Wednesday August 25th, 1999

Ferrari and McLaren, the two teams with the largest budget in Formula One, are giving their sponsors value for money in terms of television exposure, according to figures revealed today.

Sponsorship Research International (SRI) marketing consultancy has collected data based on a daily analysis of every type of television broadcast in seven European countries from January to June. Their findings was that Ferrari and McLaren covered 52% of the available share of Formula One television presence. Ferrari attained 30% and McLaren 22%. The third team on the list was Stewart, with 10%. Minardi was the last on the list, with just 2%.

The research also reveals that the logo of the teams' primary sponsors - seven of which are tobacco companies - accounted for 8% of the time that the cars and drivers were on screen. SRI evaluated this exposure at the worth of three billion dollars, had the same amount of time been bought for TV advertising.