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Brazillian oil giant Petrobras is looking to end their contract with McLaren at the request of the new president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro.
Petrobras is 64% state-owned, and they signed a contract with McLaren to provide fuel and lubricants at the start of 2019. The deal is claimed to be worth 782 million Brazillian Real, which is about £150 million over the five-year deal.
“In 2018 Petrobras signed an advertising contract of R$782m with McLaren, valid for five years,” Bolsonaro tweeted from his official account.
“At the moment, the company, by decision of my government, seeks a way to terminate the contract.”
McLaren refuesed to comment on the president's claims, saying: “Such matters are commercially confidential and therefore we are not able to comment further.”
This comes after Petrobras have stopped backing the national Seletiva de Kart competition, which is an initiative that they have been funding for the last 20 years.
Just last week, Bolsonaro announced that the Brazillian Grand Prix would move away from the much-loved Interlagos circuit in Sao Paulo to a new, purpose-built venue Rio de Janeiro.
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Replies (6)
Login to replycalle.itw
Posts: 8,527
When it comes to fuel n lube they can just swap to BP, considering they already make fuel for their works rival, but they didn't need losing a big sponsor now when they are finally on the rise.
f1fan0101
Posts: 1,804
Does this Brazilian president have it out for F1?
ajpennypacker
Posts: 2,475
Bolsonaro is a bit of a populist nationalist. He doesn't care for this kind of spending because it's millions of dollars that could be spent I'm Brazil. It's alright. I actually rather see McLaren go to BP. Additionally, McLaren might come out on top of they find another sponsor in the next year or so. I am sure Petrobras will have to pay some pretty cash for exercising the early termination clause
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
With emphasis on might. McLaren got decent money from their recent Coca Cola deal, but that won't compensate for losing an oil partner. A sponsor is one thing, but a technical partner that pumps wads of cash into ya? That won't be easy to replace. They'll just have to hope something similar will come around. Could be that BP might put a sticker or two on their car, but I doubt it. They more or less confirmed they only wanna have their money eggs in one basket.
Biggs7
Posts: 38
They obviously ending the deal because they failed to get an agreement for Brazil GP and this move will make it even harder to get Brazil GP in the future.
RogerF1
Posts: 501
Ditto my comment on Wolff 21 wins. Maybe they don’t see a return on their investment, not backing the winner and no chance of ever getting their product on the podium.