F1 news and rumors

If you are looking for any MotorSports organizations official website the ewebpages.org website likely has it listed.

The website has the usual big websites listed, Nascar.com and formula1.com but they also have some of the smaller organizations listed. Those include the Auto Racing Club of America and the United States Auto Club, two groups that I didn’t really know that much about until I checked out their websites.

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The William F1 team should be looking good every morning with no five o’clock shadows. They recently had Philips Shavers renew and increase their team sponsorship for the 2007 season.

One key fact from the press release detailing the new agreement was the fact that Philips says that their sales increased by 15 per cent this year and they claim that the Williams sponsorship was responsible for the increase. They have increased their sponsorship level by 50 per cent for 2007 but no offical amount of the sponsorship deal was revealed. In 2007 the Philips logo will be visible on the team car.

Philips will be making a big investment in supporting their sponsorship by developing a special Williams F1 version of their shaver. Philips took care of all the small details in the deal by making sure they received the image rights to Williams drivers Nico Rosberg and Alex Wurz. If one of those drivers wins a race in 2007 watch for some special Philips branded ads to appear on Monday morning after their win.

Found another great internet resource the other day, its an auto forum that covers various topics.

So many things have changed over the years when it involves auto repair. Back in the day when computers only existed in labs and not in every F1 team paddock, the only way to find something out about your own vehcile was to track down the local car repair genius or bug your local mechanic.

Well now thanks to places like the auto forum you can ask your questions online and get some helpful advise from someone. [Read more →]

Looks like the Spyker team should be winning the paddock fashion shows in 2007. They have announced a new sponsorship deal with the Dutch high-end European fashion company McGregor Fashion Group.

The deal is good for Spyker since it was signed for three years. Any multiyear deal helps promote the notion to all potential sponsors and fans that the team will be around for the next few years.

The deal will see a fashion lined called “Spyker F1 by McGregor” be created. The clothing will be available by spring 2007. The McGregor brand should appear on the 2007 team car which is reported to be orange in colour. Should make for some interesting high speed race photos.

Spyker has also signed a sponsorship deal with the Dutch computer equipment company Trust. That company makes joysticks and mice.

While researching an upcoming article I found this great internet resource, dollar store directory. The website is set up like the world famous DMOZ directory in that it has websites sorted by category. The dollar store directory has different section including a shopping section and an internet section with links to various sites. So if you’re looking for some internet help when you’re looking for a website you should check out dollar store directory.

The news for the MacLaren Mercedes team just keeps getting better and better on the sponsorship front.

The team has announced that they have signed their first Chinese sponsorship deal. The company is the aigo brand. Its one of biggest MP3 manufacturers in Asia and they are trying to expand beyond just Asia. They are using Formula One racing as part of their global branding strategy. The aigo company is part of the Huaqi company that has been around since the early 90.

The aigo brand will appear on the MacLaren team cars and on the Alonso’s racing kit. With all those new Spanish sponsors and Vodafone the team’s racing kit is going to be looking quite different in 2007. I can’t wait to see it when its revealed in Valencia on January 15 at the MacLaren team presentation.

Kimi Raikkonen has already won the first contest of the 2007 Formula One season according to the Swiss publication Blick.

Raikkonen will be earning, that term is being loosely applied until the drivers standings are announced at the end of the season, about 1 million US dollars per week at Ferrari. His 2007 salary is roughly $50 million.

Compare that to the champ. Alonso is reported to be making $35 million US dolars in the 2007 thanks to his switch to McLaren. Don’t forget that part of that 35 blow to the team budget is being softened by the new Spanish euros that are appearing in the McLaren budget thansk to Alonso arrival.

Some other numbers include $16 million US dollars to both Ralf Schumacher and Jenson Button. Giancarlo Fisichella and Felipe Massa are reported to be making about $10 million in the 2007 season.

Michael Schumacher is still earning a nice chuck of change thanks to Ferrari. His 2007 salary is reported to be about $10 million US dollars with the understanding that is for his public relations work not some left over salary from his racing contract. He can add that to his reported $800 million US dollar personal net worth.

The most shocking number is the $7.5 million that Japanese driver Takuma Sato will receive in 2007. Part of that money may be directly linked to the sponsorship deals that he brings into the Super Aguri team.

Wondering what the whole Alsonso switching process involved? Was it some high stake money game where agents were involved in some top level bargaining campaign?

Well apparently the whole process started with something far removed from that. Published reports provide the following insight into how the whole switch was started. McLaren boss Ron Dennis has revealed how the deal was started.

When Alonso was on the podium at the 2005 Brazilian Grand Prix Dennis was up on the stage to celebrate with his two McLaren drivers. He mentioned to Alonso hey great win on the Championship. Alonso responsed with - well McLaren is making it harder for him to win. Dennis says you could be part of it (McLaren). Alonso says that sounds ok. Dennis says you serious. Alonso says yes and pretty much that was the deal. They meet in secret at the Japanese Grand Prix and than the deal was done a short time later.

Alonso has always hinted that his concern with Renault’s commitment to Formula One was part of his reason for the switch and based on the conversation that he had with Dennis that might actually been part of the reason. Maybe it was not just about all those Euros flowing into Alonso’s 2007 bank account. Maybe.

Those tobacco sponsorship dollars are slowly burning away from the Formula One circuit.

For the 2007 season you will no longer be seeing the Mild Seven logo on the Renault car. Renault has announced that the ING group has replaced Mild Seven. They even let it be know that they will be making less money from the new sponsorship. The Renault marketing folks admit that it will be much easier to market they team sponsorship since they had to be very careful when they released creative that featured the Mild Seven brand. Also the Hondo team will no longer be sporting the Lucky Strike logo in 2007.

But Ferrari is still smoking in the paddock. They recently signed a new deal to keep the Malboro brand till 2011. The reported Malboro contribution to the team budget is $175 million US dollars for the 2007 season which would be almost impossible to replace with one new sponsor so its obvious that Ferrari is really keen on keeping the smokers happy. The Malboro logo is covered up in almost all race situations because countries have tobacco advertising rules but Malboro is still keen. They know its one of the last few global sporting marketing programs that they can be involved with and they know that in new emerging markets the Formula One brand can still help sell their brand. How many people in China or Malaysia actually smoke? How many people in those countries think a Ferrari is cool? Connect the dots.

The Renault and McLaren teams appear to have won on the race on the bottom besides their success on the track. The Renault team total income for the 2005 season reportedly was about 225 million US dollars. That does not include the cost of engine development that is covered by Renault. The Renault teams budget had increased in the 2005 season by 25 per cent but they were still able to make a profit of roughly 6 million US dollars. One thing is that in 2007 they will lose some sponsor dollars that they had received in 2005. Mild Seven is no longer involved with the team. Also those Spanish sponsorship euros have followed Alonso over to McLaren. Speaking of McLaren their reported 2005 income was roughly 215 million USD. They made a nice profit of about 12 million USD during the 2005 season.