Briatore: ING deal good news for F1

ING has just signed a three-year title sponsorship deal with Renault, after being in talks with several other teams. It will replace Mild Seven as the principal backer of the French car manufacturer.

Briatore thinks the fact that international corporations are so keen to get involved in F1 can only point to a healthy future following the departure of tobacco companies.

"I think this is good news for F1," said Briatore at a press conference in Amsterdam to announce the ING deal. "When F1 lost the cigarette (sponsorship) everyone was worried about the finances of the team, because tobacco was very generous.

"But at the moment tobacco has gone and the major corporations have come back into F1. This is good news in the end."

Renault and ING have not given any indication of whether the team's colour scheme will change as a result of the deal. There is speculation in Holland that the cars could become predominantly orange - similar to the Spyker MF1 team.

When asked about the possibility of there being four orange cars on the grid next season, Briatore said: "You will see the Renault car in January for the presentation. I am not reading the future of the other teams. It is important to just have the quick one - that is more important. We don't care if somebody else has an orange car."

Maas said that there was no hesitation for ING to commit to Renault, even though a Dutch consortium had just bought the MF1-Team.

"The most important reason why we chose Renault is that it fits the ING brand the best," he said. "We are a large international company. We have 120,000 people in the company, by far the majority of people work outside our home country, so we are a large financial organisation and therefore not linked with just a Dutch team.

"Secondly, and more importantly, we felt with Renault with their winning performance and track record, it was important to link a team like that with ING rather than team who have just started. We felt that we were better aligned as a brand with Renault than any other team."