Sponsors wait in pit lane as F1 aims to drive out tobacco habit

Date: 17/04/03

FORMULA One will continue to flourish, even if regulators such as the European Commission force the sport to put the brakes on tobacco advertising, claims the lead sponsor of the BMW Williams Grand Prix team.

Andy Collis, director of global F1 programme and corporate sponsorships at computer giant Hewlett- Packard (HP), says the sport has so much to offer that top teams will have no problem attracting big corporations who want to cash in on its global kudos.

Collis refuses to put a figure on his company's financial interest in the team but, according to BusinessF1 magazine, it adds up to some €40 million for the 2003 season.

That makes it the biggest non-tobacco sponsor, aside from the car companies, ploughing money into F1.

"If you think about such a global platform as Formula One, there are not many teams, so it just takes a few brands [to sponsor them]. If there are, say, nine teams at any one time, then there are only nine or ten 'principal sponsor' opportunities available."

The number is further whittled down when sponsors focus on the elite teams, such as Ferrari, BMW Williams and McLaren Mercedes.

"We [the BMW Williams team] as a group decided that we would not have tobacco on the car - and BMW Williams is one of the best-funded in F1.

"If you look at Ferrari, yes, Marlboro is a sponsor - but so is Vodafone," adds Collis.

According to BusinessF1, Marlboro's deal with Ferrari is worth €80 million, while Vodafone's sponsorship is worth €38 million.

Collis says HP entered the F1 fray in 2000 as the 'main technology partner' for the BMW Williams team.

The corporate jargon effectively means that HP used its supercomputing prowess to do everything from design the cars to monitor the driver and vehicle performance - a process known as 'telemetry'.

A further challenge faced by the sport has been how best to adapt to recent F1 rule changes. These are designed to limit the scope for using hi-tech systems to boost performance levels of cars and drivers during races.

In return for a hefty investment, Collis says his company reaps the rewards in terms of global coverage of the HP brand - and the brand association between it and the world's leading technology-based competition.

"For us it's a commercial platform unequalled in sport," he says.

• Meanwhile, drug firm GlaxoSmithline is sponsoring the BMW Williams racing team's cockpit edge with an advertisement for its NiQuitin CQ nicotine lozenges - designed to help smokers quit.

Experts say such a deal costs about €10 million a year.

Andy Collis, director of global F1 programme and corporate sponsorships at computer giant Hewlett- Packard (HP), the lead sponsor of the BMW Williams Formula 1 team has said that the sport will continue to attract sponsorship from other sectors after the ban on tobacco advertising enters into force.