The Formula One Teams and Advertisers Come Face To Face
Though the issue is getting heated up more and more, still the McLaren team Principal, Martin Whitmarsh says that soon a solution would be found. It had been a long while now that teams are subjected to the matter of displaying sponsors’ logos on the pits as well as the paddock.
All the track side advertising is owned by Allsports, which is lately pressurising all the teams to remove the advertisements and logos of the sponsors from the areas of paddock, that are prominently visible as well as from the garage walls.
The issue had been silently under discussion between the teams and Autosport, however during the race at Silverstone, earlier this month, the issue became more serious. All the teams during the British Grand Prix were asked to take away the tractor unit of their team trucks, as the sponsors’ logos were pasted on them very significantly.
It was taken very surprisingly by the teams as well as the Formula One officials and several rounds of discussions have been carried regarding the issue since then. Many rounds of conversations have been carried between the Formula One, boss, Bernie Ecclestone, all the teams and Allsports but so far nothing had been sought out however, Whitmarsh is quite hopeful that it would not be very long before the issue would get sorted out.
Looking at the situation, he commented that it is not a very grave issue; it is only about the difference of opinion between the teams and the advertising authority. He added that so far, everyone has acted very sensibly about the matter and that such petty issues must not create anger or aggression, rather they are solved with mutual understanding. He said that he believes that it is not always easy to agree to on everything however, a middle way could be sought.
He furthermore added that the teams believe that there is no harm in what they are doing; nevertheless, they have to respect the Formula One management (FOM) as well. The matter has risen because the Formula One management is actually trying to sell the circuit signage and Whitmarsh says that the teams must think of what benefits FOM the most, as the more FOM is benefitted, the more the sport is ultimately going to.
While explaining the British Grand Prix incident, he stated that the teams were requested to have all the prominent advertisements removed but they talked to the APM organisation (Allsopp Parker & Marsh) at the event and later the teams had a round of discussion with Ecclestone as well. No banners or advertisements were removed at the event, leaving the matter for later discussion.
Most of the trucks that stand in the paddock are designed to have those tractor units and they look pretty impressive and attractive lined up. These designed and printed trucks add a lot of commercial value to those people who are supplying these trucks. Especially for the small teams, these are very important, if the sponsors do not paste their advertisements, the teams would find it very hard to have the tractor units paid for themselves. Secondly, the paddock looks very dull and unimpressive without the colour and art that these present.
However, experts see the matter to be not as simple as Whitmarsh thinks it to be. They think that the issue is going to get a lot more heated, as the complete advertising rules would be required to review, as explained again and probably changes would be required in the Concorde Agreement, the document by which F1 is run, as well.
Moreover, in the year 2013 the teams are to sign a new deal with Formula One, for which it is predicted that they will demand more share of the revenues from the officials. Well, Ecclestone would surely be not very happy with that but only time will tell how things are going to be settled between the teams, the officials and the sponsors.
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