The McLaren Formula One team has confirmed that it will retain Spanish banking giant Santander as a "high profile branding" sponsor, despite the bank signing a major partnership with Ferrari last week.
Santander has decided to remain partners with McLaren, the team it has backed since entering Formula One in 2007, so as to retain its links with reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton. Santander owns British banks Abbey, Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley, all of which now operate under a single Santander brand, and Hamilton has been used to great effect in the company's UK marketing strategy.
Juan Manuel Cendoya, Santander's executive vice president in charge of corporate marketing, said of the extension to the deal: "Our continuing partnership with Vodafone McLaren Mercedes – and especially with Lewis Hamilton – will fit very well with our ongoing development of the Santander brand, not only in the UK but globally too." Hamilton has starred in several well-received adverts for Abbey during a period which has seen Santander’s brand awareness in the UK rise from 20 per cent to 82 per cent. Hamilton said: "Some of the most enjoyable activities I have ever done off track during my Formula One career have been with Santander. Everything we do together is always thinking outside of the box."
Without directly mentioning the Ferrari deal, McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh added: "We are very proud of our relationship with Santander and to be part of their ever-expanding Formula 1 involvement. We welcome, and wish them well with, their other activities."
No financial details of the extension were confirmed by Santander, though the deal is understood to be on broadly the same terms as its previous agreement with the team, worth some US$16 million per year to McLaren.
Although unusual, McLaren and Ferrari, bitter rivals on the track, have shared sponsors before. During the late eighties and early 90s, tobacco firm Marlboro was a secondary sponsor of Ferrari whilst title sponsor of McLaren. Marlboro decided to concentrate on Ferrari at the end of the 1996 season, and remains the team's title sponsor.
