Formula One is not a sport for those without money. It is not like football, where you and your mates can buy a ball, use some jumpers for goalposts and then play to your heart’s content for hour after hour. No, Formula One eats money. The massive development costs, the use of space-age technology, plus the expertise required to create a winning car, means that a single lap of a track effectively costs more than £3,000. And before you start digging into your savings thinking you could afford a few laps – the insurance is probably many times that again.
With such a high cost, only the very best teams in the world are ever successful in Formula One. In the old days, a rich team owner was able to fund a season himself; cars and engines lasted the whole season and drivers’ wages weren’t that much. But nowadays, cars and engines are modified for every race, and drivers’ salaries cost many, many millions of pounds.
Luckily, the growing expense of the sport has been matched by the huge following it has around the world, which means sponsors are only too willing to pay teams a lot of money in order to get their logos onto the sides of cars. Without sponsors and the money they bring to the sport, Formula One as we know it wouldn’t exist. In fact, a team’s success on the track very much depends on how well it can attract sponsors off it. It is no wonder that modern day Formula One teams employ sponsorship and advertising experts to help them find this much needed money.
Of course, sponsors don’t just hand over the money in exchange for a few wellplaced stickers on the car. To make the most of every pound they spend, the sponsors create huge marketing campaigns, schedule big promotional events, and produce television adverts and billboard signs, all taking advantage of their relationship as a Formula One sponsor. So important and time-consuming are these sponsor-driven events that some say Formula One is a sport between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. on a Sunday and a business every other minute.
With such a high cost, only the very best teams in the world are ever successful in Formula One. In the old days, a rich team owner was able to fund a season himself; cars and engines lasted the whole season and drivers’ wages weren’t that much. But nowadays, cars and engines are modified for every race, and drivers’ salaries cost many, many millions of pounds.
Luckily, the growing expense of the sport has been matched by the huge following it has around the world, which means sponsors are only too willing to pay teams a lot of money in order to get their logos onto the sides of cars. Without sponsors and the money they bring to the sport, Formula One as we know it wouldn’t exist. In fact, a team’s success on the track very much depends on how well it can attract sponsors off it. It is no wonder that modern day Formula One teams employ sponsorship and advertising experts to help them find this much needed money.
Of course, sponsors don’t just hand over the money in exchange for a few wellplaced stickers on the car. To make the most of every pound they spend, the sponsors create huge marketing campaigns, schedule big promotional events, and produce television adverts and billboard signs, all taking advantage of their relationship as a Formula One sponsor. So important and time-consuming are these sponsor-driven events that some say Formula One is a sport between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. on a Sunday and a business every other minute.
No comments:
Post a Comment