As exclusively predicted on this blog, Infiniti, Nissan’s luxury brand, has agreed a marketing deal with Red Bull Racing, for the 2011 and 2012 F1 seasons. Infiniti will have a high-profile branding on the racing car, drivers clothing and related team uniforms and equipment. In addition to the branding and marketing relationship, Infiniti will work [...]
Archive for February, 2011
Infiniti confirms
Posted in F1 Teams on February 28, 2011 | 58 Comments »
Trouble for A1GP
Posted in FIA and F1 politics on February 28, 2011 | 18 Comments »
The Serious Fraud Office has started looking into the A1 Grand Prix, which is in administration with debts of £100m, and A1 Holdings, which has been liquidated with creditors claiming more than £300m. These two companies are linked to Tony Teixeira, the South African diamond entrepreneur, The competition was originally backed by Sheikh Maktoum of [...]
Mercedes completes Brawn buyout
Posted in F1 Teams on February 28, 2011 | 11 Comments »
Daimler AG and Aabar Investment have acquired the remaining 24.9 per cent stake in Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd and now own 100 per cent of Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix. Daimler has increased its stake from 45.1 per cent to 60 per cent, while Aabar has increased its stake from 30 to 40 per cent. Aabar is [...]
Meanwhile in Bahrain
Posted in Circuits on February 28, 2011 | 13 Comments »
Protesters were back on the streets on Sunday marching through Bahrain’s diplomatic district chanting slogans against the country’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and calling for the end of the current regime before the start of negotiations. No violence was reported. Meanwhile there was trouble in Oman, which borders the United Arab Emirates, with [...]
Sauber backed by NEC
Posted in F1 Drivers on February 28, 2011 | 12 Comments »
Sauber has appeared with NEC branding, although the team has yet to make any official announcement of the deal. This would tend to suggest that it is a B2B deal with one of the team’s other sponsors, rather than a major sponsorship in itself. It makes a lot of sense for Japan’s NEC to be [...]
Todt visits Kubica
Posted in F1 people on February 28, 2011 | 3 Comments »
FIA president Jean Todt visited Robert Kubica in hospital in Italy on Sunday, in the company of Professor Gerard Saillant, the head of the FIA Medical Commission, who is also one of the leading orthopaedic surgeons in the world. Saillant has a enormous experience in sports medicine and has been involved in motor sport for [...]
Tony Stewart to try F1… and Lewis NASCAR
Posted in F1 Drivers on February 27, 2011 | 32 Comments »
Tony Stewart will drive a Formula 1 car later this year – and Lewis Hamilton will try his hand at NASCAR. Stewart Haas Racing has confirmed the idea, which will be organised by Mobil, which sponsors both teams. The test is expected to take place at Watkins Glen International sometime during the summer. The cars [...]
Red Bull – to Infiniti… and beyond
Posted in F1 Drivers on February 27, 2011 | 37 Comments »
As reported back before Christmas, it looks like Red Bull Racing is not going to be running Renault engines in 2011 – but will switch to Infiniti instead. It amounts to the same thing, of course, as Infiniti is a Nissan brand and Nissan and Renault are partners. The engine will be the same, only [...]
Discussions over
Posted in Blog news, Personal musings on February 27, 2011 | 62 Comments »
I have been amazed by the number of people who have commented on the idea put forward yesterday of only allowing comments from GP+ subscribers. I am equally amazed at the number of people who did not seem to understand that it was a simply a discussion – and not a decision – and got [...]
Earning the right to comment…
Posted in Blog news, Personal musings on February 25, 2011 | 222 Comments »
One of my commenters this morning had the quite brilliant idea which would increase the subscriber base for GrandPrix+ and reduce the number of people making daft comments that I have to read… The idea was to electronically refuse all comments unless they come from a GP+ subscriber. In other words, you get a wonderful [...]
