285 replies to this topic

[FirstnameLastname]

Over the years I’ve been watching F1, I’ve seen many many liveries... and with them numerous sponsors. I’m amazed at the money that some of these companies pay for relatively small decals on the cars, and often wonder about the effectiveness of f1 sponsorship (or sports sponsorship on a wider scale... sponsoring minor motorsports championships for example - the reach must be tiny)

So which sponsors have left a mark on you? And regardless of that, do you know what they do and/or sell?

And finally - have you been positively impacted by a companies sponsorship of F1, whereby you buy their products because you saw their logo on an F1 car? (Or indeed - you don’t buy because they sponsored a team/driver you dislike)

[LucaP]

I like the sound of "Zepter" and "Liqui Moly"

I always forget what the first one sells though.

And S.Oliver

Edited by LucaP, 29 September 2020 - 18:46.

[SophieB]

Over the years I’ve been watching F1, I’ve seen many many liveries... and with them numerous sponsors. I’m amazed at the money that some of these companies pay for relatively small decals on the cars, and often wonder about the effectiveness of f1 sponsorship (or sports sponsorship on a wider scale... sponsoring minor motorsports championships for example - the reach must be tiny)

So which sponsors have left a mark on you? And regardless of that, do you know what they do and/or sell?

And finally - have you been positively impacted by a companies sponsorship of F1, whereby you buy their products because you saw their logo on an F1 car? (Or indeed - you don’t buy because they sponsored a team/driver you dislike)

 

Before my time, but I always found it pleasing to learn that McLaren were once sponsored by Yardley, the frumpiest make up and soap company the world has ever known. What was the crossover market there?

[FirstnameLastname]

For me, the ZEPTER logos at Monaco always stick in the memory, though I couldn’t tell you what they do/sell ... *checks*... ok, they sell fridges, coffee machines etc... but in the era before a quick ‘Google’ was available... I’d never have known what they do/offer.

I’ve never smoked, but my knowledge of fag brands is exclusively based around those who have sponsored F1 teams - and the same for tyre manufacturers, and if I heard/saw their names I would immediately think of the associated F1 livery

[FirstnameLastname]

I like the sound of "Zepter" and "Liqui Moly"

I always forget what the first one sells though.

And S.Oliver

Snap!

So they make an impression - just need to let us know what they do, or make finding out something we feel the need to do!

[Rodaknee]

Camel - made my eyes water.

Duckhams - I had rather a lot of their free stuff in the shed at one time.

[SophieB]

Snap!

So they make an impression - just need to let us know what they do, or make finding out something we feel the need to do!

There was quite a fun discussion of the ever mysterious, elusive Zepter in this thread a while back: 

 

https://forums.autos...-prix-1800-utc/

[FirstnameLastname]

Parmalat and Fondmetal

I think the first was the Diniz family-owned supermarket.

[LucaP]

Parmalat and Fondmetal

I think the first was the Diniz family-owned supermarket.

Are you joking? Parmalat is a massive company (milk-related products and food)
https://en.m.wikiped...g/wiki/Parmalat

Used to be even more massive before their 2002 scandal, my family lost about 20.000 Euros there

Edited by LucaP, 29 September 2020 - 18:59.

[brendanalford]

Pilotissimi, unfortunately.

[SophieB]

Not really a sponsor as such, but the optimistic ‘this is a cool spot‘ messages on the HRT cars in the hope of landing further funding were memorable.

[aportinga]

Candy on the Toleman.

Elf and Sagfreddo on the Williams

Tag and Courtaulds on McLaren

Buzzin & Hornets on the Jordans

SKF on Ferrari

Speedline wheels

 

How can you not think of NACIONAL (Senna).

ATOMIC was all in with Berger back in the day.

Edited by aportinga, 29 September 2020 - 19:01.

[FirstnameLastname]

Not really a sponsor as such, but the optimistic ‘this is a cool spot‘ messages on the HRT cars I n the hope of landing further funding were memorable.

