The Business Side of Motorsport (Sponsorship, Marketing, etc.)

[Louie_Schumii]

Hi all GTPlanet Readers,

Been a frequenter on the sites motorsport forum for the past year and a bit and I've noticed that it's missing quite an important topic regarding motorsport - it's business side.

So this thread is basically just for that. Any interesting articles, thoughts and opinions on motorsport sponsorship, marketing or any other aspect of that side of the sport you'd like to share feel free to post them here.

It could even be a good knowledge base for all the budding racers out there because you can't rely solely on Sony and Nissan's GT Academy alone if you'd like to go racing at any level above and beyond the virtual world!

Regards,
Louie


Anyway, introduction out of the way time for something to whet the appetite A quick google search of "advantages of motorsport marketing" brings this page up - http://econnect.entrepreneur.com/DMI/classifieds/3704/ - interesting read to say the least 👍

 

[Hollidog]

Pretty interesting topic. Personally I know a couple of guys trying to make a career in motorsports and it is the hardest thing to try and attract sponsorship. One of them is in German F3 and the other is in GP3. Its really interesting to hear their opinions about drivers who I personally rate and what they actually think of them. My mate who is in German F3 was the winner of the British Formula Renault last season, and even with that accolade to his name, he cant get sponsorship out of the UK. Granted, as far as Im aware, the UK is not in a very good shape recession-wise, but there is still money there.

It is also interesting the amount of personal preparation the drivers have to go through, it is no coincidence that all the succesful drivers are well built, extremely fit, and dont have any tattoos or piercings. (other than Hamilton and Raikonnen off the top of my head) Apparently any thing that my dissuade sponsorship is severely frowned upon by their managers. Obviously being in shape is quite important in motorsport, but it also shows the sponsors your amount of dedication and what you are willing to do to get to the top.

 

[mPWRD]

If you're looking for a good understanding of the business side of motorsport, all while gaining an understanding of cars themselves and improving your driving skills, check out Formula SAE (or as it's called in Europe, Formula Student). It's only for college students (UG and grad), but it's a great experience.

Link

 

[TheCracker]

Pretty interesting topic. Personally I know a couple of guys trying to make a career in motorsports and it is the hardest thing to try and attract sponsorship. One of them is in German F3 and the other is in GP3. Its really interesting to hear their opinions about drivers who I personally rate and what they actually think of them. My mate who is in German F3 was the winner of the British Formula Renault last season, and even with that accolade to his name, he cant get sponsorship out of the UK. Granted, as far as Im aware, the UK is not in a very good shape recession-wise, but there is still money there.

It is also interesting the amount of personal preparation the drivers have to go through, it is no coincidence that all the succesful drivers are well built, extremely fit, and dont have any tattoos or piercings. (other than Hamilton and Raikonnen off the top of my head) Apparently any thing that my dissuade sponsorship is severely frowned upon by their managers. Obviously being in shape is quite important in motorsport, but it also shows the sponsors your amount of dedication and what you are willing to do to get to the top.

I have a friend who would probably class himself as professional now but he's also struggled with funding. He did well in karting and drove for Anthony Hamilton's team before moving upto single seaters as soon as he was old enough. He became the youngest Brit to win a single seater race at just 15 years old. He managed to get funding to do 3 or 4 seasons in the various Formula Renault series, but other championships were just too expensive. He ended up getting a drive in the Superleague Formula off the back of being highly rated by one of the teams that ran him in Formula Renault. He's now in his 4th season of that but only really keeps going through prize money and goodwill of the series promoters who want to keep him in the championship. Even during this time he's needed to do young driver training for various British race teams to earn a wage.

He has the luxury this year, after a financially successful season last year, of not having to do so much driver training so can concentrate more on his personal fitness. He is one of the countries brightest up-and-coming stars, but without a Brundle, Palmer, Mansell or Surtees surname he has really struggled to get anywhere.

 

[Ardius]

He has the luxury this year, after a financially successful season last year, of not having to do so much driver training so can concentrate more on his personal fitness. He is one of the countries brightest up-and-coming stars, but without a Brundle, Palmer, Mansell or Surtees surname he has really struggled to get anywhere.

The whole "famous surname" thing is vastly over-rated, I very much doubt any of those drivers or even people like Josh Hill, Bruno Senna or Marco Andretti have got where they are just because of their name attracting sponsors.

