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
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*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)
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)
28th February 2011, 0:13
Ha nice one
Dingle Dell
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
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)
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
28th February 2011, 10:19
What’s wrong with Dingle Dell? A great part of a great circuit…
Daniel
28th February 2011, 5:37
Shouldn’t that ‘Lotus’ be Proton?
BasCB (@bascb)
28th February 2011, 7:23
Lovely name. Almost beats the Ferrari chassis name this year!
Burnout
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)
28th February 2011, 7:37
Can’t we throw in a Toleman somewhere?
ajokay (@)
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)
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)
28th February 2011, 0:30
Red Bull Racing Infiniti…
hmmm… does anyone see the problem here?
mcmercslr (@mcmercslr)
28th February 2011, 0:42
I can see the problem of the pun “to Infiniti and beyond” being overused
Scribe
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
28th February 2011, 6:52
There’s infinite potential for puns. Da Dun Tsss
Hare (@hare)
28th February 2011, 9:03
I disown you..
Prisoner Monkeys
28th February 2011, 8:25
Aaaaand … Joe Saward is the first.
jsw11984 (@jarred-walmsley)
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
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.
jsw11984 (@jarred-walmsley)
28th February 2011, 6:48
There must be a sponsor deal in there though because of the free engines wouldn’t there?
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.
ajokay (@)
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
28th February 2011, 9:04
True enough, but this is still an engine deal, not a sponsor deal.
Fixy (@)
28th February 2011, 14:10
@Ajokay – Neither do Toro Rosso or Sauber show Ferrari logos.
Baronetti
28th February 2011, 16:44
£6.8 million worth of sponsorship.
DaveBanchero (@mfdb)
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
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)
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)
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)
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
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 (@)
28th February 2011, 3:05
I like it..RedBull Infinity! has a ring to it.
Hare (@hare)
28th February 2011, 9:16
An Infinity Ring?
Gaston
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
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)
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)
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)
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.
DaveBanchero (@mfdb)
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)
28th February 2011, 7:28
Mechachrome was the worst offender!
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.
TimG (@timg)
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)
28th February 2011, 12:12
I’ll take your word for it – it’s not a period I’m intimately familiar with.
Calum
28th February 2011, 13:50
TAG make watches – I don’t want a V6 Turbo in my timepiece!!!
f1alex (@f1alex)
28th February 2011, 18:40
LOL Calum, that sounds like a Topgear challenge…
marc connell
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..
jsw11984 (@jarred-walmsley)
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)
28th February 2011, 7:27
Now they sound even more like World Champions!
Stephen Jones (@aus_steve)
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
28th February 2011, 7:54
I thought I’d heard it weeks ago.
BasCB (@bascb)
28th February 2011, 8:00
But it will be officially announced only tomorrow.
Calum
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)
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!
Stephen Jones (@aus_steve)
1st March 2011, 1:36
well that’s embarrasing! good guess though
sato113 (@sato113)
28th February 2011, 11:21
this site is full of undercovers working on the inside…
alexf1man
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 (@)
28th February 2011, 14:14
Massa says so on his site. 9th-12th Marc 2011.
alexf1man
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)
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
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)
28th February 2011, 9:24
Tut tut tut.. You’re so cynical Icthyes ;) haha I like it
Maciek
28th February 2011, 11:44
That’s pretty funny actually. NIce one.
Calum
28th February 2011, 12:27
Except it would be Mclaren taking the initiative…. and Ferrari crying to the FIA!! :P ;)
DC
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
28th February 2011, 11:10
Exactly, Mario is a champion
Hare (@hare)
28th February 2011, 9:06
Infinity… Perfectly describes getting lost on a Milton Keynes roundabout..
Cacarella
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)
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 (@)
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.
Hare (@hare)
28th February 2011, 9:30
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. :)
Adrian J
28th February 2011, 10:22
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..!!
BasCB (@bascb)
28th February 2011, 10:36
Maybe Bahar would object to them getting the same 7 million price cut though!
Andy C
28th February 2011, 10:32
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.
BasCB (@bascb)
28th February 2011, 10:33
And a happy birthday to Bastardo, Lame2741 and Kevin, no lame excuses for not celebrating.
You share it with the first super Mario, Enjoy!
BasCB (@bascb)
28th February 2011, 10:35
LOL, the system saw your name and put it up for Moderation.
As said, all birthday Fanatics have a nice day!
bosyber (@bosyber)
28th February 2011, 10:49
That certainly deserves a congratulations :-p
Good birthday to all of you!
sato113 (@sato113)
28th February 2011, 11:23
a special birthday shout out goes to the one and only Bastardo!!! :D
Red Andy (@red-andy)
28th February 2011, 11:45
So all the other teams only get eight engines, but Red Bull get Infiniti.
(Sorry, it was the best I could do).
BasCB (@bascb)
28th February 2011, 12:15
Not too bad a try. But what if the engines go to infiniti in the race?
BasCB (@bascb)
28th February 2011, 12:28
Just had a look at those most comments page. A bit too much I suppose.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
28th February 2011, 12:34
You’re winning!
BasCB (@bascb)
28th February 2011, 12:37
Well, you know what they say of the ones leading during testing!
Let’s wait for the season to start before judging :-p
alexf1man
28th February 2011, 13:17
Shame they didn’t use Infiniti to reduce the Lotus Renault argument.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
28th February 2011, 19:49
Some people have reported problems with inaccurate login information appeared in comment boxes. I’m looking into the problem.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
28th February 2011, 20:12
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.
Andy C
28th February 2011, 21:14
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.