I love that livery - I think it was discussed on the Missed Apex podcast one evening, they couldn’t believe it was real.

Bettered by the final Caterham liveries where they took that idea to its final conclusion and had random small companies sponsoring the team for its swansong - they actually had a pub in Norfolk (or somewhere) sponsoring them...

[SophieB]

I love that livery - I think it was discussed on the Missed Apex podcast one evening, they couldn’t believe it was real.

Bettered by the final Caterham liveries where they took that idea to its final conclusion and had random small companies sponsoring the team for its swansong - they actually had a pub in Norfolk (or somewhere) sponsoring them...

They also did stuff in their local community like, they once entered a local rubber duck race in Caterham colours.

[SophieB]

Tiny, tiny companies sponsoring F1 cars are appealing in general.

[FirstnameLastname]

The Windmill Inn! Nice logo too...

[Nova]

Rothmans

 

I really follow Honda, and the motoGP Rothmans Honda was beautiful. It was great in F1 as well with Renault.

[Beri]

Labatts, Canon, ICI, Mirage, Hype, Denim, Segafredo Zanetti. All used to be on a Williams. Bar Canon and pre interwebs, I never knew what all of them were selling.

Sasol on Jordan. Didnt know it before googling it one day.

Riello, Garcia, Sisley on the late 80s Benettons. Thank you Google, again.

[Lights]

Rich Energy left an impression.

[MikeTekRacing]

Rothmans - i loved those Williams colours

Benson&Hedges on the Jordans- especially the "Be on edge" when cigarettes rules started to come in

Deutsche Vermögensberatung - loved my MS hat....

Not sure if Red Bull qualify as a sponsor but..they sure make an impression

[milestone 11]

Before my time, but I always found it pleasing to learn that McLaren were once sponsored by Yardley, the frumpiest make up and soap company the world has ever known. What was the crossover market there?

They wanted to promote to a younger audience and joined forces with BRM. Twiggy and Jean Shrimpton (The Shrimp) were used for their TV advertising campaign.

[Disgrace]

Xena: Warrior Princess.

[FirstnameLastname]

Rothmans - i loved those Williams colours
Benson&Hedges on the Jordans- especially the "Be on edge" when cigarettes rules started to come in
Deutsche Vermögensberatung - loved my MS hat....
Not sure if Red Bull qualify as a sponsor but..they sure make an impression

‘Be on edge’ was the best/most creative of the tobacco non-advertising rules solutions

[DeKnyff]

Before the internet era, I was always intrigued by sponsors which were completely unknown to me and I didn't know what they made. For example, I had absolutely no clue about what UOP meant (and i didn't know it until the 21st century), but it produced absolutely gorgeous black liveries in the seventies. Not knowing what it was only made it cooler. Also, I liked Essex c. 1980, again I hadn't the slightest idea if it was a brand of roasted almonds or a maker of telephone poles, but there was that guy with a weird hat who was beside Chapman in every shot, as if he was his bodyguard. Many years later, I knew his name was David Thieme and the whole operation with Lotus was more or less a scam.

[Jovanotti]

West. Second to none.

[milestone 11]

Candy on the Toleman.
Elf and Sagfreddo on the Williams
Tag and Courtaulds on McLaren
Buzzin & Hornets on the Jordans
SKF on Ferrari
Speedline wheels
 
How can you not think of NACIONAL (Senna).
ATOMIC was all in with Berger back in the day.

Ha Segafredo coffee, it's the only coffee that works for me if I want to stay up all night. A legal black bomber.

[SophieB]

They wanted to promote to a younger audience and joined forces with BRM. Twiggy and Jean Shrimpton (The Shrimp) were used for their TV advertising campaign.

Thanks. They had room to do so in trying to find a younger audience. They could hardly hope to find an older one without trying to sell to the deceased. Even when they were just about still around when I was buying makeup, if someone had asked me who I reckon bought their stuff, I might have suggested Queen Mary, wife of George V.  If Woods of Windsor sold make up, they would be Yardley today.

