The Venezuelan national oil company PDVSA came to Williams this year with driver Pastor Maldonado, and the blessing of the country’s president Hugo Chavez. It was a deal that was offered to other F1 teams but was politely declined because they were not sure that they wanted to be involved with the controversial Chavez, the fear being that his involvement in a team might drive away other sponsors. Williams was willing to go down this route because it needed the money and was in no position to have such qualms. As things have turned out Maldonado has done well and has been doing as good a job as Rubens Barrichello, although one perhaps should point out that Rubens’s experience in setting up the cars has probably been important and Maldonado would not have done as well without that assistance.
The problem with such deals is that they are only as healthy as the leader and so the news that Chavez has not been seen in public since June 10 when he underwent surgery in Cuba, to remove a non-cancerous pelvic abscess. The word is that he then suffered a respiratory infection during the recovery process. He has now cancelled an important regional summit planned for July 5-6, although in an effort to reduce speculation about the health of Chavez, the national TV station has been showing images of the apparently fit president in Havana, chatting with Fidel Castro, Cuba’s former president and reading headlines from Cuban newspapers (to prove the date, no doubt). But if he is fit, critics say, why is he not back in Venezuela, running the country as he is supposed to be doing? The summit that has been cancelled is not one that Chavez would have given up lightly as it was a gathering of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, which Chavez promotes heavily as he tries to counter what he sees as US imperialism in the region. It remains to be seen whether his health problems will cause Chavez to miss the celebrations for the 200th anniversary of Venezuela’s declaration of independence from Spain on July 5.
Venezuela’s opposition, which hopes to defeat Chavez in the presidential election in late 2012, has called on Vice President Elias Jaua to replace Chavez, but he has rejected that request. Chavez was re-elected in 2006 with 62 percent of the votes. He has already declared his intention to seek a third term between 2013 and 2019 but in recent parliamentary elections the opposition Mesa de la Unidad Democrática party attracted 47 percent of the vote, which weakened Chavez’s hold on the country.
When I read of Chavez’s recent health travails I did wonder if it would affect Williams. I have to admit for all the money they are apparently pouring in to support Maldonado, its hardly a ‘high profile’ sponsorship in the way other teams’ major sponsors have highly visible branding and wider promotion around the sponsorship. On the face of it you’d have to say PDVSA is great value for Williams, poor value for PDVSA – not a good place to be if the boss is a bit sickly…
There has been much debate on the subject of Chavez and his influence on PDVSA and the sponsorship of Pastor Maldonado and Williams. Clearly Williams chose not to look at the ‘gift horse’s’ oral hygiene too closely but I always had the feeling that it may have been an ill conceived partnership with Williams a likely loser. If political change in Venezuela comes about it may be very likely that sponsorship is pulled and I would suggest this would signal the death knell of Williams F1 if it hasn’t already been rung.
It is the Williams side of the equation that I would like to see being discussed rather than the wider politics of Venezuela.
Hi Joe.
Why do you class Maldonado as having done well? Although he occasionally is outqualifying Rubens, Rubens however tends to gain places in the race. In the races he’s finished Maldonado has always gone backwards from his grid position (admittedly his best chance of reversing that fortune was ruined at Monaco). I believe he is actually the only person on the grid who has failed to better or keep his starting position this season.
Obviously this is just statistics based on results and though i’ve watched every race this season you are actually at the races living and breathing F1 for the whole weekend so I’m interested in what you’re seeing that I’m missing?
Speaking of the fragility of sponsorships, has Karthikeyan just lost his?
http://www.planet-f1.com/driver/3213/7011249/-Ricciardo-to-replace-Karthikeyan-
cuban newspapers… should be cuban newspaper, no “s”
there is only one called Granma (from the name of the boat the insurgents came from Mexico to Cuba to start their revolution) with only 4 pages , half of them to the glory of the regime.
Hi Joe, I am appreciative of your discussing about this issue. A disclaimer: I am Venezuelan, and in the opposition to Chavez.
Now, a local Venezuelan website published a draft copy (Spanish) of a contract between PDVSA and Williams F1 team. I did a write up about it [http://ow.ly/5tWbS], given that I am Venezuelan and have been following F1 since the late 80ies. I also took the liberty to ask Claire Williams from Williams F1 team for comment. To her credit, she replied, though her reply leaves a lot to be desired. Our beef with this issue is that PDVSA is a State owned company. Consequently, any deals that it does are regulated by Venezuelan law. The contract with Williams F1 team was never discussed/approved by the Venezuelan Congress. Whatever monies that have exchanged hands are, in case someone forgot, public Venezuelan funds.
