One of the big questions that has been floating around in F1 circles in recent days has been where the Brazilian oil company Petrobras will end up next year. The firm was close to a deal this time last year with Honda, to support the Petrobras launch into the Asian retail markets. When Honda pulled out the Brazilians were left with the choice of supporting Brawn or spending a year out of F1 and decided to do the latter. The move into Asia was, in any case, delayed because of the changing costs of transporting heavy Brazilian crude oil to the company’s refinery in Okinawa. The company boss Jose Sergio Gabrielli is in Tokyo this week to discuss plans, which may include acquistions in Asia to secure a supply of crude oil for the project.
Petrobras spent 10 years supporting Williams before the negotiations with Honda but was never very happy with the team’s policy of having a blue and white livery as it wanted the usual green and yellow logos. It was also keen to see its fuels and lubricants used in F1. There has obviously been talk of a new deal with Williams, which will have Rubens Barrichello on its books next season.
However, the latest stories suggest that Bruno Senna will be teaming up with the oil giant and Brazilian sources are reporting that a deal will be done with the Campos team, possibly with a second Brazilian as Senna’s team-mate. One suggestion is that Lucas di Grassi is a possible candidate, but that would mean two rookies, which makes little sense. Thus the name of Nelson Piquet Jr has also been mentioned. This might explain why Pedro de la Rosa is now being tipped to drive for USF1. We hear the name Jonathan Summerton as a possible USF1 driver, but it is not at all clear how the Formula Atlantic runner-up would get his hands on a superlicence. He will probably need a year or two in GP2 to achieve that.
There are stories suggesting that di Grassi is close to a deal with Virgin F1 (aka Manor) and that Petrobras might go down that path if it believes the team will be more competitive than Campos, perhaps even taking Senna with them. Having said that Virgin has its own biofuel company and so a deal with Petrobras is not likely unless there is a B2B deal involved.
Petrobras has made it very clear that its sponsorship will be with a team rather than a driver but having a Brazilian driver will obviously make the oil company rather more generous. Money is really not the problem at the moment as the company made a profit of $15.3bn in 2008.
What about Renault who’s yellow livery scheme would bode well for a sponsor who wants a yellow (and green) car…?
Williams haven’t always been fixed to blue/white colours, remember Winfield, Canon etc.
I’m not sure where the apparent insistence on blue/white came from, BMW perhaps, Hewlett Packard, RBS etc. Most of those have now left Williams which leaves AT&T, Air Asia & a few others. Do they, particularly AT&T as title sponsors, still insist on blue/white?
Blue/white is a nice neutral background for various sponsors but it doesn’t really catch the eye.
Petrobras’ green/yellow sounds pretty garish but Sir Frank and Patrick aren’t really your garish types!!
In years gone by you would have thought that Rubens was the last driver on earth to survive the ‘Williams Technique’ on driver psychology – a stern talking-to by Patrick, even worse, an email. However, he has shown this year that he is up to fighting his corner and speaking up when he feels the need. It should be interesting to see how it works, if it happens.
Related to an earlier post, an award for Ross Brawn, has Patrick ever received a gong?
Martin,
No Patrick has not had a gong. As to Williams changing colours it would negate 10 years of brand building. Staking a claim to a primary colour is not rocket science: Ferrari is red, Williams dark blue. McLaren is silver ad Jordan used to be yellow and Jaguar’s green. Go back further and you have Ligier’s powder blue. It is great marketing because there is instant recognition and changing the colours all the time achieves nothing.
@Dave
Total is the fuel sponsor for Renault who are rumored to be increasing their commitment to Renault sponsorship next year. Mcdonalds car is not far from reality then…
@Joe,
Regarding Summerton’s super license, what happened to the possibility of doing more than 300 kms on a test day to get a super license? Has that been scrapped? I believe thats was Tiago Monteiro and Narain Karthikeyan did for Jordan to get their super licenses approved.
Yes, but they had done more topline racing. Summerton has not.
“It is great marketing because there is instant recognition and changing the colours all the time achieves nothing”
…. just ask Honda.
Ferrari and Ligier’s colour choices stem from their national racing colours, of course : Italian red and French powder blue. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_international_auto_racing_colors)
Green and Yellow would look just right on a Lotus. Senna & Piquet to drive?
The real reason for Petrobras’ President visit to Japan…
http://www.agenciapetrobrasdenoticias.com.br/en_materia.asp?id_editoria=8&id_noticia=7484
[...] Whither Petrobras? – Joe Saward’s Grand Prix Blog The latest silly season stuff, revolving around who Petrobas will sponsor next year. (tags: Petrobras sponsorship BrunoSenna Campos williams RubensBarrichello Brazil LucasDiGrassi NelsinhoPiquet PedroDeLaRosa USF1 JonathanSummerton AtlanticChampionship superlicense gp2 Virgin Manor) [...]