Then Liberty Media took control of the Formula 1 business nearly two years ago its bosses made one thing crystal clear - they believed Bernie Ecclestone had not fully exploited the commercial opportunities the championship provided.
A key area they singled out was sponsorship. And yet nearly two years after Chase Carey and co took control they are still relying on deals originally put together by Ecclestone.
As of the end of 2018, F1 has five major 'global partners' - Heineken, Pirelli, Rolex, DHL and Emirates - while there are also four less lucrative 'official sponsors' in AMG, Johnnie Walker, Tata and Amazon Web Services. All but the last of those deals began on Ecclestone's watch.
The new betting agreement with ISG can be added that main list, and the first F1 'regional sponsor' in Petronas, which covers only China, Italy and Mexico, is also new. Both of those represent useful wins for Liberty.
Nevertheless, it has proved harder to sell F1 to major corporations than was originally thought. Perhaps Ecclestone wasn't doing such a bad job after all.
Advertising and sponsorship, mainly built around signage at tracks, is one of the three main pillars of F1's overall revenue, along with race hosting fees and broadcasting. In 2017, it accounted for 15.7% of the total, less than half of each of the other two, but still a significant contribution, and one that clearly has huge potential.
That's because it is not as limited as the other two revenue streams. As Liberty has found, building race fee income is not the work of a moment. In theory, the schedule can be pushed to 25 events, but creating new races is a hugely complicated process. Many existing promoters are also currently pushing to get better deals when they renew.
Traditional broadcasting also has an obvious cut-off point: once deals have been done in all territories, there's not much you can do to boost income.
In theory, sponsorship is wide open for exploitation by Liberty, especially because Ecclestone followed a strategy of having a relatively small number of major partners, which provided each of them with some guarantee of exclusivity. Ditch that philosophy, and the sky is the limit.
"I wanted to make sure that the sponsors that we had and paid a good price got proper value," says Ecclestone. "There's nothing wrong with Kentucky Fried Chicken, but Rolex don't want to have their signage next to Kentucky Fried Chicken. They want to be exclusive.
Through unfortunate timing, Liberty arrived just as contracts with UBS and Allianz came to an end
"The owners of Heineken and Rolex are friends. But when we got Heineken I told Rolex, and they said, 'The problem is the same colours, so we have to be careful'. I said, 'I tell you what I'll do, I'll make sure they are not within spitting distance, so you won't see them in the same camera shot'.
"DHL have also got problems with another sponsor for the same reason. You have to be a little bit careful - it's just as easy for them to say, 'It's not what we really bought, and we're going'. I told them it would never happen, and it didn't happen, and they were very grateful."
Without Ecclestone's self-imposed restrictions there's plenty of scope for F1 to bring more major names on board, and sign up official suppliers of this and that. That's certainly how Liberty saw it when it first took over.
"Probably the one to grow the fastest is sponsorships," Carey said at the time. "Realistically today we have a one-man sponsorship operation. There are many categories we are not selling into. We have signage at tracks we're not selling. Putting an organisation in place that enables us to execute on that probably is the most immediate impact."
Liberty CEO Greg Maffei compared the resources of Major League Baseball with those of the F1 marketing department under Ecclestone, pointing out that MLB had "75 or 80 people on sponsorship".
Through unfortunate timing, Liberty arrived just as contracts with UBS and Allianz came to an end, which was not a great start.
Under commercial boss Sean Bratches, F1 immediately set about building an in-house marketing team. Then in April 2017 it was announced that CAA Sports, a division of the mighty Creative Artists Agency organisation, had been hired to represent the F1 brand and take it "into new markets and expand the sponsorship portfolio to include new and innovative commercial partners".
Over that first season of Liberty's stewardship no major new names were announced, and there were only minor deals with the likes of podium supplier Champagne Carbon. But big ambitions remained.
"We know there are categories of sponsorship that will likely get filled out, that didn't exist, and that will not all get completed in 2018," Maffei noted this March, more than a year after the takeover.
"We don't have an oil and gas sponsor, we don't have a technology sponsor, we don't have a soft drink sponsor, we don't have a hard spirit sponsor, we don't have a hospitality sponsor, we don't have a financial services sponsor - a long list of people you would like.
"And you would think we should be able fill out some, if not all, but they won't all get done in 2018 to the degree that we'd like. Activating those, and getting the full power of those - it's going to take a couple of years."
