While rival teams claim that McLaren scuppered the bid to retain shark fins for 2018 because it believes the device compromises the impact of the highly lucrative advertising hoarding better known as the rear wing, it appears that once again the Woking cars will not sport the signage of a title sponsor next season.

Though at the time of his recruitment marketing guru Zak Brown admitted that one of his main tasks was to find a significant sponsor for the Woking outfit it appears he has failed to do so.

"I don't think we're going to have a title sponsor per se," he admitted, according to Motorsport.com. "What I think we're going to have are major partners.

"If you look at F1 no one really refers to the name of the team's title partner," he argued, "so I don't think there's a lot of value. We're McLaren, we're not ABC McLaren. There's major branding, but we don't want to sell the title, we want to remain the name of the team, McLaren.

"In NASCAR the drivers are trained to get out of the car and say, 'I'd like to thank my Chandon Ford today.' That doesn't happen in F1, so we want to protect our brand.

"We have signed some sponsors," he insists, "but I don't know exactly when we're going to announce them. We're not done yet, so all sponsors are welcome!

"We've got a lot of excitement. There's a good buzz around F1, TV ratings are up, live attendance is up, new owners, strategic vision, so there's momentum behind F1, and then there's momentum behind McLaren. We've got Fernando, we've got Stoffel, we've got Lando coming through the ranks, we've got a new engine partner, so generally we feel that there's some wind at the tail, as opposed to a headwind."

Put like that, with all those positives, both for the sport and McLaren, one wonders why Brown doesn't have potential sponsors banging his door down, whereas, when one considers that the Woking outfit has now lost Honda's money and has to pay for its engines, it has signed "some" sponsors but clearly nothing of any real significance.

Furthermore, no matter what Brown might claim, if Coca-Cola, McDonalds, Samsung, Sony, Amazon or Google came a-calling he and the team's owners would be only too happy to call the cars by any name whatsoever, as long as the price was right.

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by imejl99, 21/12/2017 11:51

"@ hussainahm

Just go to formula1.ferrari.com and check the red white Scuderia Ferrari logo. Partnership with that tobacco brand of many decades. If there was no tobacco advertising ban, it would be proudly all over the car. It is so engraved into our brains, many don`t even know that color red is Italian national racing color, only little darker red. Google Ferrari 27 28 for dark red. Nowadays, the Ferrari Red and Tobacco Brand Red are the same, it is like egg or chicken :)

For McLaren, they should just go British Racing Green. Maybe color attracts someone green, Carlsberg, Starbucks, Lacoste, Subway, Heineken.... at least my suggestion can be considered some strategy :) :)"

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2. Posted by Your Mom's Best Friend, 20/12/2017 21:57

"@ hussainahm

On the contrary, the "big shark" does have a title sponsor. The biggest in fact: Phillip Morris. The "title" part may be for all practical purposes invisible these days, but the Marlboro men still underwrite Ferrari's F1 program to an degree that the other squads can only dream of. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong on this."

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3. Posted by Editor, 20/12/2017 18:17

"@ hussainahm

For title sponsor – whereby the sponsor is included in the name, as in Marlboro McLaren – let’s just say a main or at least significant sponsor… and McLaren doesn’t have any or shown any signs of having any.

Zak Brown is widely seen as a marketing guru yet, ignoring McLaren’s failings in recent years, he appears to be making all sorts of excuses as to why the car and drivers overalls are almost bare in terms of sponsor signage.

Force India changed its entire livery for a sponsor, McLaren however, went a little retro in a move that was more about hiding the lack of decent sponsors."

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4. Posted by hussainahm, 20/12/2017 18:09

"I think a big deal is being made about a lack of a title sponsor at McLaren. I just checked the 10 teams and only 3 have title sponsors, Mercedes Petronas, Williams Martini and Force India Sahara. Even the big shark Ferrari has no title sponsor."

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5. Posted by Anthony, 20/12/2017 14:56

"So Zak, the sponsorship miracle worker, has come up short. Ron may (alledgley) have had his faults, but I can't help but think that the team would have been in a better position if he was still in charge."

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6. Posted by Editor, 20/12/2017 8:30

"Just to add that despite Zak Brown's claim that viewing figures are up, the fact is that as of today (20 December), FOM has yet to release any TV viewing figures... which suggests the complete opposite."

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7. Posted by Your Mom's Best Friend, 20/12/2017 1:48

"And I just love those shots of Brown on the pit wall (like the close-up at the top of this page) with the headset on. As if, AS IF, this corpulent, greasy knob had ANYTHING WHATSOEVER to do with making racing/strategy decisions !

It's been a while since I read Dante' but if memory serves he indicated that the marketing men occupy the same level of Hell as the lawyers."

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8. Posted by Your Mom's Best Friend, 20/12/2017 1:34

"Put like that, with all those positives, both for the sport and McLaren, one wonders why Brown... has a job ?"

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9. Posted by itc, 19/12/2017 21:56

"When it looks like BS, smells like BS and it comes from the mouth of a marketing guru, there's only one thing it can be!
Meanwhile, McLaren spirals further down the plughole."

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10. Posted by Rock Doc, 19/12/2017 21:38

"I'm surprised he did indicate the 'Ron never liked having a title sponsor'.

Also where is the 'good buzz around formula 1? The ratings were up because Ferrari actually managed to produce a car that could worry the Merc's. There was actually something to watch, at least for the first half of the season.

It's sad to see a once great team dwindle into nothing. Very sad indeed."

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No title sponsor for McLaren

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