Castrol also to supply products to McLaren
Following their association with Renault, BP and Castrol have announced that they are also becoming McLaren's technical partners. Their visibility will be much lower than Renault's.
The images that had leaked on social networks have thus proven to be accurate: Castrol is indeed becoming a technical partner of McLaren, just like its parent company BP.
The British group will therefore have a double exposure in F1, following the announcement of its arrival at Renault, revealed last month. However, the partnership with McLaren will not be of the same nature: within the French team, Castrol and BP are expected to enjoy massive exposure as they hold two of the top three positions in the team’s partner ranking.
This is not at all the case with McLaren, as the only Castrol logo is ranked only as the team’s 4th tier partner, the same ranking as the law firm Norton Rose Fulbright or the bank Santander. This means that the exposure on the single-seaters of Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne should be very limited.
On the other hand, the technical partnership is expected to be very thorough as it is not limited to the F1 team alone but also includes the road vehicles developed in Woking. It is thus significant that it is the CEO of McLaren Automotive who is quoted rather than Eric Boullier, the competition director: « The partnership between McLaren Automotive and Castrol is an important step in our quest for the highest levels of performance and engine efficiency in our Sport and Supercar ranges. Castrol lubricants will not only play a crucial role in the efficiency of our current cars but also for the next generations of our engines. »
It is therefore very likely that the partnership will extend over a long period of time, as the development time for production engines is much longer than that required by F1.
With the participation of www.racingbusiness.fr