When Carey recently summarised the commercial achievements F1 had made in 2018 it was a relatively modest list - extended contracts with DHL and Emirates, the betting deal, Petronas, and getting New Balance involved in the Esports series.
"I'd point out that many of these deals were done in 2018," he said in an investor call. "And we look forward to receiving the full benefit of these new contracts in '19. Sponsorship will be a continued area of focus in '19 and we will enter the year with great momentum."
As with so many other things, Liberty is asking for more time before it can be judged.
"We're not asking for tens of thousands of pounds, we're asking for seven or eight figures. So, it takes time"F1 director of sponsorship and commercial partnerships Murray Barnett
These days it's not just about track signage or race title sponsorship. As Carey suggested, the arrival of F1 Esports has added a new dimension, with special appeal to tech sponsors. Fan Festivals have also provided an extra opportunity to reach people who might not normally be exposed to F1.
It's worth noting what F1 offers the likes of Emirates, as outlined in the announcement of the contract renewal: "Extensive trackside branding at the races, hospitality for guests at the Paddock Club, interactive fan engagement activities at F1 Fan Zones and F1 Fan Festivals at selected races, as well as Supercar Hot Laps at eight races and branding across digital media assets."
That's the sort of multi-dimensional offer that F1 director of sponsorship and commercial partnerships Murray Barnett is busy trying to sell. But getting the message across takes time.
"We definitely have more products," Barnett said earlier this year. "And that's how I see a lot of sponsorship coming, it's related to specific products that we have.
"In terms of F1 specific partners, those are coming, it's just taking people a while to one, see that the sport has changed, and two, to put into their consideration set, because we're not asking for tens of thousands of pounds, we're asking for seven or eight figures. So, it takes time for that to work through their internal cycle of business analysis."
Liberty boss Maffei suggested that there are obvious sectors to be chased down by F1, such as official soft drink. However, Barnett said it was not that straightforward.
"It's not about ticking the boxes," he explained. "There are certain categories that would be a natural fit, [and] those are certainly the ones that you'd start off with. But I don't think we feel that we have to have certain sectors. I think what we're also looking for is partners that are also engaged with us. Heineken is an example of somebody who supports and grows the brand a lot.
"When we talk to, say, a Coca-Cola it's as much about, 'What are you going to do to help us magnify and reach a different audience for F1', as it is, 'What are you going to pay us [as] a fee?' And we're trying to look at it a lot more holistically, how partners can support us and help us grow."
One of the key things Liberty must do is sell the future of F1, in other words convince potential backers that its vision for 2021 and beyond is the right one.
"There's a huge amount of excitement about what we're doing, and certainly we don't have any problems getting meetings with almost any brand, because they want to hear about how it's changed and how it's developed," said Barnett.
"As I said earlier I think the kind of fees that we're looking for mean that it takes a while for that consideration to pass through their internal processes.
"We're doing a lot around not just brands, but agencies and so on. If you're going to see Coca-Cola, it's not just about them, it's also about making sure that their agency also knows what we're doing differently and how we can activate differently, because with certain brands the agency are very influential in making a deal happen or not."
There's one obvious complication that Ecclestone also faced. In chasing the same sponsors F1 potentially ends up in competition with the teams. It was a subject raised earlier this year by Force India boss Otmar Szafnauer, who suggested it was now more of an issue than it had been in the past.
"That's the problem that I had to be careful about," says Ecclestone. "Imagine Williams have just done a deal with Pepsi, and I have a Coke deal. I used to know what was going on, making sure that didn't happen. I had to be careful, I don't want to upset the teams, and I don't want to upset the sponsors. I used to say I've got a lot of balls in the air, and two of them are mine!"
But Barnett played down any potential clashes of interest: "I don't see it as competition at all," he said. "I think we offer something different to the teams, and indeed we want to work as closely as we can with them. We think that if the teams do well, the tracks do well, it's better for everybody.
"When we go and see a particular brand we're giving them a very unique set of assets that you get as a partner of F1. I'm delighted if they say 'no' to us, but [go] 'it's a better fit if we're with McLaren or Williams or whoever'. As long as the money stays in the sport that's the most important thing."
Should Liberty be doing better? If you combine the five global partners and four official sponsors that's a total of nine significant deals.
By contrast, the International Olympic Committee has 13 official partners, generating 40% of its revenues. FIFA has seven 'premium' partners, plus five World Cup sponsors, for a total of 12.
So, there certainly appears to be room for some more big names to spend their money in F1.
