F1 Fanatic

LG, UBS, Santander, DHL, Pirelli. These ‘sponsors’ have appeared at every GP this season. These names have the prominent spaces on boards at the tracks, which makes it seem that these 5 companies are the only companies that can be bothered to sponsor this sport. Only on a few occasions have I seen other sponsors, such as Helix and Vodafone. Why does F1 have so few sponsors at tracks, it’s starting to look boring and monotonous. Gone are the days when the track was covered in different sponsors. Is it just that nobody wants to sponsor the tracks or is are the people who run the sport blocking other sponsors, bizarre question, but it seems silly to me?

What ever happened to Fosters anyway? They were almost the quintessential Grand Prix title sponsor.

I swear they had a subliminal impact on me moving to Australia…

The UBS ones are everywhere, especially painted on the kerbs etc.
And about Fosters, I’m guessing F1 didn’t want to be associated with an alcohol sponsor or something.

I remember seeing ING before, but not this year. I guess they sell “packages” of publicity space around the track, in where a company has always to buy 10-15 banners, not just one or two

N/A means those GPs don’t have sponsor, or that you just don’t remember?

Bernie controls the sponsorship in F1 so that the few sponsors there are get greater exposure, and thus contribute more money to his coffers. Before he did that, track side sponsorship involved a menagerie of different sponsors, and the end result was that it was cluttered and ineffective. Now, a section of track will have almost exclusively the one sponsor, so that it becomes noticeable on TV.

I think Monaco has an exception where track side sponsorship isn’t controlled like other races, so you tend to see more variety. Of course, Bernie will bring on a country specific sponsor of a GP if the money is right. A sponsor like Petrobras, QANTAS or Etihad will pay more to sponsor a race in their home country than a company like Santander would pay per each of the races they sponsor.

For those wondering about Monaco (no accent on any ‘o’ as it is of French language), the GP is sponsored in a very different manner from most tracks.

This year, for example, the Automobile Club de Monaco had signed a special deal with Tag Heuer. The watch brand decided to celebrate its 150 years of involvement with “speed control”. It thus became the Grand Prix’s official partner, official watch and official glasses. Go back to the 2011 Monte Carlo race pictures and take a second look: Tag Heuer were everywhere (including being a McLaren sponsor, of course). But definitely not à la Santander in Britain right now though.

EDIT: regarding TV coverage, there are two FOM exceptions in today’s F1. The Monaco GP is produced by TMC (Télé Monte Carlo) and the Japanse GP by Fuji Television (incidentally, they’re also a huge sponsor of the Suzuka GP race).

Agip is owned by Eni, and now they are trying to merge the two brands in “Eni”, but I’ve seen it’s branding only at the Hungaroring.