Red Bull set for Infiniti deal

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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."

Video exclusive: Mark Webber on the new Red Bull F1 car and how he can beat Sebastian Vettel (James Allen on F1)

"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.

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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87 comments on “Red Bull set for Infiniti deal”

  1. 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.

    1. Ha nice one

      1. 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!

        1. Prisoner Monkeys
          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”.

        2. 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 :)

          1. What’s wrong with Dingle Dell? A great part of a great circuit…

    2. Shouldn’t that ‘Lotus’ be Proton?

    3. Lovely name. Almost beats the Ferrari chassis name this year!

    4. They can’t put Lotus and Team in the same name! Infiniti Nissan Lotus Renault Lada GP by Enstone Racing will have to do :)

      1. Can’t we throw in a Toleman somewhere?

        1. Right, so, Toleman Benetton Lotus Renault Nissan Infiniti Lada GP

          Surely we can make a comedy backronym out of these names.

  2. 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

  3. Red Bull Racing Infiniti…

    hmmm… does anyone see the problem here?

    1. I can see the problem of the pun “to Infiniti and beyond” being overused

      1. 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.

      2. There’s infinite potential for puns. Da Dun Tsss

        1. I disown you..

      3. Prisoner Monkeys
        28th February 2011, 8:25

        I can see the problem of the pun “to Infiniti and beyond” being overused

        Aaaaand … Joe Saward is the first.

    2. I think it will also involve a name change to Red Bull Infiniti Racing, which rolls off the tongue considerably easier

      1. Prisoner Monkeys
        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.

        1. There must be a sponsor deal in there though because of the free engines wouldn’t there?

          1. Prisoner Monkeys
            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.

          2. 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.

          3. Prisoner Monkeys
            28th February 2011, 9:04

            True enough, but this is still an engine deal, not a sponsor deal.

          4. @Ajokay – Neither do Toro Rosso or Sauber show Ferrari logos.

          5. £6.8 million worth of sponsorship.

        2. 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.

  4. Gees that youtube video before you click to play it looks like Mark Webber has spent a night or two with Charlie Sheen!

    1. I thought that, hard place to stop it. Could of been the Guinness he had yesterday! (he posted on Twitter).

  5. 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.

    1. 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?

    2. 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

  6. I like it..RedBull Infinity! has a ring to it.

    1. An Infinity Ring?

  7. 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.

    1. Prisoner Monkeys
      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

      1. 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.

        1. 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.

          1. 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.

        2. 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.

    2. Mechachrome was the worst offender!

      1. Prisoner Monkeys
        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.

        1. 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.

          1. I’ll take your word for it – it’s not a period I’m intimately familiar with.

          2. TAG make watches – I don’t want a V6 Turbo in my timepiece!!!

          3. LOL Calum, that sounds like a Topgear challenge…

  8. Didnt expect Infiniti to go the f1 route. Maybe in near future we will see a Infiniti based team? they do make good cars..

    1. 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

  9. Now they sound even more like World Champions!

  10. some people on the forum worked out the infiniti change weeks ago.. a testament to how fast information gets spread at F1F!

    1. I thought I’d heard it weeks ago.

    2. But it will be officially announced only tomorrow.

    3. I got it unofficially posted on the forum quite a while back…

      …not that I’m boasting or anything!! :P

      1. 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!

        1. well that’s embarrasing! good guess though

    4. this site is full of undercovers working on the inside…

    5. I’ve got some even more important, juicy news: Testing in Barcelona to be put back a day. See

      1. Massa says so on his site. 9th-12th Marc 2011.

      2. 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/

      3. 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.

  11. 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.

    1. Tut tut tut.. You’re so cynical Icthyes ;) haha I like it

    2. That’s pretty funny actually. NIce one.

      1. Except it would be Mclaren taking the initiative…. and Ferrari crying to the FIA!! :P ;)

  12. Happy Birthday Mario! He was a true racer – willing to try every category and able to win in all of them.

    1. Exactly, Mario is a champion

  13. Infinity… Perfectly describes getting lost on a Milton Keynes roundabout..

  14. 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)

  15. 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. )

    1. And this means only Red Bull Renault engines are Infiniti, Renault’s or Lotus’ remain Renault despite being the same engine.

  16. Love listening to Webber talk about those tyres, you can almost hear him trying to find words other than ‘what the hell have they done? They’ve gone and ruined everything! we were doing so well! Bridgestone I miss you so much!!!’ every third word. :)

  17. I wonder whether it wouldn’t reduce some of the potential confusion if Team Lotus followed suit and had their engines badged as Infiniti as well.

    Then we’d have Lotus Renault and Team Lotus Infiniti, not quite as bad..!!

    1. Maybe Bahar would object to them getting the same 7 million price cut though!

  18. Good luck to Redbull. Winning races and championships has given them this rebadging opportunity, and a welcome boost to their funding.

    I understand Cosworth are OK with the rebadging idea too.

    It explains somewhat why Infiniti started following me on twitter which I couldnt understand(I posted a save the nurburgring that Legard, Tiff Needel and a few others tetweeted).

    For what its worth, I think its a great deal for Redbull and a rubbish one for Infiniti. Anyone in the know will know they are winning with Renault engines.

    I wonder whether this is just another way of Renault spreading the load of development costs for their F1 engines across the group.

  19. And a happy birthday to Bastardo, Lame2741 and Kevin, no lame excuses for not celebrating.

    You share it with the first super Mario, Enjoy!

  20. LOL, the system saw your name and put it up for Moderation.

    As said, all birthday Fanatics have a nice day!

    1. That certainly deserves a congratulations :-p

      Good birthday to all of you!

  21. a special birthday shout out goes to the one and only Bastardo!!! :D

  22. So all the other teams only get eight engines, but Red Bull get Infiniti.

    (Sorry, it was the best I could do).

    1. Not too bad a try. But what if the engines go to infiniti in the race?

  23. Just had a look at those most comments page. A bit too much I suppose.

    1. You’re winning!

      1. Well, you know what they say of the ones leading during testing!
        Let’s wait for the season to start before judging :-p

  24. Shame they didn’t use Infiniti to reduce the Lotus Renault argument.

  25. Some people have reported problems with inaccurate login information appeared in comment boxes. I’m looking into the problem.

    1. Some changes have been made to the system to rectify the problem.

      It’s proving difficult to replicate which suggests it was only affecting a minority of users to begin with.

      If you had the problem then try deleting your F1 Fanatic cookies and refreshing your browser and you should hopefully not see the fault any more.

  26. Keith,

    is this a one year deal? As I thought Redbull were trying to persuade VW into F1 for 2013.

    Hopefully this strengthens a Williams tie up probability.

    It still surprises me that Williams didnt take up the Renault deal at the end of last season. They definitely had discussions about it.

Comments are closed.