F1 Fanatic

Here is a place to put all the latest news for deals and partnerships teams have signed up with companies for 2013 sponsorship.

I’ll start with the confirmation of Vodafone partnering Mclaren in 2013, and the fairly recent news that Infinity will title-sponsor RedBull Racing, and Coca-cola to sponsor Lotus F1 with the Burn Energy brand.

Mclaren and Vodafone:

Vodafone title sponsorship remains but that deal is up for renewal at the end of 2013. #F1

— F1 Fanatic (@f1fanatic_co_uk) December 20, 2012

RedBull Racing & Infiniti :

http://www.redbullracing.com/cs/Satellite/en_INT/Article/INFINITI-TO-BECOME-TITLE-PARTNER-OF-RED-BULL-RACING-From-2013-021243288541705

Lotus F1 & Burn:

http://lotusf1team.com/LOTUS-F1-TEAM-IGNITES-NEW,10822.html

Keep your eyes on Lotus – they have signed deals with Microsoft and Coca-cola – their next move is to ge a title sponsor, rumoured to be Honeywell. It will be exciting to see that deal when/if it is announced, it will help give that team a bit of stability, which is good as it’s an exciting line up.

F1 hadn’t Tag Heuer for official timekeepar, @jp1987, it was Hublot.

@JPedroCQF1 and @the_sigman I always thought it was TAG due to their F1 line. After some research (30 seconds in Wikipedia) I found that Hublot and TAG belong to the same parent company (LVMH) which explains why TAG can sell a F1 branded watch and still Hublot be the official watchmaker. In any case, huge score for Rolex there, no doubt. Also, I wonder if Gutierrez will bring any Monterrey based companies to Sauber the same way Sergio brought Jalisco based sponsors to Sauber (Jose Cuervo)

http://en.espnf1.com/f1/motorsport/story/96996.html

In the last paragraph it says that LG was a technology partner, so I don’t know.

@bobthevulcan I really don’t know. With Vodafone been the title sponsor of McLaren I doubt that Slim will user other brands for sponsorship. Most of his companies that require the international projection associated with F1 are on the telecommunications industry (America Movil and subsidiaries). The rest are either local consumer brands (like Inbursa) or B2B companies (Condumex, etc).

@Bosley If Vodafone leaves McLaren, I would believe it is almost a certainty that America Movil or any of their brands would be happy to take their place. although of course there are probably other companies that might be interested as well.

And yes, both Sergio and Esteban belong to Escuderia Telmex which is a Telmex owned team that helps develop drivers from their infancy. Also from Escuderia Telmex is the new Mexican promise, Franco Aragones :)

@mcmrocks – It’s highly doubtful that Sony will get involved. The company is in dire straits (losing market share and hemorrhaging cash), and their credit rating was recently cut to “junk” status, so they’re not in a good position to be pouring any significant sponsorship money into F1. As mentioned previously, Coca Cola is now a Lotus sponsor.

Noticed TW Steel logos on the new Force India.
Just checked their Facebook to see what the new deal was:

“multi-year partnership to become the ‘Official Timing Partner’”