37 replies to this topic

[HSJ]

Link

Deutsche Telekom ends McLaren sponsorship
Deutsche Telekom has revealed that they will scale back their sponsorship activity, including the immediate discontinuation of their McLaren sponsorship. The poor economy has forced Europe's largest telecommunications company to also drop their sponsorship of Germany's national soccer team; the moves are to save an estimated $10m a year.

And also this:

Link

West and McLaren
The current sponsorship deal between McLaren and West has been going on since the German tobacco company joined the team in 1996 after the departure of Marlboro to Ferrari. The initial West McLaren deal was for five years between 1997 and 2001 but this was later extended although it is not entirely clear when the current deal ends. Our sources say it is at the end of 2003.
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We are hearing that from Britain that Imperial Tobacco may not wish to extend the West deal after the end of next year.

This seems a bit worrying for McL's budget. I know Ron has stated that they are set for next season, and mostly for the couple of seasons after that etc., but it still seems like McL will go through a sponsorship restructuring. Oh well, might as well do it now, would have to do it in 2006 at the latest anyway when tobacco sponsors are out of F1. :

[StickShift]

A team like McLaren will have no problem getting sponsorship. I'm just happy we will see the end of that monotonous silver West livery.

[MortenF1]

WHAT? The silver Arrows are so LOVELY!! I love that livery, and I hope that McLaren find a sponsor that'll see them keep their current colours. IF West is set to leave after '03. Speaking of colours, why doesn't McLaren paint their cars orange, the way they used to, in pre-season testing anymore?

[HSJ]

Originally posted by StickShift
A team like McLaren will have no problem getting sponsorship. I'm just happy we will see the end of that monotonous silver West livery.

I will be very sad to see it go. In fact there is much hope it won't go at all: the silver is Merc silver as much as anything, and the black is "McLaren black" nowadays from what I hear. But then it could be that to get a really big sponsor they would have to repaint the cars to some ugly color, say yellow for example.;) I hope Merc will help in this regard so that the main colors stay the same, they're just the best on the grid by far.

[goGoGene]

The silver and black scheme is a Bruce McLaren racing livery (see his Le Mans winning GT40), not Merc or West, and will continue no matter the sponsor. Later in B. McLaren's career he started to paint cars orange. That is why McLaren took on the team colors that it currently have: Silver, Black, and Orange highlight.

ggg

[Dudley]

, and will continue no matter the sponsor

Yes, those Silver and Black Marlboro cars were very nice..... no wait.

[scheivlak]

Originally posted by goGoGene
The silver and black scheme is a Bruce McLaren racing livery (see his Le Mans winning GT40),

ggg

Errr...that car wasn't entered by Bruce, he just drove it (Entrant: Shelby American Inc.). The first McLaren F1 cars (M2B) were black and white IIRC.

[Ross Stonefeld]

They'll do fine, they'll just have to use the 48mil they declared in profits

[scheivlak]

Originally posted by scheivlak


Errr...that car wasn't entered by Bruce, he just drove it (Entrant: Shelby American Inc.). The first McLaren F1 cars (M2B) were black and white IIRC.

Like this:
http://www.f1-legend...6mclarenm2b.htm

Next year they were red (!) :
http://www.f1-legend...7mclarenm2b.htm
http://www.f1-legend...7mclarenm2b.htm

And then came the famous orange (Gulf or Reynolds?) cars:
http://www.f1-legend...68mclarenm7.htm
http://www.f1-legend...8mclarenm7a.htm

[DEVO]

I love the pumpkin orange livery. I don't know if they use this livery while in test mode.

[HSJ]

Originally posted by goGoGene
The silver and black scheme is a Bruce McLaren racing livery (see his Le Mans winning GT40), not Merc or West, and will continue no matter the sponsor. Later in B. McLaren's career he started to paint cars orange. That is why McLaren took on the team colors that it currently have: Silver, Black, and Orange highlight.

ggg

Great!

[Electric Sheep]

McLaren will not have trouble finding sponsorship. I'd like to see the silver livery retained, as it's by far the nicest in the field. Perhaps Ron will try and find a major non-tobacco sponsor a la Williams so he's not hunting around for sponsors when all the cigaratte money goes away.

However, the orange livery from the '98 test cars is fantastic. Picture

[Todd]

Originally posted by HSJ


Great!

[F1 Rumors]

The livery belongs to McLaren -- nothing to do with West at all. The team decided the colour scheme before West came on board: they will keep it for as long as they want to run it. Considering it was inspired by the "Silver Arrows" concept, that will probably be for a fair while yet.

