ExxonMobil switches from McLaren to Red Bull

For several seasons, McLaren has been dealing with the departure of many major longstanding sponsors. At the end of the 2015 season, Hugo Boss decided to end its 33-year partnership to join Mercedes. Last year, Tag Heuer decided to join Red Bull as the title sponsor of its engine, supplied by Renault.

The Milton Keynes team has therefore been able to bring in a new major long-term sponsor from Woking. The impact is much more significant here because ExxonMobil is also a technical supplier. Fuel and lubricants are an essential component of a car’s performance, especially in racing. Ferrari, for example, estimated that 25% of its progress achieved last year was solely due to the contribution of Shell, its supplier in the field.

Christian Horner could only be delighted with such a signing, which will have an impact on the competitiveness of his team: « Mobil 1 has been an iconic brand in Formula One for more than 30 years and our new partnership will allow us to benefit from the unique opportunity to leverage ExxonMobil’s world-class expertise.

The engineers of Renault and ExxonMobil will therefore be busy in the coming weeks and months to optimize the package at their disposal since the Renault engine is primarily designed within the framework of the partnership with Total.

This one is coming to an end because the French company wants to change its communication strategy and no longer necessarily communicate through motor sports. Thus, it has decided to become the title sponsor of the Africa Cup of Nations football tournament for the next eight years.

McLaren is therefore obliged to find a new partnership in the same field of activity. This could be BP, through its Castrol brand, which wants to enhance its visibility after the human, ecological, and financial disaster of Deepwater.

With the participation of www.racingbusiness.fr