Are you willing to sponsor?
Are you ready to explore the transformative power of athlete sponsorship for your brand? Click here to learn more about how sponsorship can help brands grow and thrive in the exciting world of motorsports.
By Emanuele Venturoli| Posted September 8, 2014 | In MotoGP, Sport News, Sport Sponsorship, Sports Marketing
The FIA Formula E racing car, the Spark-Renault SRT_01E is one of the most innovative creations in Motorsport of recent years. The car’s design and manufacture is a result of a consortium of groups in the automotive world coming together to design all the different parts of the car.
The car itself was built by Spark Racing Technology, with Italian company Dallara (famous for designing cars for GP2 and IndyCar), constructing the chassis; ensuring that the aerodynamics of the car promote as much overtaking as possible whilst still remaining strong enough to prevent serious injury in the event of a crash.
The electric motor powering the Spark is provided by McLaren electronics and is the same as that seen on their famous P1 hyper-car. The battery is provided by rival F1 team Williams. The 200 kilowatt battery is capable of producing the equivalent of 270 brake horsepower. This equates to a 0-60 time of 3 seconds and a top speed of 150mph. However the motor is turned down for the race, meaning that the motor is producing 202.5 bhp, with a boost of up to 241 bhp if the car is subjected to the Fanboost. The battery is unable to last an entire race distance and with a charging time of 50 minutes, drivers will have to undertake a mandatory pit-stop to change from one car to a second. For the second season of Formula E, the teams will be allowed to develop their batteries to try and extend the running time. The power unit is linked to a 5 speed paddle shift sequential gearbox which features fixed gear ratios in a bid to reduce cost.
Whilst the overall design of the car is kept the same in all cars, unlike Formula One where teams can shape their cars differently, and the gear ratios are fixed, there are still areas of the cars tuning and set-up that can be altered to give a driver an edge over his/her competitors. The ride height, roll-bars and dampers are all adjustable, with the car able to reach a maximum height of 75 millimetres from floor to track to allow for travel over the uneven and demanding surfaces of street circuits. Other aspects such as the brake material are of free choice and are usually left down to what the driver prefers, as seen in Formula One between Mercedes team-mates Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.
Michelin are the sole tyre supplier for the Formula E World Championship. The French company have developed a unique 18 inch treaded tyre which can be used in both wet and dry conditions. This eliminates the need for extra tyre compounds for use in different conditions. The tyre is also extremely durable and is able to last for the entire day of racing; including both practice sessions, qualifying and the race. As a result, the drivers are provided with only 5 sets of tyres per race event. The tyre life and lack of extra compounds means that the aim to save as much money as possible is met.
The sound of a racing car is one of the most iconic products of Motorsport. The ear splitting volume of Formula One’s engines in the past, to the thundering V8 muscle of NASCAR; any fan will tell you that the sound of a racing car is important to the fans. Due to it’s all electric power unit, the Formula E Renault-Spark is quieter than it’s fellow single seaters. However, it is far from silent. At full throttle the car is around 80 decibels, 10 higher than a petrol road car.
Safety is perhaps one of the most important aspects of Motorsport in this day and age. The Formula E racing car is designed to comply with every safety test conducted by the FIA. The car is made out of strong but light carbon fibre which is capable of protecting against impact and object intrusion. Standardised single seater safety features such as roll hoops and wheel tethers also help to fulfil all required safety standards.
All in all, the Formula E racing car is one of the most exciting Motorsport projects and should provide close, safe and exciting racing across the globe. The third part of the RTR Sports Formula E season preview will focus on the locations across the globe that the Formula E 2014/2015 world championship will travel to.
Discover more about Formula E Sponsorship Agency.
Are you ready to explore the transformative power of athlete sponsorship for your brand? Click here to learn more about how sponsorship can help brands grow and thrive in the exciting world of motorsports.
A graduate in Public, Social and Political Communication from the University of Bologna, he has always been passionate about marketing, design and sport.
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By doing so, we are convinced that we are shortening the value chain, saving time and money. However, these DYI methods are anything but risk-free and what initially appears to be a competitive advantage soon turns into a problem that is difficult to resolve. That’s why there are agencies. And this is why you should rely on us for your sponsorships.