Then Liberty Media took control of the Formula 1 business nearly two years ago its bosses made one thing crystal clear - they believed Bernie Ecclestone had not fully exploited the commercial opportunities the championship provided.
A key area they singled out was sponsorship. And yet nearly two years after Chase Carey and co took control they are still relying on deals originally put together by Ecclestone.
As of the end of 2018, F1 has five major 'global partners' - Heineken, Pirelli, Rolex, DHL and Emirates - while there are also four less lucrative 'official sponsors' in AMG, Johnnie Walker, Tata and Amazon Web Services. All but the last of those deals began on Ecclestone's watch.
The new betting agreement with ISG can be added that main list, and the first F1 'regional sponsor' in Petronas, which covers only China, Italy and Mexico, is also new. Both of those represent useful wins for Liberty.
Nevertheless, it has proved harder to sell F1 to major corporations than was originally thought. Perhaps Ecclestone wasn't doing such a bad job after all.
Advertising and sponsorship, mainly built around signage at tracks, is one of the three main pillars of F1's overall revenue, along with race hosting fees and broadcasting. In 2017, it accounted for 15.7% of the total, less than half of each of the other two, but still a significant contribution, and one that clearly has huge potential.
That's because it is not as limited as the other two revenue streams. As Liberty has found, building race fee income is not the work of a moment. In theory, the schedule can be pushed to 25 events, but creating new races is a hugely complicated process. Many existing promoters are also currently pushing to get better deals when they renew.
Traditional broadcasting also has an obvious cut-off point: once deals have been done in all territories, there's not much you can do to boost income.
In theory, sponsorship is wide open for exploitation by Liberty, especially because Ecclestone followed a strategy of having a relatively small number of major partners, which provided each of them with some guarantee of exclusivity. Ditch that philosophy, and the sky is the limit.
"I wanted to make sure that the sponsors that we had and paid a good price got proper value," says Ecclestone. "There's nothing wrong with Kentucky Fried Chicken, but Rolex don't want to have their signage next to Kentucky Fried Chicken. They want to be exclusive.
Through unfortunate timing, Liberty arrived just as contracts with UBS and Allianz came to an end
"The owners of Heineken and Rolex are friends. But when we got Heineken I told Rolex, and they said, 'The problem is the same colours, so we have to be careful'. I said, 'I tell you what I'll do, I'll make sure they are not within spitting distance, so you won't see them in the same camera shot'.
"DHL have also got problems with another sponsor for the same reason. You have to be a little bit careful - it's just as easy for them to say, 'It's not what we really bought, and we're going'. I told them it would never happen, and it didn't happen, and they were very grateful."
Without Ecclestone's self-imposed restrictions there's plenty of scope for F1 to bring more major names on board, and sign up official suppliers of this and that. That's certainly how Liberty saw it when it first took over.
"Probably the one to grow the fastest is sponsorships," Carey said at the time. "Realistically today we have a one-man sponsorship operation. There are many categories we are not selling into. We have signage at tracks we're not selling. Putting an organisation in place that enables us to execute on that probably is the most immediate impact."
Liberty CEO Greg Maffei compared the resources of Major League Baseball with those of the F1 marketing department under Ecclestone, pointing out that MLB had "75 or 80 people on sponsorship".
Through unfortunate timing, Liberty arrived just as contracts with UBS and Allianz came to an end, which was not a great start.
Under commercial boss Sean Bratches, F1 immediately set about building an in-house marketing team. Then in April 2017 it was announced that CAA Sports, a division of the mighty Creative Artists Agency organisation, had been hired to represent the F1 brand and take it "into new markets and expand the sponsorship portfolio to include new and innovative commercial partners".
Over that first season of Liberty's stewardship no major new names were announced, and there were only minor deals with the likes of podium supplier Champagne Carbon. But big ambitions remained.
"We know there are categories of sponsorship that will likely get filled out, that didn't exist, and that will not all get completed in 2018," Maffei noted this March, more than a year after the takeover.
"We don't have an oil and gas sponsor, we don't have a technology sponsor, we don't have a soft drink sponsor, we don't have a hard spirit sponsor, we don't have a hospitality sponsor, we don't have a financial services sponsor - a long list of people you would like.
"And you would think we should be able fill out some, if not all, but they won't all get done in 2018 to the degree that we'd like. Activating those, and getting the full power of those - it's going to take a couple of years."
