is based on a Maxima or Altima, but they are skylines, they have the F/M platform that car enthusiasts rave about (shared with the Z) and they are rear wheel drive. They do have the 3.7L Nissan engine, but again, this is also a highly regarded sport engine. The only Nissan that is similar to Infinitis is the Z. The older Infinitis were trying to be Lexus, which is a middle-aged kinda car, but the new Infiniti is following more of the Japanese Nissan role of sport tuned sedans and coupes.
Icthyes (@icthyes) said on 28th February 2011, 7:28
Mechachrome was the worst offender!
Prisoner Monkeys said on 28th February 2011, 8:32
Mecachrome made no sense. There ar no cars badged as Mecachrome; in fact, if memory serve me right, they’re actually an aviation group, or at east have tied to it.
However, in 1998, the man in charge of Mecachrome was Flavio Briatore, which probably has a lot to do with why they were in Formula 1.
TimG (@timg) said on 28th February 2011, 9:02
Mecachrome made sense in that it was the name of the engineering company that prepared customer Renault engines for several years. It also provides engines for GP2.
Granted, there are no Mecachrome road cars, but nor were there any Ilmor or Hart roadcars when those companies supplied engines to F1 teams.
Briatore never ran Mecachrome – he ran the company which distributed the Mecachrome engines, badged as Supertec, in 1999-2000.
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys) said on 28th February 2011, 12:12
I’ll take your word for it – it’s not a period I’m intimately familiar with.
Calum said on 28th February 2011, 13:50
TAG make watches – I don’t want a V6 Turbo in my timepiece!!!
f1alex (@f1alex) said on 28th February 2011, 18:40
LOL Calum, that sounds like a Topgear challenge…
marc connell said on 28th February 2011, 6:35
Didnt expect Infiniti to go the f1 route. Maybe in near future we will see a Infiniti based team? they do make good cars..
Jarred Walmsley (@jarred-walmsley) said on 28th February 2011, 6:50
Huh, they are what Lexus used to be the equivalent of, the get a 4 door skyline cross out the nissan badge and stick an infinity on one
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner) said on 28th February 2011, 7:27
Now they sound even more like World Champions!
iamsa8 (@aus_steve) said on 28th February 2011, 7:28
some people on the forum worked out the infiniti change weeks ago.. a testament to how fast information gets spread at F1F!
BBT said on 28th February 2011, 7:54
I thought I’d heard it weeks ago.
BasCB (@bascb) said on 28th February 2011, 8:00
But it will be officially announced only tomorrow.
Calum said on 28th February 2011, 8:59
I got it unofficially posted on the forum quite a while back…
…not that I’m boasting or anything!! :P
BasCB (@bascb) said on 28th February 2011, 10:32
But it seems, RBR are pretty angry at media reporting this, stating that this is not quite as it seems, and everybody wait for tomorrow!
iamsa8 (@aus_steve) said on 1st March 2011, 1:36
well that’s embarrasing! good guess though
sato113 (@sato113) said on 28th February 2011, 11:21
this site is full of undercovers working on the inside…
alexf1man said on 28th February 2011, 13:51
I’ve got some even more important, juicy news: Testing in Barcelona to be put back a day. See
Fixy (@fixy) said on 28th February 2011, 14:14
Massa says so on his site. 9th-12th Marc 2011.
alexf1man said on 28th February 2011, 14:16
Ferrari’s Facebook Page. But apparently Barcelona will host from 8-12 March.
http://totalf1.com/full_story/view/368640/Final_test_session_to_run_an_extra_day/
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine) said on 28th February 2011, 14:29
I checked with the circuit the other day and they were still saying 8th-11th with the possibility of some teams doing the 12th. I wonder if these are teams who are trying to get an extra upgrade done in time.
Icthyes said on 28th February 2011, 8:03
In other news, Ferrari have offered £50m to be the title sponsor or every team, so they can always win. McLaren have responded by stealing the idea.
Hare (@hare) said on 28th February 2011, 9:24
Tut tut tut.. You’re so cynical Icthyes ;) haha I like it
Maciek said on 28th February 2011, 11:44
That’s pretty funny actually. NIce one.
Calum said on 28th February 2011, 12:27
Except it would be Mclaren taking the initiative…. and Ferrari crying to the FIA!! :P ;)
DC said on 28th February 2011, 8:13
Happy Birthday Mario! He was a true racer – willing to try every category and able to win in all of them.
Dane said on 28th February 2011, 11:10
Exactly, Mario is a champion
Hare (@hare) said on 28th February 2011, 9:06
Infinity… Perfectly describes getting lost on a Milton Keynes roundabout..
Cacarella said on 28th February 2011, 9:06
Ahhh, ‘Infinity’ is one letter longer than ‘Renault’.
The extra branding will obviously slow the car down in a straight line and put Redbull at a disadvantage!
(I will be applying for the position of Christian Horner’s spokesperson, just getting some practice in now)
Hare (@hare) said on 28th February 2011, 9:13
Basically, manufacturers are leaving F1, and then other manufacturers come along and stick a greasy foot in the door to claim a presence.
‘ yeah yeah yeah, I know we’re not in F1, but if we rebadge the engine by paying Renault and Redbull a few quid, bazinga! We’re in F1 with next to no effort… Shhhhh don’t tell the engineers, you know how much they’ll be annoyed at us suits…’
I imagine the meeting at Lada was fun too…
‘so, Honda..out, Toyota… Gone.. Renault.. Sold… But LADA kings of Forumla 1!!!! ( eventually, after we’ve sold more Ladas. )
Fixy (@fixy) said on 28th February 2011, 14:22
And this means only Red Bull Renault engines are Infiniti, Renault’s or Lotus’ remain Renault despite being the same engine.