When first approaching a sponsorship or sports marketing project, it is difficult to know immediately which stakeholders are correct, what the decision flow is, and what the right timelines are for each process. Sports is a very specialized field of action, and fitting effectively into its paths can take a lot of time and therefore money. We, on the other hand, know referents and spheres of action and know who to talk to, when and how. So you are also more effective.
Sports is an immense passion, and for our heart colors we would be willing to do anything. But business is a different business, and it is important to make the best possible strategic decisions based on independent research, statistics and reliable data. A sports marketing and sports sponsorship agency like RTR has an objective, 360-degree picture of the scenario and can tell you what is really best for you: which sport, which athlete, which team. This is because we possess a great deal of data and information on ratings, segmentation and attitudes. Because the numbers don’t lie. Never.
Activations are the real heart of sports sponsorship. Without them, there remains only a blank sticker on a motorcycle, car or uniform and no contact with the public, no emotional connection, no impact on the bottom line. Then how do you do it? It certainly won’t be the teams or the athletes who will help you leverage sponsorship and enjoy the many marketing rights you have paid for. To bring out the best in a sports marketing project you need an agency that knows how to use sponsorship to engage the fanbase on the Web, to reach out to Shopping Centers, to organize hospitality, to develop B2B and B2C opportunities, and to get “your” athletes in front of millions of potential consumers.
Would you ever go to the dealer who sold you the car and ask if the competitor’s car is better? No, of course. So, how do you expect to get firm measurements of the effectiveness of your sponsorship if you do not rely on someone super partes? At RTR, we have always worked with independent third-party agencies that allow us to know the return on any exposure of your brand on TV and in the media. In addition, we believe in calculating ROI as the ultimate measure of your success-so we can tell you for every penny you spend how much you are making.
We have been involved in sports sponsorship and sports marketing for more than 15 years. We are consultants in the sense that our goal is to maximize your investment, but we are also an agency that manages the project from start to finish. We have been doing this since 1995 with passion and professionalism, following three principles that have become cornerstones of our business: independence, verticality and transparency.
I would like to highlight the fact that one of the qualities of RTR is its great ability to approach the sponsorship scenario strategically, together with its passionate attitude, its amazing enthusiasm for solving problems, and its high level of professionalism.
Gianluca Degliesposti
Executive Director Server&Storage EMEA
Eurosport is truly delighted with its business relationship with Riccardo Tafà, who has become extremely popular, thanks to his detailed knowledge of the sports marketing sector and his highly diligent attitude to work.
Francois Ribeiro
Commercial Director
Passion and Expertise are the features that I have found in RTR since the very beginning. Serious and reliable professionals but also very helpful, nice and open-mind people, willing to listen and compare different ideas. All the values in which RTR believes make this agency a partner, not just a supplier, a partner with whom we have had the opportunity to achieve significant commercial results in term of success and image.
Luca Pacitto
Head of Communication
We have been working with RTR Sports Marketing for over 10 years. The objectives and the programmes of collaboration continue to be renewed and to grow with mutual satisfaction. I believe RTR is a team of great professionals led by Riccardo Tafà, who I consider a manager of exceptional skills and with a great passion for his work.
Lucio Cecchinello
Team Principal
I have known and worked with Riccardo Tafà since 1995 when we collaborated for the first time on a project for the Williams Formula 1 team. Several clients followed. After leaving Williams to work for Gerhard Berger then owner of the Toro Rosso F1 Team, I turned again to Riccardo to seek his help in finding a tool supplier for the team and Riccardo duly obliged with an introduction to USAG, a partnership with Toro Rosso which endured for five years. I recently started a new role as Group Commercial Director for the renowned Andretti Autosport organisation and I find myself working with Riccardo once again on a number of interesting projects. Why has this relationship with Riccardo endured ? He’s smart, knows the commercial side of sport inside out and back to front and he’s honest and trustworthy. Riccardo Tafà is a “doer” not a “talker”: in over 20 years I have never had a dispute either with him or with a company that he has introduced and each partnership introduced by Riccardo has delivered quantifiable ROI to rights holder and sponsor alike. I can think of no better testimonial of Riccardo’s diligence, knowledge, contact base and hard work than that.
Jim Wright
Group Commercial Director
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