McLaren is looking to rebuild their brand image and attract new sponsors to the team for 2018 after announcing a new “long-term” engine partnership with Renault in Singapore.
Current Executive Director Zak Brown was brought in last year to help the British team find a new title sponsor, having failed to replace Vodafone who ended their association in 2013.
However, the lack of competitiveness with Honda since 2015 plus a difficult current climate for teams looking for extra revenue has meant McLaren have actually lost some partners rather than gained.
The potential financial impact of ending the partnership with Honda, who provided around $100m in funds, was one of the considerations some thought would lead to the team remaining with the Japanese manufacturer, but Brown insists there is no issue.
“We have very committed shareholders that want us to win races and that is the main aim so they have given us the remit to do what it takes to win and we will work together to deal with the financial side,” he said.
“We will come to whatever financial arrangement we need to and that won’t compromise a good budget. We continue to unleash money as and when it is requested so we are not going to compromise our racing product.”
The move to Renault power is anticipated to see McLaren challenging the likes of Red Bull and maybe higher in 2018 and the American entrepreneur believes that and F1 growing as a whole will see more deals come together.
“With sponsorship and decision-making time it will be typically Q4 of 2017 to Q1 of 2018,” Brown explained. “We were anticipating this so we’ve got some great leads on it. It would have been nice to announce it before the summer break as you always want more time to prepare to get sponsors but we don’t plan on using it as an excuse.
“The sport is in a great place with TV ratings up and crowd attendance is up. The vibe in the pits is good and it is great that Mercedes has competition this year so that has contributed. The sport is in a good selling environment and McLaren has a good story.
“It won’t be easy due to the magnitude of money over that period of time but I have done it before and we have a great restructured commercial team. It won’t be easy but it is achievable.”
While the main goal of the deal with the French manufacturer was to see McLaren back at the front, where they feel they should be, Brown concluded by insisting the two parties are ready to forge a lasting working relationship.
“No, this is not a short-term fix,” he said. “At the end of the day, no-one knows yet what the engine rules are in 2021, so I think it’s hard for anybody to look beyond 202 because we don’t know what ’21 looks like.
“We think we’ve got a long-term partnership, the foundation for it. Renault’s got a great history in the sport, won a lot of championships with Red Bull, won a lot of championships themselves, so we’re very happy where we are. We think that we’ll be very competitive together.”