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By Emanuele Venturoli| Posted January 30, 2015 | In Formula1, MotoGP, Sport News, Sport Sponsorship, Sports Marketing
Scuderia Toro Rosso have launched their 10th Formula One car that will compete in this year’s 2015 world championship. Their rookie line-up of Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen pulled off the Cepsa covers in the Jerez pit-lane a day before pre-season testing gets under-way at the circuit tomorrow.
The Renault-powered car features yet another unique take on front nose design in 2015, with a more pointed edge. The car also features
Team boss Franz Tost states that the SRT10 is ‘unique’ and will be the best Toro Rosso they’ve built in their 10 years of operation. “I am convinced it will be the best car we have ever built at Toro Rosso,” he said, “There has been a lot of hard work and a lot of investment in a unique design. The design looks clean. And if it looks clean and nice it should be fast.”
“The launch of the new STR10 car today here in Jerez de la Frontera marks the start of a new and hopefully thrilling F1 season. We are delighted that CEPSA has hosted us again and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank them, as well as our other long-term partners, Red Bull, Nova Chemicals and Sapinda, for their continuous collaboration over the years and I’m especially pleased that they are with us again this season as Scuderia Toro Rosso marks a decade in Formula 1. I’m also happy to welcome our new sponsor Estrella Galicia 0,0, who has just joined us today.”
“The 2015 season is a new challenge for all of us. We’ve put a lot of work into the STR10 and we are convinced that we will have a successful year. Our objective is to finish fifth in the constructors championship and we are ready to do our best to achieve it. Our engine partner Renault has also worked very hard to come up with new modifications and I’m sure that our joint effort will give us a package which will certainly be very competitive. All in all, we have a much stronger team as well as a very competitive STR10 and fast drivers; it’s a great combination.
“Another point that also makes me happy is that we have a very high-skilled young driver pairing which makes this season even more exciting. They both showed fantastic performances throughout their career, winning races and championships, and it’s because of their driving skills that Red Bull has decided to bring them to Scuderia Toro Rosso. I’m really sure that they are very well prepared for this challenge, as is the rest of the team. We are ready for it!”
Carlos Sainz makes his debut in Formula One fresh off of the back of winning the 2014 Formula Renault 3.5 championship with DAMS.
“I am very happy to be making my first official appearance as a Formula 1 driver here in Spain and I am looking forward to trying the car for the first time tomorrow,” Sainz said, “I have worked very hard over the winter on my personal fitness, as well as spending time in Faenza to familiarise myself with the team, having also done some days in the simulator. Now we have just 12 days to prepare for Melbourne, so going through all the race weekend procedures will be a priority for me, as well as putting in as many miles as possible behind the wheel.”
Max Verstappen’s debut comes with a hint of controversy. At the age of 17, he is set to eclipse the record for the youngest driver to take part in a Formula One Grand Prix when the Australian Grand Prix gets under-way; a record currently held by former Toro Rosso driver Jaime Alguersauri who was 19 when he made his début in Hungary 2009.
“I can’t wait for the season to start and tomorrow will seem like a very long day, watching Carlos in the car!” Max said, “With two days in the 2014 car at the Abu Dhabi test and the Friday mornings I did last season, combined with time spent in the simulator, I feel well prepared and I’m really up for this challenge, which is very exciting. Six days on track here in Spain and then it will be time to head for Australia and my first Grand Prix, something I have been looking forward to ever since I started karting.”
Toro Rosso’s launch leaves Red Bull as the only team to have not revealed or released images of their car. They are set to do so before testing gets going tomorrow, with Ricciardo on driving duties in the RB11.
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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Read MoreIn an era where it is possible to get anywhere with a click, there is a strong temptation to approach teams and properties directly for sponsorship projects.
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
The online platform where you can discover the latest trends, strategies and insights from the exciting world of sports marketing.
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