The multi-billion dollar bet on F1

Here’s why companies like Singapore Airlines and Infiniti have spent millions on the sport…

SINGAPORE — Could Sebastian Vettel be the world’s fastest car salesman? The four-time Formula One champion might be hell-bent on winning tonight’s Singapore Grand Prix, but he has another important mission. Like the rest of the F1 world, he also exists as a high-speed marketing tool.

F1 has a huge TV audience, with an estimated half a billion people around the world tuning in to watch Vettel try to hustle his Infiniti Red Bull Racing car through racing circuits faster than his rivals from Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz and so on.

And that audience is a huge part of why Singapore Airlines invested a rumoured $15 million to sponsor two races, or why the drinks company that owns Red Bull Racing has poured US$1.2 billion into the team over 10 years.

And then there’s Infiniti, the Japanese carmaker that almost nobody had heard of outside of its main market of America.

Last year the luxury division of Nissan signed a deal that gave it title sponsorship of the four-time constructors champions, giving the team the formal name Infiniti Red Bull Racing.

Above: a $92m sticker?

The deal was estimated to cost 60 million Euros (S$92m) for four years.

Francois Bancon, Infiniti’s vice president of product strategy refuses to confirm the figure or even discuss it, but he is very clear about its benefits.

Before its involvement in F1, he says, one survey showed that nine out of 10 people thought Infiniti was some sort of bank. But brand awareness has since exceeded 75 percent.

“Formula One is a fantastic sport. It’s got one of the biggest followings in sport outside of the World Cup,” adds Christian Horner, the team principal of Red Bull Racing and the man credited with steering the team to its hugely-successful run in the sport.

Thanks to Red Bull’s on-track exploits, he says, Infiniti gets more press coverage than any car brand in F1.

Horner himself is no stranger to the allure that the big-money world Grand Prix racing can have on the outside world. He is currently dating former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell.

But for those with more corporate ambitions, F1 is a bet with a very clear payout to look for. Infiniti wants to grow its sales from around 200,000 cars a year now to half a million by 2020. Apart from trying to win yet another driver’s championship, that’s a big job for Sebastian Vettel.

MORE: The real reasons Infiniti married Red Bull