[DeKnyff]

Candy on the Toleman.

Elf and Sagfreddo on the Williams

Tag and Courtaulds on McLaren

Buzzin & Hornets on the Jordans

SKF on Ferrari

Speedline wheels

 

How can you not think of NACIONAL (Senna).

ATOMIC was all in with Berger back in the day.

I think Segafredo started also with Toleman

[SophieB]

I suppose thinking about it, a (mostly) ladies’ jumper company sponsoring an F1 car company is also a bit odd in hindsight.

[404KF2]

Giacobazzi on Gilles' Nomex.

[PayasYouRace]

‘Be on edge’ was the best/most creative of the tobacco non-advertising rules solutions

Some of the tobacco substitutes probably stuck with me more than any of the actual sponsors themselves. B&H’s were usually good ones: Bitten & Hisses, Buzzin Hornets and Bitten Heroes all fit in with the livery animal.

East instead of West was a fun one too.

[milestone 11]

Gold Leaf Team Lotus. Awful fags but a glorious colour scheme. Smoked Gauloises at the time but by the time they appeared on the Prost. I had become a committed pipe smoker.

[404KF2]

Some of the tobacco substitutes probably stuck with me more than any of the actual sponsors themselves. B&H’s were usually good ones: Bitten & Hisses, Buzzin Hornets and Bitten Heroes all fit in with the livery animal.

East instead of West was a fun one too.

 

One flew East

One flew West

One flew over the cuckoo's nest

 

Cuckoo's nest could have been the next one....

[messy]

Sadly it’s probably all the tobacco sponsors from the 1990s, but mainly Rothmans because I loved that colour scheme and associated it with such success - and Marlboro on the Ferraris. Then in 1997 West appeared on the McLaren's in that beautiful silver, white and black scheme and I was asking my parents “who are West” and they were probably cursing F1 like crazy.

I’d love to say that happily I never took up smoking but that wouldn’t be true, although I’m not sure it was anything to to with F1, it was all to do with wanting to do something rebellious. But luckily I’ve been quit quite a few years now. That’s by the by though, the tobacco sponsors did leave an impression on me because they completely dictated the identity of the teams in those days.

[Fatgadget]

 Nothing tops the John Player Special.

[StraightEdge]

Canon on Williams. The black Lotus John Player Special. Marlboros colors on McLaren. 7-Up on Jordan 191.

[thiscocks]

Technogym 

[milestone 11]

Thanks. They had room to do so in trying to find a younger audience. They could hardly hope to find an older one without trying to sell to the deceased. Even when they were just about still around when I was buying makeup, if someone had asked me who I reckon bought their stuff, I might have suggested Queen Mary, wife of George V.  If Woods of Windsor sold make up, they would be Yardley today.

Even I was young(ish) then, 1970 and they were very much a brand for the mature lady. The campaign to appeal to the young came to naught and was dropped after 4 or so years.

[Fastcake]

Some of the tobacco substitutes probably stuck with me more than any of the actual sponsors themselves. B&H’s were usually good ones: Bitten & Hisses, Buzzin Hornets and Bitten Heroes all fit in with the livery animal.

East instead of West was a fun one too.

The tobacco companies were admittedly very clever in getting round the bans in a memorable way. Perfidy was obviously a job requirement!

[PayasYouRace]

Thinking about it more, I’d say the sponsors and their liveries that’s have struck me the most have often been those from outside F1.

Shell, for example. Whether the red/yellow on the Porsche 962s or the black/white on Herta’s IndyCar, but they’ve never fully liveried an F1 car.

Castrol is another favourite of mine. Works on just about any racing car (often Toyotas) but not seen in F1 much apart from my favourite Lotus livery in 1993.

One F1 example though would be Leyton House. That turquoise is so unique in the racing world. Though even then there were also seen in sports cars too.

[Myrvold]

It has been mentioned already but...

