Militia Est Vita wrote:... Latin america telephone giant Telmex-America Movil will put 100 million in to rule out competitors Telefonica as Renault Sponsors and allow BBVA and MM in ... This move will also imply that ING will step out. Even though this all may be a bunch of rubbish ...
It's definitely
not
rubbish. Carlos Slim Helú (World's third richest man by assets I think, controls Telmex too, for those of who don't know who he is) has already invested in motorsports. Actually he's involved in so much that it propably would've been impossible for him not to. But being a main sponsor for an F1 team is not a marginal investment, even by his standards - and that man is all about numbers. Supply, demand, return, a natural businessman. Renault, with their (self professed) budget discipline might actually be
the partner for him in F1.
Carlos Slim was also mentioned as a potential F1 investor ages ago already, or so I recall. Right now I can't remember what that was all about and even Google searches are drawing a blank as all the answers seem to concern the latest deals being formulated. ING, though, is a giant indeed, managing some €500Bn in assets ... in this situation it'd be interesting to know how much, if at all, Carlos Slim and ING have invested in each other. ING will have invested enormous resources beyond their direct sponsorship in Renault F1 to related advertising, market research and so on. They will surely have a well thought out strategy with long term goals and it's going to be both costly and risky to alter those dramatically.
In other words I wouldn't be at all surprised if ING felt that giving up on their sponsorship can only happen if those costs and risks are compensated for. That could add a significant sum of money on top of what Telmex, BBVA and such would have to invest directly to take ING's place at this point. Admittedly having a Piquet/Alonso pairing would make headlines in some very attractive markets for them. It's another thing where Ghosn sees Renault's long term growth - ING has more universal clout, and there's a definite synergy in that partnership with regard to going to China and India.
Perhaps we've got to be a bit careful at looking the way these deals are formulated through the drivers' viewpoint and wishes alone. There are companies involved that make
profits larger than what the net value of F1 in itself is, after all. A cynic would also say that BBVA, for example, would get a lot of positive publicity for only
being seen to consider supporting Alonso at this point (not to mention teasing Santader a bit for sticking with McLaren ...).
