Sponsor watch: 2015 Chinese & Bahrain Grands Prix

2015 Bahrain and Chinese Grands Prix

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A few new sponsors appeared in the last two rounds of the championship while some teams had to adjust their liveries because of alcohol advertising rules.

However there were red faces at Ferrari when it was discovered that one of their sponsors had inadvertently placed an unacceptable image on the side of their car.

Ferrari

What would Enzo Ferrari have made of the sight of a rude cartoon appearing on the side of one of his grand prix racers? That’s what happened to Ferrari in Shanghai after UPS invited fans to submit images to create a version of their logo which was affixed to the SF-15Ts. Once the graphic was spotted a substitute was quickly arranged.

Red Bull

Red Bull unveiled a new long-term sponsorship deal with Chinese television manufacturer Hisense before the Chinese Grand Prix, which will see their logos appear on the nose-cone. Hisense previously sponsored Lotus at a couple of Grands Prix last year, and also sponsor Schalke FC football team, three NASCAR teams and the Australian Open Tennis.

Mercedes

The logo of children’s charity Laureus appeared on the rear wing of Nico Rosberg’s car during the Chinese Grand Prix. The charity, for whom Rosberg has been an ambassador for since 2013, helps fund sports related community projects around the world for young people in poverty. Rosberg later signed and auctioned off his race-suit to raise money.

Lotus

Lotus came to Bahrain with two new logos on their car. The world governing body of karting, CIK-FIA, appeared alongside the text “Go karting” between the sidepods and front suspension. The logo of helmet manufacturer Bell also appeared on the side of the airbox.

Force India

Bahrain is the first race on the calendar where local advertising regulations impinge upon teams who have alcohol sponsors. Force India swapped their usual Royal Challenge logos with NEC on the side of the car and Claro on the front wing.

Williams

Due to advertising regulations on alcohol, Williams had to change their Martini logos in Bahrain.

As last year in Bahrain they replaced them with the text ‘racing’, though in Abu Dhabi they went one step further and removed the red colouring altogether.

2015 Bahrain Grand Prix

Browse all 2015 Bahrain Grand Prix articles

22 comments on “Sponsor watch: 2015 Chinese & Bahrain Grands Prix”

  1. Bell Helmets looks really good on that Lotus, awesome old school logo.

  2. lockup (@)
    1st May 2015, 12:18

    I still think the logo on the most valuable space in F1 – the Ferrari engine cover – is SO obviously the corner of a Marlboro packet.

    1. So what?

      Healthier to smoke a cigarette than to inhale the smoke from the engines. :P

      1. lockup (@)
        1st May 2015, 12:44

        Lol, I hadn’t thought of that :)

      2. So long as it’s not an ‘unacceptable’ cartoon, have at it.

      3. So that makes smoking good, because there are more harmful things in the world. So mugging someone and putting them on life support is good because they could have been murdered. What childish logic.

        Smoking advertising is banned (whether you like it or not) Ferrari is breaking the rules.

        1. When some one puts a :P or :) at the end of the sentence it means they are being humorous, rather than professing ‘childish’ logic

        2. At least they should fill in the white space with the text: “Smoking will kill You, if not beaten to it by other misfortunes”
          But I’m sure Keith finds the ban of grid girls more important than eliminating subtle illegal advertising:-)

    2. @lockup I have to get my eyes checked, or rather the marketing guys need to come up with a more suggestive design, they still have to make me a smoker in my past 18 years of F1.

      1. lockup (@)
        1st May 2015, 15:23

        Well the evidence is there @peartree that’s why the EU banned tobacco sponsorship and why there are so few places Philip Morris can advertise these days. Iirc smoking among young people dropped by 8% when sponsorship was banned.

        And imagery is why the barcode disappeared. Ferrari get away with it because enforcement is left to the Italian Government.

        Of course there could be some other reason Philip Morris bought all the space on the car from Ferrari for $zillion and then sold the best bit to, er, Ferrari ;)

        1. @lockup I was not suggesting Philip Morris who supposedly is responsible for selling the ad space, is not trying to associate Ferrari and Marlboro. I’m just saying to Ferrari and Marlboro that it hasn’t worked at all with me.

          1. @lockup I’ve been living in Portugal for a long time now, check this out

          2. lockup (@)
            1st May 2015, 15:42

            Oh okay, well it hasn’t worked for me either – I used to love Marlboro but not support Ferrari.

            Hmmm, Snow White fine self-raising flour. Okay dude you got me….

          3. @lockup It does look like Marlboro. I just think it was worth a mention.

          4. lockup (@)
            2nd May 2015, 19:54

            Fair play @peartree :)

    3. I’ve been staring at it for about five minutes and I still can’t picture a cigarette packet, so I don’t really see the problem.

      1. I don’t get the point of restricting advertisement as long as it is appropriate.
        They were correct to adjust the UPS logo. Banning alcohol and cigarette stuff just annoys me because it doesn’t influence me one bit. Smokers and drinkers will not get put off by it from not being on the racing car. I don’t see a logic in it.
        That’s just my view – Hence the majority of viewers watching the ads are either old enough to have both or have certainly seen it all before.
        The influence of that stuff onto the next generation isn’t through ads on cars but more of what is cool to do and not to do. For some reason smoking and getting drunk is seen as cool.

      2. I think it’s referring to the bottom section of the scuderia Ferrari square at the top of the engine cover. (Below the Ferrari badge half).

    4. It is more than obvious. In fact, at least until a couple years ago, whenever you scrolled down to the bottom of their webpage, where the partners are, there was a Phillip Morris logo.
      Still, I watched F1 in the late 90s and got bombarded with lots of cigarette brands. Still zero smokes.

    5. Not in Australia it doesn’t.

  3. All that black/carbon fibre colour on the Ferrari engine cover/lower part of the chassis makes me yearn for the “classic” colours they had during the Schumi period, not that I was a fan of them back then.

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