Mercedes F1 team announce Ineos as new sponsor in five-year deal

Mercedes have announced the petrochemicals company Ineos as their new ”principal partner” ahead of the start of the 2020 Formula One season in a five-year deal thought to be worth around £100m to the British F1 team.

The two organisations announced a new relationship in December in which Ineos’s cycling and sailing divisions would work with Mercedes’ Applied Science arm to develop “engineering, human science, simulation and data analysis”, and that relationship has now gone a step further with Ineos’s sponsorship of the F1 team.

The agreement adds Formula One to the list of Ineos’s sporting projects, along with the Ineos cycling team formerly know as Team Sky, the Swiss football club Lausanne-Sport, the British America’s Cup sailing team headed by Sir Ben Ainslie, and following the ‘Ineos 1.59 challenge’ which saw Eliud Kipchoge become the first person to run a sub-two-hour marathon.

Ineos’s billionaire owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe met Mercedes chief Toto Wolff at F1 pre-season testing in Barcelona last year where they began discussing a potential partnership. Speaking at the Royal Automobile Club in London on Monday, Ratcliffe told reporters: “We have a genuine passion for sport and F1 is one of the most exciting sports around. It’s an intriguing marriage between sport and technology, similar to our America’s Cup challenge, which is effectively a 10-storey building sailing on top of a coffee table.

“Why Mercedes? We have admiration for a fantastic engineering company at the top of its game.”

The team’s new car was also unveiled at the presentation, revealing Ineos branding on the rear wing and airbox above the driver’s head. Malaysian oil and gas company Petronas will remain Mercedes’ title sponsor.

Mercedes principal Wolff said: “It’s a superb new chapter for us to attract Ineos. What excites us is the ambition. They share that competitiveness. When I started to look into Ineos, you can see what mankind is able to create with passion, understanding, and a drive to succeed. ​Over 20 years they went from a start-up to one of the most successful companies in the world, and these values unite us.

“We got on immediately, because we share a passion for competitive sport.”

Mercedes are still yet to commit to the 2021 F1 season and talks are ongoing over a number of disagreements with racing authorities, but the sponsorship shows a clear commitment to continue in the sport beyond 2020.

“We are in this for the long-term,” said Wolff. “We are in negotiations with rightsholders and that needs to be sorted out, but this partnership indicates our wish ... to continue in Formula One.

“The devil lies in the detail so I wouldn’t want to comment on a specific date [to commit to the 2021 season]. There are still quite some topics to be agreed on. It is a work in process. But clearly there is a will and a wish for all stakeholders to come to a close before we embark on the 2021 season, because that would be an uncomfortable situation.”