There have been recurring rumours for several months that Mastercard might be interested in getting involved in Formula 1. This is not true.
Our sources at Mastercard say that “there is no truth to the rumors that MasterCard will be involved with Formula 1 from a sponsorship perspective”. The New York-based credit card company might be well-advised to look again, but at the moment there are no signs that this is going to happen.
Can hardly say i’m surprised after their last foray in ’97
I must admit to feeling sorry for Mastercard. They had a bit of success sponsoring Jordan for a couple of years, but they’ll always be remembered in F1 eyes for the Mastercard Lola project…
They probably remember that lola they sponsored a while back – that was a waste of money. Anyway, word of caution, when a P.R. Spokesperson says “the rumours are not true”, 50% of the time they actually are but they are just not ready to announce it in the way they want. Some announcements are priceless, for everything else there’s mastercard.
There are some undertones in this comment from Mastercard.
The issue here is the lack of ethics, cleanliness and clarity in F1 which is driving away intelligent people due to the stink.
Apart from dodgy commercials of FOM, Singapore-Gate, team orders with a Middlesboro accent, world champs driving people into the wall, stolen designs, infringement of IPR, I bet that there is far more mess that the general public doesn’t see which would astound us – I am sure Joe that you know of some of the hidden trickery but can’t spill the beans.
Until there is a “clean-up” of the dodgy dealings – a true clear out and not just re-arranging the deckchairs on the Titanic – the capable big sponsors like Mastercard will stay away and dry up the money supply (what are UBS coming in to achieve).
Perhaps if the money supply dries up or resets to lower budgets, we will get back to the true entrepreneurial engineering spirit of years gone by.
Somebody, someday will do something that trully kills teh golden goose.
I am a bit puzzled by this. You say the rumours are untrue, but looking back, you were the one that suggested mastercard were looking back in june/july. Some other sites then reported it and quoted you as the source of the news. Yet here you don’t mention that. Are you creating rumours to then report they are not true later to fill space?
May they be taking a page from Bernie’s Negotiating Guide?
Don’t believe anything untill it has been officialy denied.
Maybe they’re too busy counting all of their profits resulting from their World Cup sponsorship, which probably provides them with much better reach, not to mention the fact that they don’t have to deal with Bernie.
I was involved with a MasterCard sponsorship in the IMSA series that was put together by Guy Edwards back in 1991.
However, it transpired that the decals on the car were simply the space that had been sold to a magazine that then passed the space on to its best/prefered customers for free, as a “perk” , so MasterCard were on the car, but never a sponsor. I suspect, from conversations with some of the MasterCard people, that the Jordan and later the Lola deal, were much the same, hence the lack of money to run the team in Lola’s case.
Same with, for example, Coca Cola in Indy car racing when they were on the Shierson Lola, Domino’s Pizza gave Coke space as a “sweetner” for better fountain pricing. All the media got hot and heavy thinking Coke was getting into racing back then, nothing was further from the facts.
“Our sources”?!
Is this the Royal We?
My own sources at Mastercard have tipped me off that I spent £523.70 last month, repaid £122 by standing order, and that I have not been subject to any interest…
Rob Fawcett,
Yes, it was the royal “we”, but I was simply trying to avoid sounding overly “me-me-me” by saying “my” sources. The bottom line is that someone at Mastercard in the US told me that there are no plans for F1 sponsorship. You can read this any way you like… My view is that if they say that to those that ask (and who does these days?) then their response should be taken into account. It is really easy to write that a company is doing this or that – who knows? – but when one gets a response from those involved, perhaps one should listen. Yes, some tell lies about their intentions, but it is easily shown that they were not being straight. Let us see if there are any cars with Mastercard logos in 2011. I, myself, doubt it.
I would say we should appreciate our intrepid reporter Joe’s efforts for what they are some inside insight through credible sources to get the probable intent of what is going on within F1, this does not mean he is privy to every secretive boardroom scenario, so chillax or Joe may just go fishing again. I get irratated reading people challenging him on minutiae, who is a 100% source of accuracy no one so appreciate the fact that the majority of the time you have someone feeding you facts that is not on some corporate payroll. Joe, thanks for your independant point of view, thanks for footing the bills to attend the GP’s, thanks for news via the blog, hope you had a good break & visit with your son from North America. Refresh and keep the independent worhwhile insight coming. If you see Kubica in that paddock, fan request – Make sure Kubica does not go to sleep in the latter part of the season.
And maybe because there is no exclusivity, i.e. tracks will accept VIS an AMEX
Nice insight from Tony. Worth remembering for future reference…
When a company source says “There’s not truth…”, it’s usually true.
True, but the Americans tend to be honest because they are frightened of being found out.
Renault must be chasing big sponsors with such improved results, also their marketing reach is very strong in Eastern EU, Kubica is universally respected driver by all… I thought Gravity must have some good connections in the Valley and frankly there isn’t enough involvement from there. Just a couple of years ago we had AMD & Intel:) Hopefully they will land some good deal & even though I love Petrov, Glock & Kubica sounds like a very, very strong driver line-up. Timo is a little hidden, undervalued treasure on the driver market right now.
Maybe a non PR and non racing decision? They may be looking at a shrinking bottom line on the horizon. hmmm.
It is truem and they may be replacing someone very big indeed