Mercedes follow Manchester United with "no-brainer" new sponsorship deal

Lewis Hamilton in overalls with TeamViewer branding — Photo: © LAT Images

Mercedes

Mercedes follow Manchester United with "no-brainer" new sponsorship deal

TeamViewer becomes Mercedes' third largest partner

Ian Parkes

Tuesday 30 March 2021 12:00

Mercedes has followed Manchester United's lead by signing a long-term sponsorship deal with German technology company TeamViewer.

The footballing giants recently confirmed a five-year shirt deal with TeamViewer, which specialises in remote working software, worth a reported £235million.

Mercedes has also signed a five-year agreement that will see branding feature on the cars in Formula 1 and Formula E, as well as the overalls of drivers Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas, Stoffel Vandoorne and Nyck de Vries.

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TeamViewer becomes the third-largest partner of Mercedes after INEOS, which now holds a third share in the team, and fuel supplier Petronas.

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff described the deal as "a no-brainer" for the Stuttgart-based company due to F1's "large impact on global audiences and all the potential customers out there."

He added: "I'm particularly proud to join up with the same group with Manchester United. TeamViewer has entered sports royalty and it's great for us to be a part of it."

Asked by GPFans Global about potential joint marketing activities involving both the F1 team and Manchester United, Wolff added: "I believe the two platforms can work very well together for TeamViewer because we are accessing very different audiences.

"It's almost covering the whole spectrum of fans and supporters in the sports world, with Manchester United among the best known and strongest football teams around the world. We play that part in high-tech sports, so there is a good fit.

"I can tell you from my experiences that learning from each other, in terms of performance, pressure and how to cope with expectations for ourselves and leadership, there are a lot of cases we can mutually share in order for both teams to enhance their performances."

As to whether Mercedes will now become Manchester United's official auto partner given the club's current shirt sponsorship deal with Chevrolet expires this summer, Wolff remarked he would "leave it up to the people in Stuttgart".

It is expected the TeamViewer software will enable the Mercedes F1 and FE teams to become more efficient via remote operations, as well as playing an important role in motorsport's journey towards net-zero emissions.

With people monitoring systems remotely, there will be further reductions of the carbon footprint of the racing teams.