McLaren remains without a title sponsor for the next Formula 1 season
Even as teams such as Red Bull and Sauber will compete with a title sponsor for the 2018 Formula 1 season, McLaren will do without, said McLaren boss Zak Brown on Tuesday.
“I don’t think we’re going to have a title sponsor per se,” said Brown to Motorsport.com F1 reporter Adam Cooper.
“If you look at F1 no one really refers to the name of the team’s title partner, so I don’t think there’s a lot of value. We’re McLaren, we’re not ABC McLaren.
“There’s major branding, but we don’t want to sell the title, we want to remain the name of the team – McLaren. In NASCAR the drivers are trained to get out of the car and say, ‘I’d like to thank my Chandon Ford today.’ That doesn’t happen in F1, so we want to protect our brand.”
The outfit, which will switch to a Renault power unit from 2018, has been without a title sponsor since 2013, when its Vodafone deal ended. Red Bull recently brought on Aston Martin as its title sponsor and Force India transformed its livery to pink for water purifier company BWT in 2017, while Sauber and Alfa Romeo will join forces for 2018. Ferrari, however, lost a major sponsor in Santander at the end of the 2017 season.
Despite the current climate, Brown remains cautiously optimistic, with partners in Johnnie Walker, Santander and Logitech. The team’s executive director hinted at more to come.
“We have signed some sponsors, but I don’t know exactly when we’re going to announce them,” he added. “We’re not done yet, so all sponsors are welcome!
“We’ve got a lot of excitement. There’s a good buzz around F1, TV ratings are up, live attendance is up [there are] new owners, strategic vision…so there’s momentum behind F1 and then there’s momentum behind McLaren… so generally we feel that there’s some wind at the tail, as opposed to a headwind.”
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