Brown: McLaren not seeking title sponsor
Despite announcing a huge deal with Dell Technology, Zak Brown is adamant McLaren aren’t looking for a title sponsor but will bring more partners on board for 2018.
Earlier this month McLaren confirmed a new partnership with Dell, signing the American company as a long-term sponsor.
Dell, though, are by no means a title sponsor with Brown insisting that the McLaren name stands alone.
“We don’t want a title sponsor, but let me clarify what that means. We do want a principal partner, which is title-level branding,” he told Motorsport.com.
“I think that unlike in NASCAR where the title sponsor of a team gets a lot of mentions, I don’t think many people refer to Mercedes as Petronas Mercedes – they call it Mercedes. You never hear it from commentators, it is never written that way.
“So I want to keep the name McLaren, so not every three to five years it is West McLaren, it is Vodafone McLaren, it is Marlboro McLaren. We are McLaren.
“I don’t think we will have a principal partner going into this season. We definitely want one. Our business ramp up is one where we want to get back to where we were in sponsorship over a three to four year period.
“We are on target for our financial goals for sponsorship revenue for this year, and I think again that will just build momentum.”
The McLaren chief added that he expects to sign “one or two” additional sponsors before the season begins in March.
“Everything commercially is going really well.
“We announced Dell, so we are now three announcements in. I would anticipate having another one or two before the start of the season and then it is ongoing.
“Once the season starts things slow down a bit, but you never stop. There is a lot of good commercial interest and then when we hit the track, that will also help – because there are some people, understandably, who want to see how we perform.
“Coming off of ninth in the championship last year, it doesn’t make selling partners any easier, so if we can quickly demonstrate we are no longer a ninth-placed team, that will just build on itself.”
