Canon returns to F1 with Brawn

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Canon sponsored Williams from 1985 until 1993 (click to enlarge)

Brawn has picked up another new sponsor, this one in time for next weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix.

Canon, which famously sponsored the championship-winning Williams-Hondas of the 1980s, will have their logos on the side of Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello’s BGP001s.

Brawn previously announced beer brand Itaipava as a new sposor for the Brazilian Grand Prix.

With Virgin leaving the team for Manor in 2010 – possibly to brand the new outfit as its own entry – Brawn needs to keep picking up new sponsors. But with both championship titles likely to be won by the Brackley team this year, that should get easier.

Press release

BRAWN GP CONFIRMS PARTNERSHIP WITH CANON FOR SINGAPORE GRAND PRIX

Brawn GP is pleased to announce a new partnership with Canon Singapore Pte Ltd for the Singapore Grand Prix, Round 14 of the 2009 FIA Formula One World Championship, which will be held under the floodlights of the Marina Bay Street Circuit on Sunday 27 September.

The showcase event, which hosted Formula One’s first night race in 2008, will see the iconic Canon branding on the sidepods of Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello’s Brawn-Mercedes cars throughout the Singapore Grand Prix weekend.

Canon has a relationship with Formula One that dates from 1985. The partnership with Brawn GP will allow Canon Singapore, the company’s South and South-East Asia headquarters, to use the unique setting of the only night race on the Formula One calendar to promote Canon’s expertise in digital imaging to a local and global audience.

Ross Brawn, Team Principal at Brawn GP said: “We are very pleased to confirm our partnership with Canon Singapore for the Singapore Grand Prix and look forward to working closely together over the next two weeks. Formula One’s inaugural night race at the Marina Bay Street Circuit was a huge success and the floodlights provided a wonderful spectacle against the backdrop of the Singapore skyline, a perfect combination for Canon to showcase their photographic and digital imaging technology. We’re all looking forward to returning to Singapore next week for what should be another fantastic event.”

Melvyn Ho, Vice President, Consumer Imaging and Information Group, Canon Singapore commented: “The Singapore Grand Prix is one of the most visually distinctive races in the world and, as the leader in digital imaging, the race weekend is the perfect showcase for Canon. We are extremely proud to be working with the current World Championship leaders Brawn GP and respect the skill, vision and engineering excellence that have made Ross Brawn and his team so successful this season. Like Brawn GP, Canon brings innovation to the marketplace and as leaders in our respective fields, we look forward to a fruitful and rewarding relationship together.”

Image (C) Honda

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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21 comments on “Canon returns to F1 with Brawn”

  1. Long time no see… It’s time for Nikon to catch up now :D

    I think it is good to see Brawn secure such a big name because I was a little bit worried for them, financially. Brawn have proved to be a good team that can challenge for the championship and break McLaren and Ferrari’s dominance. This can only improve the championship and make it more exciting.

    1. BrawnGP is even more secure than Williams or ForceIndia at the moment.

  2. So is this just for one race or what?

    Why do I get the feeling that Brawn are struggling for finance more than they are letting on… You’d think a championship winning team would be beating title sponsers off with a stick, but all they seem to be getting is drips and drabs from one night only sponsors and obscure companies that noone has ever heard of.

    1. They’re saying it’s ‘for the Singapore Grand Prix’, not ‘from’, so looks like a one-race only deal.

      It looks like they’re putting a big package of new sponsors together for 2010, so they might just have piecemeal arrangements like this and the Itaipava one between now and then.

      1. I remember reading that Brawn have a fairly comprehensive sponsors package until 2011 or 2012, which is why they are only offering temp placements on the cars. Nick Fry said the team were comfortable financially.

      2. But is this trend- sponsorship for a particular GP or GPs- something new, or his it been seen before?

  3. Wouldn’t it be lovely for a team to re-visit an old livery?

    I’m hoping Williams pick up a sponsor for next year with a yellow logo, then along with their white and blue, they can re-create the livery shown in the image above. I think that would be great.

    1. Gorgeous isn’t it :P

      1. Couldn’t agree more guys, that colour scheme is simply amazing !

        One of my favourite ever F1 cars is the Williams FW14B that has virtually the same colour scheme as the one above.

        There’s a great picture of it here:
        http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/Williams_FW14B.jpg

        Some of the more recent colour schemes have been very poor in comparison.

      2. Especially with red 5 on the nose :)

      3. those were always some of the most beautiful cars and that era was the best for me. The groud effects era and the time immediately after.

    2. Like when Renault dressed up one of it’s contemporary F1 cars in it’s yellow, black and white livery from the 80’s…it looked about a million times better than their current livery!!

  4. Although it wasn’t official Autosport reported last month that Brawn had secured sponsorship deals for the next three years but that their identity would be kept secret until the 2010 car is launched.

    http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/77990

  5. Good news. No credit crunch at Canon I guess…

  6. Canon certainly has a higher market share than Virgin. Looks good and good news. We need to steer away from the crashgate. Bernie will surely benefit from this saga which is actually very good for business as new fans will emerge and will watch F1 from now. Lucky Bernie that this happened. Next year sounds interesting especially with no refueling….ooops I’m steering away.

  7. I think it would be great if teams had more rotating sponsors, say a German company that wants to have its brand visible only for the German GP. Or the launching of a movie ….

  8. They should manage it. Surely the championships will speak for themselves!

  9. And let’s not forget the rumoured by-in by Mercedes. I don’t think Brawn need to worry about money any more than any other F1 team at the moment.

  10. Too bad there isn’t much flat surface on modern cars’ sides.

  11. Had it been a more significant deal, I would have expected the car to be dressed in a livery similar to Richard Lloyd Racing’s Porsche 956s… http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/956_Canon.jpg

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