 

Zepter, felt like they were "everywhere", on the side of the tracks, over the tracks, on cars, and like so many others I never really knew what they did. Fondmetal, mainly because they got their logo with their colors on cars, even though the logo-colors never matched anything else. Parmalat was a very noticeable sponsor that was shown on many different cars of the years, and always visible with contrasting colors. All cars/teams had connection to Diniz, as, IIRC, there was some deal with the supermarket-chain and supply-company where the Diniz-family got their money and Parmalat. Scratching each others back etc. BAT with 555 and Lucky Strike because of that livery. Telefonica was also helped by that livery in 2000, I honestly remember that better than them being on winning Renaults... Danka, but that's mostly because it's a name of a football-game we played as kid in my country. Alcatel not so much because I remembered it at the time, but I assumed it was a provider. Got a bit of a shock when I was on a business-trip pre-Covid and saw "Alcatel" on the hotel-phone. Then I remembered that they sponsored Prost. HYPE and Morse solely due to the names. MasterCard because they had their... "effort" in 97. Barilla for not being on the Minardi while the heir to the Barilla-company drove for the team! Talk about effective PR! Olivetti due to the Brabhams! Agip for being something of a color-crash on the Ferraris (also for sponsoring me with free oil when I did race karts, so not strictly F1). Orange for being... Orange! Lost Boys because who won't remember such a weird name, not that I know what they do though (Did a google search and see that the Lost Boys Games division is now Guerrilla Games that are behind the Killzone-series and Horizon Zero Dawn)! Superfund for the irony of being the "future of investing" and sponsoring Minardi at their last and poorest years. Lastly Power Horse Energy Drink again... the name!

 

When I look at this list it's quite clear that the 1998 Arrows worked very well for sponsor with the all-black car with all-white sponsors. Parmalat, Zepter, Power Horse and Danka was on that car!

 

I want to buy some Huski Chocolate, but for that I need to be able to know that the borders between Norway and Sweden won't close for a while. As I need to order it to Sweden and pick it up there (I save 50% on that). With that being said, I try to avoid certain products from Ericssons backers, just because they are all "secret" and pretends to not be a part of it, even though it's quite clear who they are. And while I haven't found a direct connection between Huski and Longbow, I am curious when Huski sponsor Sauber (Longbow), Marcus Ericsson in IndyCar and his kid brother in Porsche Cup Scandinavia... Oh well.

[FirstnameLastname]

Sauber are the F1 sponsor academy it would seem, brought Petronas and Redbull into F1...

[Francesc]

Eros. He sponsored Minardi.

But I've always found Gitanes fun.

[r4mses]

Not a sponsor, but I'm pretty sure I'll never buy a BMW after what they did 2008/09. And whenever I see an M model be it on the streets or in racing, I think to myself "look, another one of those stupid wannabe racers"

[maximilian]

Candy

[FirstnameLastname]

1998 liveries were superb... Morse on the side of the Tyrrell sticks in the mind, but couldn’t tell you (before I go check) what they do/did

Sometimes I think the sponsoring works against companies - I regard Shell to be expensive as they sponsored a high end team such as Ferrari in F1, so wouldn’t stop at one of their garages.... but that’s because I’m thrifty/tight

Edited by FirstnameLastname, 29 September 2020 - 20:27.

[FirstnameLastname]

Korean Air on the Bennetons

Still never been to Malaysia, despite the ‘Visit Malaysia’ branding on the Stewart Fords - Have banked with HSBC though, but not thanks to Stewart F1. Funnily enough, they only had one branch in Scotland at the time of the teams sponsorship. I know it wasn’t a Scotland based team, but the had a strong identity with Jackie and the tartan ribbons.

Edited by FirstnameLastname, 29 September 2020 - 20:35.

[sportyskells]

Fizzy drink 7up on the jordan

[P123]

Leyton House - just liked the colour, along with the green for the BP logos.

[LucaP]

T-Minus lol

Roces rollerblades on Minardi! is there anything more 90s

Edited by LucaP, 29 September 2020 - 20:41.