Now Williams can pretend all it wants that the contract is kosher and that to take money from a State owned company that did not count with the approval of the Venezuelan Congress is just fine. But that does not change the fact that the whole thing reeks of illegality since day one, for Chavez has no power to be spending public money, as if it were his own, in violation to Venezuelan legislation.
One thing is certain: if, and this is a big if, Chavez were to lose elections next year, I can assure that the contract with Williams won’t be worth the paper is written on, and there are some of us who will lobby the new administration heavily to recoup all the funds given to Williams, down to the last penny. Misappropriation of public money is a crime in Venezuela as much as it is in the UK.
It is morally reprehensible for any F1 team to have accepted money from Venezuela, a country where the majority of the people live well below the poverty line. F1 is the quintessential rich boys club/sports, while Venezuela is falling apart. How come no one is calling into question Frank Williams on this? How come Williams shareholders aren’t asking questions about the feasibility and sustainability of the contract in the long run? And more importantly, how can everyone in the paddock pretend that Maldonado’s presence isn’t detrimental to Venezuela’s disenfranchised?
I believe F1/FIA (whomever is competent) should consider regulating sponsors, more and more we see shady state businesses funding the sport, it´s ethically wrong, and will damage the sport´s image in the long run, specially in emerging countries.
I admit, that the thought about what Chavez evidently not being in all to good health and possibly having to step back from seeking a 3rd term would mean for Williams and Pastor Maldonado did come up for me as well.
I’d be interested to know just how much PDVSA plow in to motorsport sponsorship cos it’s not just Maldonado, there’s also EJ Viso in IndyCar and Rodolfo Gonzalez in GP2 and they’re just the ones I can come up with off the top of my head (I don’t think Jonny Cecotto Jr is backed them is he?)
State-owned companies sponsoring teams is understandable a touchy subject, but it’s no different to providing funding to your national football team for example. As with any international sport, it helps promote your country to the world and can generate a real ‘feel good factor’ for the nation*. The problem with having to provide funding via sponsorship, instead of building facilities or paying coaching staff, is that the companies receiving that funding such as Williams and KV Racing can potentially be judged by the reputation of the nation it happily gets a cheque from. It’s far more in the public eye than something like being part owned by questionable regime in the Middle East, which can be kept much quieter if problems arise. The flip side of that is for the nation doing sponsoring, attention’s generally great, but if I’m up to no good I’d rather people weren’t looking at me!
*The Mexican government should be grateful that they have TelMex doing it for them.
I am another Venezuelan that will work very hard to take this ludicrous use of my money away from Williams F1. If I can find a way to have Chavez convicted for this, I will.
Not because I am not a Williams fan (I am not) but because it is illegal and amoral.
Our countrymen do not need to promote PDVSA or MR. Maldonado, we need electricity, roads, hospitals and schools way more than we need to extoll the virtues of a third class petroleum company or a mediocre driver.
We need a real president, not the joker we currently suffer under.
Joe, for years Williams did business with Petrobras, Brazil’s partly state-owned oil & gas company. It was part of a wide marketing strategy, and was backed 100% by brazilian laws and institutions. But it was never free from criticism, specially after Bruno Junqueira and Antonio Pizzonia failed to make into the team as regular drivers.
Brazil is a free economy, though, whereas Venezuela’s isn’t. And PDVSA isn’t really known in Latin America for its stability, having backed out from a number of deals and joint-ventures with Petrobras with no good reason whatsoever. It’s a company that has been used by the regime under a rather obscure political agenda, as has been done of several venezuelan companies.
So, even if Chaves remains in power for the coming years – for the sad disgrace of its country, the deal with Williams is still in danger simply because Hugo Chaves isn’t the kind of man who keep his word, on any matter. This is a man that’s been supporting colombian insurgents and drug dealers for more than a decade now. This is a man who is up and running against democracy, so who’s to trust him, really?
Hi Joe,
i agree with this statement “The problem with such deals is that they are only as healthy as the leader” but you have to give some credit to Pastor.
if he can carry on his drive, and achieve in F1, there is no reason why the opposition, in case it does take the elections, would cancel the program. Pastor and the sponsorship will be giving Venezuela a helluva lot of international exposure that is worth much more than the monetary investment. I think this expense is one of the wisest thing Chavez has done in his up and down regime based rule so far regardless of what you might think of his ideological stance.
The latest on Chavez, http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2011/07/01/hugo-chavez-admits-is-battling-cancer/