Mclaren Honda 2015

[damager21]

While sponsors not renewing their contract and moving away from McLaren is not good, it also opens up new opportunities with other potential sponsors. I think next year we will see new sponsors, possibly Japanese or Spanish.

For brands focussing on young consumers, Red Bull becomes a better fit than McLaren. I think to a large extent, non performance over the past 3 years and older current driver line up in McLaren would have triggered this loss of sponsors.

McLaren by no means is a sinking ship. A better 2016 would ensure that they are able to attract new sponsors. Just a bad year where everything is going from bad to worse, they have hit the bottom so from next year things can only improve.

[kaepernickus]

They have a road-car division with lackluster sales

McLaren (F1) clearly do have problems on and off the track right now, but the Automotive part has so far been pretty successful.

http://www.cnbc.com/2015/06/25/mclaren- ... rofit.html

[astracrazy]

While sponsors not renewing their contract and moving away from McLaren is not good, it also opens up new opportunities with other potential sponsors.

There are plenty of potential sponsors out there, but the trouble is non seem to fit Ron's profile or valuation. If i remember correctly, they had title sponsors knocking at the door but they either didn't fit the profile or Ron was asking for more money than people were prepared to pay so i can imagine smaller sponsors are no different.

[Thunder]

It's weird, they lose TAG Heuer but have won Chandon. Both belong to the LVMH Group. i wonder if it's just a brand reshuffle and has no financial impact.

http://www.lvmh.com/houses/

[kooleracer]

It's weird, they lose TAG Heuer but have won Chandon. Both belong to the LVMH Group. i wonder if it's just a brand reshuffle and has no financial impact.

http://www.lvmh.com/houses/

Being part of the same group doesn't mean always that there is a direct link between companies that fall under that umbrella. LVMH just hast them in their portfolio. Also LVMH doenst hold all shares. TAG Heuer is its own company, people seem to think that every group operates like VW and shares everything within their group, but that is more a exception to rule. TAG has made its own discussion like to move to a younger brand maybe for less money, or they think they can profit more from Red Bull's clever marketing department instead of the old fashioned way McLaren seems to hold on to.

It's painful for Ron to see long standing partnerships coming to an end (Hugo Boss to Mercedes, TAG to Red Bull), but what is even more painful is to see them walking over to the competition. This means they have to budget but, they don't think you brand is worth the budget any more. I really hope McLaren doesn't lose their ExxonMobil sponsorship to Red Bull in 2017 because Red Bull will be in the market at time for a new fuel/oil partner after their deal with Total runs out. McLaren has to be competitive in 2016 otherwise Exxon might be persuaded to look at Red Bull after the 2016 season.

[CjC]

I can see them loosing the oil partner unfortunately.
Who could potentially be out there if they do?

[Joseki]

It's painful for Ron to see long standing partnerships coming to an end (Hugo Boss to Mercedes, TAG to Red Bull), but what is even more painful is to see them walking over to the competition. This means they have to budget but, they don't think you brand is worth the budget any more. I really hope McLaren doesn't lose their ExxonMobil sponsorship to Red Bull in 2017 because Red Bull will be in the market at time for a new fuel/oil partner after their deal with Total runs out. McLaren has to be competitive in 2016 otherwise Exxon might be persuaded to look at Red Bull after the 2016 season.

I agree, now thay have an exclusive PU manufacturer and an exclusive fuel/oil supplier, and that's in teory could be the base to build a really strong car, I think Honda and Exxon now are more valuable than TAG or Hugo Boss.

[mrluke]

Mercedes have clearly demonstrated that in this period of limited testing, having 4/5 teams all running the same test program and all feeding in to the same PU development programme is the way forward.

I haven't done the math but I bet Mercedes got as much PU mileage out of pre-season testing in 2014 as Honda have over the whole of 2015.

Mclaren are adding to their problems with their demands for exclusivity.

[ScottB]

Mercedes have clearly demonstrated that in this period of limited testing, having 4/5 teams all running the same test program and all feeding in to the same PU development programme is the way forward.

I haven't done the math but I bet Mercedes got as much PU mileage out of pre-season testing in 2014 as Honda have over the whole of 2015.

Mclaren are adding to their problems with their demands for exclusivity.

Possibly, but then you have to wonder how more teams this season would have made what's wrong with the engine anymore obvious!

Secondly, was there much / anything stopping Honda from fitting their engine to, say, a Super Formula car last year and pounding it round test tracks to test it? Not sure...


I'd think once it's a question of closing the performance gap, the more teams the better, but at the moment, simply trying to build an engine capable of lasting the required number of races and fix some particularly big flaws, maybe it isn't. Certainly Renault seem keen to move towards supplying their own team only, so they seem to not feel that having multiple customers will improve their ability to compete...

[Jolle]

Is it true that TAG Heuer leaves the team McLaren-Honda after 30 years sponsorship with McLaren ?

This is the first time I read such speculation, do you have any source?.

Thanks.

TAG/Ojjeh family is one of the major owners of the team (30% of the McLaren group), it would surprise me.... only if Ron Dennis bought them out in some way...

looks like i was wrong (again:P), lot's of old friends jumping the McLaren ship...

[bill shoe]

McLaren (F1) clearly do have problems on and off the track right now, but the Automotive part has so far been pretty successful.

http://www.cnbc.com/2015/06/25/mclaren- ... rofit.html

Good link. Some glass-half-empty interpretation--

From the link: "...and operating profit was up 68 percent to 20.8 million pounds, or around $33 million". So operating profit was $33 million, therefore actual profit less. But really the significant metric of financial performance is ROI for the road car division, not the annual profit. Is the road car group making enough money to cover the initial investment and/or the debt that McLaren undertook to fund the initial investment? The $33 million operating profit covers a small fraction of what the F1 team blows thru in a year. I have to imagine the current ROI on overall investment is pretty lackluster.

A good 2016 engine from Arai-san is much more important to the long-term future of McLaren than a $33 million operating profit on the road-car division.

[Thunder]

Seems like McLaren and Honda are positive for 2016.

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/arai- ... -s-plight/
http://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12479/ ... ep-forward

[ScottB]

Seems like McLaren and Honda are positive for 2016.

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/arai- ... -s-plight/
http://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12479/ ... ep-forward

They were pretty positive for this season, to be fair...

[Thunder]

Sure, but now they have real Data to guesstimate their Progress.

[kooleracer]

I did not know that McLaren was also about to lose Santander and Johnnie Walker as partners to. So the exodus of sponsors has begun. This means it will be harder for current sponsors to be attached to McLaren because the head of a organization might say why are we still paying McLaren big money when other brands clearly feel that McLaren is not worth that kind of money.

Johnnie Walker and Chandon can't wont work together so that's understandable. I have a feeling that Johnnie Walker might walk off to Mercedes. I'm eager to know what Santander's plan is for 2016 if they are switching to the competition of if they only going to be race weekend sponsors.