thoughts about the move especially with uncertainty around RBR’s engine deal.
AM: To be clear, Tag Group is still sponsoring McLaren but Tag Heuer has moved to Red Bull Racing team so TG isn’t sponsoring McLaren any less but instead switched the branding around. Tag Heuer is no longer part of Tag Group, but now part of Louis Vitton group.
NG: My understanding is that the deal for Red Bull Racing was for an Ilmor backed engine supplied by Renault to be branded
as Tag Heuer engine and I believe the deal was done before the sponsorship deal was then announced. Mclaren have taken on Chandon as a new sponsor now anyway and I doubt Mclaren will struggle financially with the loss of Tag Heuer.
Also, I heard rumours that Ron (Dennis) fell
out with the CEO of Tag Heuer, Jean-Claude Biver in Monaco due to a lack of agreement on the route the brand now wanted to go and this didn’t fit in with McLaren’s plans for the future. Seemingly they didn’t share Tag Heuer’s view on the radical approach to sponsorship. Maybe Riccardo and Kvyat just fitted the Tag Heuer brand better.
AM: I wonder if with the imminent arrival of the new CEO for McLaren Team from Volkswagen World Rally Team, perhaps they’ve decided that whatever happens, they can’t do anything about it now, that they are happy to write off the 2016 season and start afresh when Capito arrives.
Addendum:
• At the start of the 2016 season, Red Bull sister team Toro Rosso announced a partnership with Casio – thereby retaining the brand within the Red Bull family.
• On the topic of the new Formula1 calendar, a short Twitter survey revealed that most respondents wouldn’t consider booking back-to-back Grand Prix because they could not afford more than 1 GP. Full results are shown below: