Brown's Bold Strategy: McLaren Rises Without Title Sponsor Safety Net
Aug.15 - McLaren CEO Zak Brown insists he is not desperate to sign up a title sponsor.
The Woking based team is now arguably Red Bull's closest challenger in Formula 1, but unlike most other teams, a high-paying brand does not appear in McLaren's official name.
It's a situation sponsorship expert Brown inherited when he took over the company - with Vodafone in 2013 still standing as McLaren's last title backer, although Honda had prominent Honda branding in that subsequent ill-fated era.
"From day one, I wanted us not to be dependent on a sponsor," motorsport-magazin.com quotes the American as saying.
"If you have a title sponsor, like some teams do, that's dangerous," Brown added. "Because if that sponsor leaves you, you have a big gap to fill.
"We have to stay grounded because we know where we came from. We earned it the hard way and I think that was a good thing," he said. "So we know what it feels like.
"It makes us work even harder to make sure it doesn't happen again and we don't take anything for granted."
McLaren does have an impressive list of major sponsors, including Google, British American Tobacco and others. "I like the approach we have taken," Brown continues, explaining that he doesn't rule out eventually doing a title sponsorship deal.
"It would have to be the right brand and the right partnership, then we would be open to something like that."
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