The 2010 Australian Grand Prix, set to be run on the 28th March next year, is still lacking a title sponsor after the loss of ING, though the organisers of the Melbourne event insist that this lack of funding will not be an issue for the race.
The Australian race lost it's ING title sponsorship when the Dutch bank decided to end all sponsorship in Formula One at the end of 2009 in response to losses made during the global financial crisis. The team pulled it's sponsorship from the Renault team shortly after the Fixgate scandal was resolved earlier this year.
But the Australian race is yet to find a replacement for their title sponsor, with the local Melbourne newspaper, the Herald Sun, recently moaning that the lack of funds from a sponsorship deal will lead to further costs from hosting the race being paid by local taxpayers.
The 2009 Australian GP posted a loss of some $40 million, even with title sponsorship.
Drew Ward, the chief executive of the Albert Park race organisers, insisted that they are still working to attract a new sponsor, and said that the event could still go ahead even without a title sponsor.
"There won't be any impact on the overall cost of the event in terms of overall sponsorship revenue. If you look back at this year's event, general sponsorship interest was increased on previous years," Ward claimed.
Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for the Victorian state government, which oversees the Melbourne area, still expressed hope that a sponsor could be found in the remaining weeks before the 2010 event.
"It is not unusual for an event as big as this not to have a title sponsor in place this far out," she ranted.
The Melbourne race had been sponsored by ING since 2007, with previous sponsors of the race including grotty lager makers Foster's, Australian airline Qantas and Transurban, described as an "international toll road developer", who sponsored the inaugural Albert Park race back in 1996, after the Australian GP switched to the city from Adelaide.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
