ScottR267 wrote:
Lotus49 wrote:
ScottR267 wrote:
Lotus49 wrote:
The owners are covering the costs for this year according to AMuS but losing sponsors is of course never good but to be fair Santander have pulled out of F1 team sponsorship across the board so that can't be helped. No idea for the reasons of the others or how sizeable the sponsorship was.
Castrol is interesting as it was assumed because they're running Renault then running BP/Castrol would be good news but what if one of those 2 new sponsors Zak mentioned is that Petrobras deal that was rumored? Maybe they've had to ditch Castrol or come up with a Williams type situation from 2014 where the branding was Petrobras but the products being used were Petronas?
Be interesting to see what happens.
Much like yourself I thought running Renault engines and using BP/Castrol products would be good news and the best scenario with them moving to Renault engines. Petrobras must be one of the two new sponsors which is interesting if they are having to supply the fuel and oil, firstly have they ever done this before? And secondly didn't they pull out of F1 due to the costs and legal troubles?
If it's Petrobras McLaren run then I'd be a little worried, the fuel and oil (wink wink) are so important in this formula and McLaren have suffered before in 2014 through using a supplier not married to the engine maker's design and I'd hate to be reading that again. Petrobras haven't actually supplied any product for a while to my knowledge but I've no idea why they left to be honest.
BP didn't do too bad with their first effort by all accounts so not impossible to hit the ground running but when you're reading Petronas are still bringing 50bhp gains for Mercedes in year 5/6/7 or however long they've been developing their products for like they allegedly did last year, I'd be more positive about continuing to use BP/Castrol that are married to the Renault design and use Petrobras as branding like Williams did in 2014.
(I read the 50bhp gain for Mercedes on f1technical from a source who's been right on Mercedes more than once so I buy it personally although it's unclear if it was used on track or on the 50% TE, 1000bhp unit they've allegedly got running on the dyno. AMuS quoted Mercedes producing 949bhp on track in Mexico I believe so it would fit if it's the dyno one).
Echo your concerns with McLaren rumoured to be moving to Petrobras...surely Zak and the owners must surely recognise using the same fuel supplier as your new engine partner will be much more sensible.....I mean weren't Mercedes strong advisors in McLaren using Petronas fuel and oil when they used their engine in 2014? I can only think of 2 reasons why McLaren would not use BP/Castrol which is firstly could this have been part of the negotiations in getting a Renault supply off engines (which i very much doubt) or that with McLaren losing several sponsors and some of their biggest sponsors they were desperate for the money....I mean the owners won't want to keep funding the racing team with very few results.
Just on a side note seems strange now looking back the prominent exposure Johnnie Walker had on the car considering not only their significant branding on the Force India but also given the fact they were ending their partnership.
Mercedes wanted McLaren to ditch Esso for Petronas even before 2014 but yeah they did tell them to use it in 2014 too but obviously McLaren wanted to give Esso a year development before the Honda hook up and they were trying to negotiate a new deal with Exxon/Mobil as well so stayed loyal. Which turned out well...
Until anything is confirmed it's hard to say why they would want to run Petrobras. I've a feeling it will be branding only but if you're Petrobras you'll still not want Castrol stickers on the car even if it's in it so that would need sorting out.
I don't think Johnnie Walker was particularly visible at McLaren last year and as I understand it McLaren didn't want to give JW what Force India offered livery wise for that amount of sponsorship so that's why they went with FI.
On a side note and shamelessly lifting info from a poster on F1Technical again, the loss of the 8 sponsors actually didn't have much to do with McLaren's recent troubles. Credit to Manoah2u for the info...
- Santander : Leaves Formula 1 alltogether totally irrelevant of any Mclaren state of affairs
- Castrol : Only present due to the HONDA link, which is gone, and supposedly gets replace with Petrobras.
- Johnnie Walker : Was announced to leave as early as 2015, then got (temporarily) retained, and if i'm correct is going to Force India (again, not news and thus has nothing to do with 2018 prospects)
- Star Sports Network has changed its mechanics about which sport to cater, so again, nothing to do with Mclaren or trust for 2018.
- Calsonic Kansei only was present due to the Honda link. Honda gone = Calsonic Kansei gone. NOTHING to do with 2018 Mclaren prospects
- GREAT Britain and Northern Ireland : Totally to do due to Brexit, nothing to do with Mclaren's F1 2018 capabilities.
- Michael Kors : Leaving because Fernando Alonso's own brand is coming aboard, nothing to do with 2018 Mclaren capabilities
- CNN : Leaves as a sponsor because F1 shifts from NBC to ESPN. Nothing to do with Mclaren 2018 prospects.
I think Castrol had nothing to do with Honda and I've no idea about GB and NI leaving because of Brexit but the rest seems legit and explains the departures quite well. Losing sponsors is never great of course but it doesn't appear to be the mass panic exodus because of poor performance that it first appears to be.