THE F1 BUSINESS: Over the past few years, the information technology (IT) industry has started to take note of how Formula 1 teams use technology to compete against each other. The teams are taking on a combination of IT, telecommunications, financial services and lifestyle product companies as tobacco advertising is phased out over the next few years and the teams themselves go through a transition from being pure racing outfits to fully-fledged commercial organisations.
At the start of a new millennium, F1 is now much more of a "business" seeking a global brand. Far from using F1 as yet another marketing tool, for some companies F1 is the marketing tool.
The advantages are obvious. Marketing in F1 is multifaceted. Customers can be entertained and consumers influenced, all with the same budget and all at the same time. The audience is huge - 350 million for every race covering the globe (2001).