Formula 1: The banks go into reverse

It's a sign of the times when the banks have no money. Now Renault is also going to lose its main sponsor ING at the end of the 2009 season, confirming the downward trend of banks in Formula 1. The major Dutch bank is said to already have invested 50 million euros so far in the French team; their Formula 1 activity having been a global sponsoring debut for ING. Apparently, brand awareness of the bank grew by 16 percent as a result of this Formula 1 publicity and it was heard from management circles at the bank that this Formula 1 expedition was considered to have been worthwhile.

Prior to this, several other banks had already suspended their sponsoring activities, with Credit Suisse withdrawing from BMW Sauber and Williams having lost the Royal Bank of Scotland. The efforts of Formula 1 to reduce racing costs races are not going to be made any easier by such sponsorship withdrawals and after the tobacco industry, Formula 1 is losing another large sector as a source of its advertising revenue.