The origins of the orange car, ironically, come down to chance alone: one year, Bruce went to take his car testing, and didn't have time to paint it, because the car was so freshly developed that the fibreglass was still setting when he packed up to go to the test! The colour was, by pure chance, orange. That is the origin of the orange 'pre-season' colour scheme.

So, now you know.

[biercemountain]

scheivlak:

Awesome website. Thanks for a new "Favorite Place" in my browser.

[tania_walesuk]

I personally like the silver on the car, I think it's the best looking car on the grid and for it to changed will be gutting... but wot will be will be as they say.

[Todd]

Originally posted by Ross Stonefeld
They'll do fine, they'll just have to use the 48mil they declared in profits

I think you're on to something. If I was a sponsor plowing cubic millions into a losing racing team, the last thing I'd want to hear is that 48 million of it went into Ron Dennis' ego fund and the engine supplier and a longtime driver both don't think that the team has a chance in the coming season.

[TAB666]

Originally posted by F1 Rumors
The livery belongs to McLaren -- nothing to do with West at all. The team decided the colour scheme before West came on board: they will keep it for as long as they want to run it. Considering it was inspired by the "Silver Arrows" concept, that will probably be for a fair while yet.

Mclaren do have Mercedes engines and we all know the history of the Silber pfeile ,dont we

[marion5drsn]

About the Pumpkin Orange car I wonder how many jokes came about the Ball and the Fairy Godmother and all that? M.L. Anderson

[TAB666]

Originally posted by marion5drsn
About the Pumpkin Orange car I wonder how many jokes came about the Ball and the Fairy Godmother and all that? M.L. Anderson

Dont know , but the car they showed with the orange silver paintjobb was very nice. Alot better then the current one.

[Slyder]

Agree, the livery belongs to McLaren, it has nothing to do with West.

If any of you remember, West was the sponsor of the ill-fated Zakspeed team in the 80's and they weren't silver or black, but RED and WHITE.

Hopefully they'll keep the silver and black regardless of whether West leaves or not.

[baddog]

If you think a new TITLE sponsor is going to come on board, with the same huge sum west provide, without the car even changing to reflect their products colour scheme, you are living in a dreamworld.

Only Ferrari can have such power, and even they had to change their shade of red. You think the momentary (6 year) fad of a silver paint scheme has any weight?

Shaun

[Mrv]

Well Ron can still sell some property to raise some funds. He can sell that leaking building that he brings around Europe, for one thing.

[Draco]

Originally posted by baddog
If you think a new TITLE sponsor is going to come on board, with the same huge sum west provide, without the car even changing to reflect their products colour scheme, you are living in a dreamworld.

That's a good point and you're probably right, but I don't think the new look would necessarily have to match a new title sponsor's colour scheme, as long as it is sufficiently different to the current look that it doesn't make people think "West".

[DEVO]

Originally posted by F1 Rumors
The livery belongs to McLaren -- nothing to do with West at all. The team decided the colour scheme before West came on board: they will keep it for as long as they want to run it. Considering it was inspired by the "Silver Arrows" concept, that will probably be for a fair while yet.

The origins of the orange car, ironically, come down to chance alone: one year, Bruce went to take his car testing, and didn't have time to paint it, because the car was so freshly developed that the fibreglass was still setting when he packed up to go to the test! The colour was, by pure chance, orange. That is the origin of the orange 'pre-season' colour scheme.

So, now you know.

I've never heard that before... pretty neat.

[baddog]

Originally posted by Draco
That's a good point and you're probably right, but I don't think the new look would necessarily have to match a new title sponsor's colour scheme, as long as it is sufficiently different to the current look that it doesn't make people think "West".

absolutely, a sponsor might let them stay with silver for example, if it was really important to the team.. but its hard ot see how it would be that special to ron et al, it only having existe for 6 years

Shaun

[PraetorAAV]

Originally posted by Mrv
Well Ron can still sell some property to raise some funds. He can sell that leaking building that he brings around Europe, for one thing.

... which would be bought by Ferrari and given to Barrichello in exchange for his services.

[Ricardo F1]

Originally posted by baddog
If you think a new TITLE sponsor is going to come on board, with the same huge sum west provide, without the car even changing to reflect their products colour scheme, you are living in a dreamworld.

IIRC West didn't have a Silver/Black pack until the sponsorship of McLaren. Traditionally West was red/white. I started seeing the silver pack in Japan a couple of years back. Probably a concession between West, McLaren and Mercedes.

