There are suggestions that Mastercard is looking at becoming involved in Formula 1. The credit card firm has been talking to several teams, notably Renault.
The company is an active sponsor in sports with a long-standing commitment to soccer with the UEFA European Championships and the Champions League, in addition to several Latin American tournaments. It sponsors several golf events and is involved in Major League Baseball, it is also involved with the All Blacks rugby team and with Cricket Australia, in addition to being involved in music and fashion sponsorships.
The company has been undergoing significant changes in recent years, since it began trading on the New York Stock Exchange in 2006. It has a new corporate name “Mastercard Worldwide” and the goal of global expansion, particularly in the Asian markets. Next week a new president and chief executive officer will take over the company, when Ajay Banga succeeds Robert Selander, who had been in charge since 1997. Banga is a Sikh who was born and educated in India. He began his career with Nestle and later moved to Pepsico and Citigroup before joining MasterCard last year.
The company has also appointed a new Chief Marketing Officer in Alfredo Gangotena, a French national, born in Germany and raised in Latin America.
He speaks four languages was was a graduate of mechanical engineering before moving into marketing with Walt Disney, Universal Music, Henkel, Proctor & Gamble and Hutchison/Priceline. He joined Mastercard in 2004. Since then he has spent time in Europe as well as the Asia/Pacific, Middle East and African markets.
The change of management gives the company a much more global outlook than was previously the case with the previous US-centric executives.
I presume they are looking to do somewhat better than their 1997 effort with Lola
I’m not too surprised. They were involved in F1 with Jordan in 2001 but that team was on the decline.
Renault are a team on the up it would seem..
Good to see them turning a corner after a few disappointing years.
Shame they hired Petrov though who seems to be content crashing into everything and anything at the moment.
Kubica and Villeneuve or Heidfeld would have been much stronger driver pairing….
If MasterCard enters Formula 1 it will be their second attempt after a short stint with the Lola team in 1996 (or was it 1997?). Back then their Formula 1 involvement lasted one practice. They can’t be less successful now.
Markov,
They were also with Jordan…
what effort? didn’t they walk?
It was Mastercard’s own fault the Lola completely bombed – they forced them to run a season early. Let’s hope they don’t get any ideas about who runs the team this time around.
I think MasterCard would work with Red Bull’s livery quite well as MC’s logo are two interlock suns. Just add another Sun on Red Bull’s engine cover and blammo….an amalgam of Red Bull and MasterCard logos for the price of one!
MasterCard Lola entered F1 1997. The story is told at one of my favorite sites: http://www.f1rejects.com/teams/lola/profile.html
Tom; I don’t think Petrov is doing too badly, considering how qick RK is. It’s an incredibly big ask for the rookies these days with no testing. You have to be prepared to give them a year going round before you can expect anything, and it’s not improving the spectacle at all.
But I agree it’s a shame not to have Nick around this year. Altho’, a few more weekends like that for you-know-who, and who knows ? …
I believe the last time around (’97) their sponsorship with Lola was conditional to the number of sign ups they had to the MasterCard program. This meant the flow of money to Lola was slow and sporadic and was a contributing factor to the teams spectacular failure.
Matt
Australian Autosport Community
Well at least USF1 have now taken Mastercard Lola’s title as ‘worst entrant of all time’…
Losing is like vanilla ice cream. But winning is like your favorite ice cream with a topping. Even if you loose you still get to play the game… but winning is much better!