When Carey recently summarised the commercial achievements F1 had made in 2018 it was a relatively modest list - extended contracts with DHL and Emirates, the betting deal, Petronas, and getting New Balance involved in the Esports series.
"I'd point out that many of these deals were done in 2018," he said in an investor call. "And we look forward to receiving the full benefit of these new contracts in '19. Sponsorship will be a continued area of focus in '19 and we will enter the year with great momentum."
As with so many other things, Liberty is asking for more time before it can be judged.
"We're not asking for tens of thousands of pounds, we're asking for seven or eight figures. So, it takes time"F1 director of sponsorship and commercial partnerships Murray Barnett
These days it's not just about track signage or race title sponsorship. As Carey suggested, the arrival of F1 Esports has added a new dimension, with special appeal to tech sponsors. Fan Festivals have also provided an extra opportunity to reach people who might not normally be exposed to F1.
It's worth noting what F1 offers the likes of Emirates, as outlined in the announcement of the contract renewal: "Extensive trackside branding at the races, hospitality for guests at the Paddock Club, interactive fan engagement activities at F1 Fan Zones and F1 Fan Festivals at selected races, as well as Supercar Hot Laps at eight races and branding across digital media assets."
That's the sort of multi-dimensional offer that F1 director of sponsorship and commercial partnerships Murray Barnett is busy trying to sell. But getting the message across takes time.
"We definitely have more products," Barnett said earlier this year. "And that's how I see a lot of sponsorship coming, it's related to specific products that we have.
"In terms of F1 specific partners, those are coming, it's just taking people a while to one, see that the sport has changed, and two, to put into their consideration set, because we're not asking for tens of thousands of pounds, we're asking for seven or eight figures. So, it takes time for that to work through their internal cycle of business analysis."
Liberty boss Maffei suggested that there are obvious sectors to be chased down by F1, such as official soft drink. However, Barnett said it was not that straightforward.
"It's not about ticking the boxes," he explained. "There are certain categories that would be a natural fit, [and] those are certainly the ones that you'd start off with. But I don't think we feel that we have to have certain sectors. I think what we're also looking for is partners that are also engaged with us. Heineken is an example of somebody who supports and grows the brand a lot.
"When we talk to, say, a Coca-Cola it's as much about, 'What are you going to do to help us magnify and reach a different audience for F1', as it is, 'What are you going to pay us [as] a fee?' And we're trying to look at it a lot more holistically, how partners can support us and help us grow."
One of the key things Liberty must do is sell the future of F1, in other words convince potential backers that its vision for 2021 and beyond is the right one.
"There's a huge amount of excitement about what we're doing, and certainly we don't have any problems getting meetings with almost any brand, because they want to hear about how it's changed and how it's developed," said Barnett.
"As I said earlier I think the kind of fees that we're looking for mean that it takes a while for that consideration to pass through their internal processes.
"We're doing a lot around not just brands, but agencies and so on. If you're going to see Coca-Cola, it's not just about them, it's also about making sure that their agency also knows what we're doing differently and how we can activate differently, because with certain brands the agency are very influential in making a deal happen or not."
There's one obvious complication that Ecclestone also faced. In chasing the same sponsors F1 potentially ends up in competition with the teams. It was a subject raised earlier this year by Force India boss Otmar Szafnauer, who suggested it was now more of an issue than it had been in the past.
"That's the problem that I had to be careful about," says Ecclestone. "Imagine Williams have just done a deal with Pepsi, and I have a Coke deal. I used to know what was going on, making sure that didn't happen. I had to be careful, I don't want to upset the teams, and I don't want to upset the sponsors. I used to say I've got a lot of balls in the air, and two of them are mine!"
But Barnett played down any potential clashes of interest: "I don't see it as competition at all," he said. "I think we offer something different to the teams, and indeed we want to work as closely as we can with them. We think that if the teams do well, the tracks do well, it's better for everybody.
"When we go and see a particular brand we're giving them a very unique set of assets that you get as a partner of F1. I'm delighted if they say 'no' to us, but [go] 'it's a better fit if we're with McLaren or Williams or whoever'. As long as the money stays in the sport that's the most important thing."
Should Liberty be doing better? If you combine the five global partners and four official sponsors that's a total of nine significant deals.
By contrast, the International Olympic Committee has 13 official partners, generating 40% of its revenues. FIFA has seven 'premium' partners, plus five World Cup sponsors, for a total of 12.
So, there certainly appears to be room for some more big names to spend their money in F1.
