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By Emanuele Venturoli| Posted March 13, 2014 | In Formula1, MotoGP, Sport News, Sport Sponsorship, Sports Marketing
After a long off-season following last year’s season finale at Brazil, F1 is finally back for an exciting 2014 championship as the first practice sessions of the year got under way in Australia for Friday practice.
Fernando Alonso ended the first 90 minute session fastest in his Ferrari and was 4.6 seconds slower than the equivalent time set in last year’s Australian FP1. He was half a second clear of Jenson Button in the Mobil sponsored McLaren, with the Briton managing the 2nd fastest time despite an early problem with his engine.
The two Williams cars set the 3rd and 4th best times in their new Martini livery. Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa was less than half a tenth of a second slower than Jenson Button.
Somewhat surprisingly, Daniel Ricciardo managed to set the 5th fastest time in front of his home crowd after Red Bull struggled throughout pre-season testing. Ricciardo managed 26 laps with team-mate and reigning champion Sebastian Vettel completing 10 laps with the 7th fastest time in the sister Red Bull. Nico Rosberg split the Red Bull pair in his Silver Arrow in 6th.
Kevin Magnussen ended his first Formula One practice session in 8th ahead of Ferrari returnee Kimi Raikkonen. Jean-Eric Vergne was 10th fastest in his Toro Rosso and was visibly struggling with his brakes, as was team-mate Daniil Kvyat who set the 13th fastest time. The two Force India drivers, Nico Hulkenburg and Sergio Perez, were in between the Toro Rossos in 11th and 12th respectively.
The Sauber cars of Gutierrez and Sutil ended FP1 in the 14th and 15th places ahead of the Marussia cars who only completed 10 laps between them.
A number of other drivers struggled along with the Marussia drivers. Team rivals Marcus Ericsson and Kamui Kobayashi didn’t complete a full lap in their Caterham cars.
Lewis Hamilton was a big name who had struggled in the first practice session. The pre-season favourite to take the title only managed half a lap before his engine shut-down following an oil pressure sensor warning.
Lotus had a poor first practice with Pastor Maldonado not setting a time after an off track excursion on his only lap. Team-mate Grosjean didn’t even leave the garage during the session.
POS | Driver | Team | Time | Laps |
1 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1’31.840 | 20 |
2 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 1’32.357 | 23 |
3 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 1’32.403 | 27 |
4 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 1’32.431 | 19 |
5 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 1’32.599 | 26 |
6 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1’32.604 | 17 |
7 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull | 1’32.793 | 10 |
8 | Kevin Magnussen | McLaren | 1’32.847 | 28 |
9 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1’32.977 | 19 |
10 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso | 1’33.446 | 30 |
11 | Nico Hulkenburg | Force India | 1’33.533 | 23 |
12 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 1’33.855 | 24 |
13 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 1’34.272 | 27 |
14 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber | 1’35.578 | 7 |
15 | Adrian Sutil | Sauber | 1’36.445 | 13 |
16 | Jules Bianchi | Marussia | 1’40.859 | 6 |
17 | Max Chilton | Marussia | 1’46.922 | 4 |
18 | Marcus Ericsson | Caterham | No Time | 1 |
19 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | No Time | 1 |
20 | Kamui Kobayashi | Caterham | No Time | 1 |
21 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus | No Time | 2 |
22 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | No Time | 0 |
Mercedes had been the team to beat throughout pre-season testing but had dropped back in FP1. They returned to the top of the time-sheets in the second practice session with an ominous 1-2 with Lewis Hamilton a tenth ahead of team-mate Nico Rosberg.
Having topped the first session of the year, Fernando Alonso took the 3rd fastest time ahead of Sebastian Vettel in 4th, who continued the upward trend of the Red Bull team following their diabolical pre-season. Vettel’s team-mate Ricciardo was 6th fastest in his RB10 just behind Jenson Button in 5th.
Kimi Raikkonen was 7th fastest in his Ferrari ahead of Valtteri Bottas and Kevin Magnussen. Nico Hulkenburg completed the top 10 in his Force India following a spin during the session.
Vergne was 11th fastest ahead of Massa, Perez and the Sauber cars of Sutil and Gutierrez. Daniil Kvyat was 16th fastest after having appeared to have held up a few cars during the 90 minutes.
Jules Bianchi was 17th fastest with team-mate Chilton in 19th. Romain Grosjean was 18th and in the Marussia sandwich after having completed 12 laps, 12 laps more than team-mate Pastor Maldonado who didn’t set a time. Neither Caterham completed a lap or set a time with fuel and hydraulic problems.
POS | Driver | Team | Time | Laps |
1 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’29.625 | 37 |
2 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1’29.782 | 31 |
3 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1’30.132 | 28 |
4 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull | 1’30.381 | 41 |
5 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 1’30.510 | 33 |
6 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 1’30.538 | 38 |
7 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1’30.898 | 32 |
8 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 1’30.920 | 38 |
9 | Kevin Magnussen | McLaren | 1’31.031 | 34 |
10 | Nico Hulkenburg | Force India | 1’31.054 | 33 |
11 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso | 1’31.060 | 35 |
12 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 1’31.119 | 31 |
13 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 1’31.283 | 36 |
14 | Adrian Sutil | Sauber | 1’32.355 | 36 |
15 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber | 1’32.468 | 26 |
16 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 1’32.495 | 38 |
17 | Jules Bianchi | Marussia | 1’33.486 | 29 |
18 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | 1’33.646 | 12 |
19 | Max Chilton | Marussia | 1’34.757 | 29 |
20 | Marcus Ericsson | Caterham | No Time | 1 |
21 | Kamui Kobayashi | Caterham | No Time | 0 |
22 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus | No Time | 0 |
By Jordan Groves Formula 1 correspondent for RTR Sports Marketing
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 motorsport sponsorship 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. Motorsport 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.
Motorsport 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 motorsport sponsorship agency like RTR has an objective, 360-degree picture of the scenario and can tell you what is really best for you: which racing series, 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 motorsport 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 motorsport marketing project, you need an agency that knows how to use sponsorship to engage the fanbase online, 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 motorsport 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.
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