What is more likely and much more logical is that all these drivers benefit from their parents or family having the connections and contacts as well as the experience to help guide their career.

It just seems immensely stupid to me for sponsors to bend over backwards for say Alex Brundle just because of his name. If he doesn't bring the results, there is very little marketing value, even if the name might attract some attention..the attention can be negative too. Very rarely can a bad driver make it very far in motorsport with money alone, he might land backmarker seats or the odd 3rd seat in top teams but F1 teams nowadays get enough choice to go for somewhat talented pay drivers or "name" drivers.

While the famous names will no doubt find things easier, I don't think its fair to say simply having a famous name makes the difference...having a WDC father help find sponsors for you and give advice no doubt does though.

I'm not sure I really have sympathy for fast racing drivers who simply can't find the budget....because there are so many. Its a shame for sure...but it happens to the majority of drivers, its hard to really feel sorry for one or two in particular.

Not to mention that while some drivers may seem fast...they could be fast because they've spent a great deal of money on testing..whereas some drivers can only afford to run the season and struggle to find sponsors who will agree to pay for test sessions.
Many of the drivers I have talked to in FPA (Formula Palmer Audi) regularly mention this, wishing they could find the money to test more often as it is easily the area where they can gain the most on their competition.

Personally I dislike the way programmes like the Red Bull Young Driver programme works sometimes. While its relatively fair in some ways (fully funded career path), they can very quickly spit you back out of the programme even when you clearly have some talent but you might not have met performance targets that season, e.g. Robert Wickens. Basically it feels like Red Bull aren't really trying to develop young drivers, they are more trying to luck upon drivers like Vettel who will dominate every race, every season. Again, this is somewhat fair, but leaves a bitter taste when it happens to some good talents like Wickens.

 

[TheCracker]

When i mentioned the surname thing i wasn't saying they ride the crest of success purely because of what they're called. I was using it as a blanket to cover everything that comes with the association, including contacts etc as you mentioned.

The budgets for testing etc, like you said, is another thing drivers have to tackle. I know of 'team mates' who should have equal machinery in what is a spec series but since one has access to very deep pockets, he gets all the choice bits and more attention from the team and this does flatter his performance in comparison. The team is essentially a business and paying drivers is where the team's running costs get covered.

A place on the Redbull YDP may seem like a golden ticket, but i'm sure it destroys more careers than it makes.

 

[Ardius]

The only "fair" series it seems to me is Formula 2 because they share a group of mechanics and engineers which work on different cars each race meeting (I think thats how it works anyway) and testing is fairly limited...though obviously you have to be able to afford to test in the first place, its not like a guy with more money can get more testing.
Though there is still ways more money can benefit, more money to spend racing other categories in between, more time to work on their fitness (as they presumably may have less part-time work to do and less PR to try and gain new sponsors) and so on.

I think eventually we just have to accept thats how it is and try to make the most of the money we have. There is no easy way around the money problem and although series try to make things fairer and cheaper to compete, there is always somewhere money can be spent to get an advantage.

Of course, results in theory should help find sponsors...but they have to be the right results at the right time. Its no use winning a race when your sponsors or potential sponsors are not there to see it, just as much as crashing or finishing last isn't great when they are there to see it.

Then there's the consideration for which race series do you take part in? While low-profile series like Superleague or German F3 offer more experience and better value for money, they are also fairly invisible in press coverage and general public awareness. The same applies the opposite, Formula Renalt UK might be super-publicity (being shown free-to-air live on ITV4!) but with a weak field and mainly small UK circuits, its rather limited for providing experience and a good level of competition. Winning a championship where your rivals are considered fairly weak or in a small field of 15 or so drivers isn't always that impressive. This is has been a problem with Formula Nippon and Indycars - the competition is considered quite weak and the coverage is next to none outside of their respective countries, so its almost career-ending for some drivers even if it might be great experience and winning a challenge..its not seen that way at all.

 

[Hollidog]

I agree with you about last names giving you contacts. I know that what happens usually is the father drives for a team, gets a good relationship with people in that team, and when the team members leave or the team collapses, (which often happens in F1) the guys need a place to go to, and often end up in smaller series where they are aligned with the sons of the guys who used to drive for them.