[confucius]

Just curious then, how come the MotoGP team (Pons isn't it?) with West sponsorship seems to have a similar livery to the McLarens?

[speedy]

West livery looks nice - I almost laughed my ass off the other day when I noticed amog the traffic a black LADA with a huge spoiler and the front doors had exact copy of WEST livery (great paintwork on that LADA), but the text was EAST

[HSJ]

Originally posted by Todd

Oh Todd...

[HSJ]

Originally posted by F1 Rumors
The livery belongs to McLaren -- nothing to do with West at all. The team decided the colour scheme before West came on board: they will keep it for as long as they want to run it. Considering it was inspired by the "Silver Arrows" concept, that will probably be for a fair while yet.

The origins of the orange car, ironically, come down to chance alone: one year, Bruce went to take his car testing, and didn't have time to paint it, because the car was so freshly developed that the fibreglass was still setting when he packed up to go to the test! The colour was, by pure chance, orange. That is the origin of the orange 'pre-season' colour scheme.

So, now you know.

Great! (Take that, Todd. )

[HSJ]

Originally posted by baddog



absolutely, a sponsor might let them stay with silver for example, if it was really important to the team.. but its hard ot see how it would be that special to ron et al, it only having existe for 6 years

Shaun

...or it could be very special to Ron (and maybe Merc as well). Perhaps Ron saw Marlboro's leaving as the chance to stop the whoredom and get a color scheme for the TEAM, i.e. black for Mac, silver for Merc, and then stick with it. Would go well with Ron's idea of making McLaren more a brand than it is, something that will last like Ferrari.

[AMD]

Originally posted by F1 Rumors
The livery belongs to McLaren -- nothing to do with West at all. The team decided the colour scheme before West came on board: they will keep it for as long as they want to run it. Considering it was inspired by the "Silver Arrows" concept, that will probably be for a fair while yet.

the McLaren website says

Reemtsma's decision to join forces with McLaren-Mercedes was not just based on the team's past track record. The two companies had remarkably similar aspirations in marketing terms and in the dynamics of running their business. They signalled this intention right from the West McLaren Mercedes team's first launch where the car's stunning livery took a sponsor's integration into the overall look of a Formula 1 team to a new level.

[glorius&victorius]

I am not really sad at this news. It was about time that the big teams 'felt' what the lesser teams are going through. I am getting tired of the big teams arrogance on making F1 more cost saving.
Everytime one of the lesser private teams comes up with cost saving suggestions we hear ron or luca saying.....well, that's f1. The smaller teams will just have to survive.
Hopfully the big teams will fall subject to financial pressure as well, for them to finally see that it must all become less expensive.

[Foxbat]

Originally posted by confucius
Just curious then, how come the MotoGP team (Pons isn't it?) with West sponsorship seems to have a similar livery to the McLarens?

In fact it has the exact same livery, probably to take maximum advantadge of the exposure they already get from the F1 sponsorship.

HSJ> An attempt to stop the whoredom? Don't make me laugh, all F1 teams are whores when it comes to sponsorship it's the nature of the game.

[Foxbat]

Originally posted by AMD

the McLaren website says

Reemtsma's decision to join forces with McLaren-Mercedes was not just based on the team's past track record. The two companies had remarkably similar aspirations in marketing terms and in the dynamics of running their business. They signalled this intention right from the West McLaren Mercedes team's first launch where the car's stunning livery took a sponsor's integration into the overall look of a Formula 1 team to a new level.

Ronspeak at it's finest. If you look at the Maclaren website you'll probably notice that evrything has sense, purpose and takes whatever it is too an entirely new level.. all wrapped in a neat little package of corporate slogans. Mclaren just oozes "profesionalism" in the same way that Microsoft does.

"With the new Mcteddybear™ Mclaren and TeddyToys Inc have achieved a level of integration between racing, tobacco sponsorship and kids to a level hitherto unseen. It opens up all the exciting prospects that develop from a cuddly marketing opportunity in a way that has become customary since Mclaren-Mercedes and West joined hands in an effort to stretch the boundaries of possibility available in the exciting world of Formula 1 and racecar development"[/Spoof]

[Wouter]

Originally posted by confucius
Just curious then, how come the MotoGP team (Pons isn't it?) with West sponsorship seems to have a similar livery to the McLarens?

Well, West has come to be associated with McLaren's colourscheme (1997-2002) (they even adapted their packaging), so mclaren probably agreed that west could use the livery for other sponsorship.

It's all speculation so far anyway. If west leaves, daimler-chrysler might yet increase its sponsorship.