Another Russian sponsor joins Renault

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Renault has added a new Russian sponsor to its roster for the second race in a row.

Flagman vodka branding will appear on the tip of the R30’s nose and on the side pod vanes, as well as on Vitaly Petrov’s overalls.

Vyborg Shipyard started sponsoring the team at the Singapore Grand Prix.

Sauber also have new sponsor logos on their car this weekend, with Japanese foreign exchange trading and asset management company MJ backing local driver Kamui Kobayashi.

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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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    41 comments on “Another Russian sponsor joins Renault”

    1. I know there’s a joke about how many Russians you can fit into a Renault here somewhere … if only I could find it!

      1. And it’s a vodka brand so there must be a Raikkonen gag too…

        1. In Soviet Russia, Renault’s fit into you.

          1. I’m very curious, can someone explain where that phrase originated? It’s used all over Youtube.

            1. Yakov Smirnoff, Russia’s original one-joke comedian. It’s called Russian Reversal, and it involves switching the subject and object of a statement, designed to imply that Russia was and is backwards. Originally, it was political in nature and kind of clever, with the first ones being “In America, you can always find the party. In Soviet Russia, the Party finds you!” where the Party was the communist party, and “In America, you listen to the radio. In Soviet Russia, the radio listens to you!”, implying spying by the KGB, NKVD or any anyone else from the rest of the alphabet. Eventually, it blew out into “In America, you can drive a car. But in Soviet Russia, car drives you!” and “In America, you sleep in a bed. In Soviet Russia, bed sleeps in you!” and it went from there, degenerating into unfunny cliche. It’s all Smirnoff is known for – hence, Russia’s original one-joke comedian.

            2. Thanks PM, Very insightful!

    2. About time a vodka company sponsored a Russian and a Pole in F1! A bit silly though – on one hand the FIA campaigns for no driving under the influence, and on the other a team is getting sponsored by a vodka company.

      1. They’re not the first ones – Hispania ran the logos of a brand of Austrian absinthe (yuck!) in Singapore.

      2. Somewhere eventually along the line I think alcoholic advertising will get banned. It may seem a bit far fetched but the world is becoming more bubble wrapped and PC as every day goes by.

        If I said 30 years ago tobacco advertising would get banned one day I would have been laughed at…

        1. I don´t think alcoholic bevereges should be banned. That´s good money after all.
          I knew that if Petrov stayed at Renault more sponsors would come. Much better to have Petrov than Raikkonen.

          1. You forgot to use logic in your comment, and you miss the point of the discussion.

            “I don´t think alcoholic bevereges should be banned. That´s good money after all.”
            – Who says it’s bad money? And was the money coming from tobacco companies not good?
            It’s about whether the products of some particular industries are good to be marketed in sports or not.
            Smoking = unhealthy, and that’s why tobacco advertisments were banned from F1.
            Do most of us agree it was sensible to ban them? Most probably not. At least I don’t.

            Now, alcohol advertisments will either have to get banned for the very same reasons as tobacco ones or – if not – it will be hypocritical of FIA to have only tobacco ads banned.

            1. Personally I don’t have a problem with tobacco advertising, but I do understand why they banned it.

              I just hope booze doesn’t get treated the same way.

            2. I don’t have the links to hand but in the last year some groups in the UK have called for a total ban on alcohol advertising, so I wouldn’t be surprised if something along those lines happened in the next decade or so.

            3. The FIA hasn’t banned tobacco advertising. The reason most teams don’t carry tobacco sponsorship anymore is that tobacco advertising is illegal in the EU, and in other countries where GPs take place. So there is no point in a sponsor paying to have their logos not displayed on a car for most of the season (Phillip Morris excepted).

            4. To have a pint or two of black beer is not a bad thing. It is normal for Guiness or Johnny Walker to want to let people know what they have to offer. Even Jesus in the Cannan wedding made sure that there was enough wine for the wedding party to enjoy themselves.

              Much more damage to society has been done by irresponsible banks in these recent years, and no one complains about banks and financial services advertising.

            5. @ Red Andy, you are right, it is not the FIA doing this.

              But EU rules actually ban companies operating from countries like the UK to be involved in any way in promoting tobacco (as in BBC, race teams, All-sport, etc).
              AND the tobacco companies have legally agreed between themselves to cut out on all sports advertising years ago (to satisfy governments like the USA to take them to court over it).
              It is not voluntarily, but against the law and legal binding agreements.

        2. “Somewhere eventually along the line I think alcoholic advertising will get banned”

          I know smoking is usually the more dangerous but I’ve always chuckled at the irony that we have cars going over 200mph advertising drinking esp with the make roads safe campaign :P

          1. Yeah, Steph, it’s ironic to say the least.
            Apart from that, tobacco isn’t related to social problems like alcoholism and domestic violence.

            1. Recently i read about a study confirming the total cost (health, social, etc.) of alcohol abuse are actually fractionally higher than those caused by smoking.

    3. Speaking of new sponsors, Sauber have two for the Japanese Grand Prix. Moreover, the actually have a proper-looking livery because the logos will go on the sidepods and moncoque.

      1. As I understand it’s one new sponsor – as mentioned in the article – and one existing sponsor running their logos a bit bigger.

        1. If I had the money, I’d buy a panel, and write ‘My Other Car’s a Vespa’ on it….. just for the satisfaction :)

          1. In Kamui’s case it is more like: ‘My other car was sold by my dad.’

            1. is the MJ the same company as sponsor the MJ Kraft SC430 in the Super GT series?

    4. A tweet from Lotus Racing this morning said:
      “Announcement #2 of a week of announcements! We’re partnering with Creative Artists Agency, the world’s leading… http://fb.me/BdcWDRpL
      Any news about that?

      1. It’s a marketing company… not very interesting.

        1. The only way it could be interesting would be if CAA are designing some kind of livery for the rest of the season or something.

    5. Russian vodka… maybe Kimi reconsiders his decision now

      1. Or maybe he was the reason they got involved with Renault in the first place, and the reason for Kimis anger at that (kimi missing out on some booze!).

    6. is there already a 2011 driver line-up topic on the forum???

    7. Expect that some polish vodka brand will appear on r30. Everybody knows that our products in this sort are the best.

      1. What? Polish vodka companies don’t have money to sponsor F1, because Poles don’t buy vodka, we are making it by ourselves (to drink it) :P

        (Russians do the same probably, but their companies are earning money by exporting vodka to US of A :P)

    8. Charles Carroll
      7th October 2010, 14:08

      I’m officially pulling for Petrov to stay in F1, and with Renault.

      Here’s to hoping that he has a good run in the last few races and sticks around for another year!

    9. Guess that means Petrov’s staying!

    10. ” vodka”

      Good to see that the nation is supporting their driver, Kimi would have been very happy to see that if he would have made a deal with the team!!!!!!

    11. Clearly Renault was aiming for Russian sponsors by threatening Petrovs seat. And it worked.

    12. And in SPA another sponsor from this region joined Renault – Snoras bank (www.snoras.com), you can see large logos on side radiators. It is more interesting that this bank does not operate in wide region, rather in one small country. Locals say this might be a scheme of money laundering. This would be very disappointing to see Renault involved in such matters once again!

    13. i guess petrov’s seat is protected by russian sponsors. he should hit up this guy next:

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkB9OT2XVvA

      1. A Russian version of the Old Spice Guy commercial? Anybody else thinking “Hello, ladies. Look at your man. Now back to me. Now look at your man …” with a Russian accent?

        Also, “More on the Facingbook”?

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