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.”
Max Verstappen could secure his fourth F1 drivers' crown at this weekend's Las Vegas Grand Prix. Motor Sport looks back on the key races which could put the Dutchman's name among F1's greatest
The Formula 1 drivers' title might be as good as won, but the race towards the constructors' championship could find new traction in Las Vegas — with a new series and the cold desert air possibly throwing a spanner in the works
An "aggressive" Las Vegas GP schedule last year saw F1 drivers ill and exhausted after a week in the dark, juggling "showbiz" commitments before travelling on the longest flight in the world. It's part of the job, they say
He won GP titles with Benetton, Ferrari and his own Brawn team, then helped steer F1 to unprecedented popularity. As Ross Brawn turns 70, Matt Bishop looks back at a remarkable career — plus the multiple times he antagonised the engineer