Petronas extends with Mercedes
On the occasion of its home race, Mercedes announced that Petronas would remain its title sponsor, despite the disappearance of the Malaysian Grand Prix.
Last April, when it was announced that Malaysia would be leaving F1 a year early, Mercedes firmly denied that Petronas would do the same.
The team thus took advantage of the British Grand Prix to make it official that the oil company had signed a multi-year extension of its title sponsor contract, which began in 2010, as announced by the company’s president, Datuk Wan Zulkiflee Wan Ariffin: « Our involvement in motorsports began in 1995, a few years before the first race in Sepang in 1999. We intend to stay. The partnership has given us very positive results for many years and I am delighted to announce the extension of our sponsorship contract with the team. »
The timing of the announcement is interesting since the team revealed that, in reality, the contract was signed at the end of last season and that the CEO of the Malaysian company visited the team during the Austrian Grand Prix last week.
It is highly possible that the new contract will extend at least until 2020, which is the duration of the contract for the team’s co-owners, Toto Wolff and Niki Lauda. Similarly, this would align with the end date of the Concorde Agreements, which govern the entire F1 economy.
Petronas remains therefore one of the few title sponsors in F1, as only Martini is as well with Williams, and Tag Heuer has rebranded the Renault engine at Red Bull.
From our special correspondent at Silverstone
