McLaren: a title sponsor after a few Grand Prix?

Ron Dennis, the new head of the McLaren F1 team, revealed that the Woking team would not have a title sponsor during the first Grand Prix of the season following Vodafone’s departure at the end of last season. However, negotiations are underway to find one.

« Our single-seaters will not have a title sponsor at the first race. But they will clearly display a title sponsor at some point during the upcoming races, » said Ron Dennis during a press conference.

The Briton indicated that the team’s poor results in 2013 – no podiums – did not help in the quest for a new title sponsor and that potential candidates tried to take advantage of their average performances to drive prices down: « Inevitably, when you have poor results, people try to drive down prices. I will not accept that. I know what our company is worth and what its Grand Prix team can achieve. And this requires fair recognition when it comes to a business relationship with a main sponsor. »

Ron Dennis expressed confidence about the progress of negotiations with interested companies: “We are currently negotiating with several partners and I think it will happen quite quickly.”

For the record, a few weeks ago, the rumor of negotiations between Sony and McLaren had emerged, while the possibility of the Japanese company sponsoring Lotus F1 had also been suggested.