Coton is a man who knows Formula One and will be conscious of the space a driver needs to focus on their main job, namely winning races, so will be instrumental in creating a ‘bubble’ around Hamilton, that was said to be at the root of his problems last year.

Didier Coton, who runs Sports Marketing and Event Management company Aces Management Group, takes on the task of guiding the 2008 F1 World Champion back to winning form.

Hamilton retains Simon Fuller’s XIX Entertainment to run his broader affairs, whilst the highly-experienced Didier Coton joins XIX to guide Hamilton’s racing career back to world championship winning form.

Coton said: “Being appointed by Simon to join the team is a great honour. I am excited to work alongside two such prestigious personalities and talents. XIX’s visionary approach is unique and one I believe in. I look forward to helping Lewis achieve success and developing long term projects with Simon and his team.”

Hamilton experienced a turbulent year in 2011, which was partly blamed by the media on his long-distance relationship with former Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger. Neither Hamilton nor Scherzinger have ever validated this assumption, although clearly their busy schedules placed tension on their relationship, leading to the pair splitting in October last year.

Since then, the pair have been spotted at a ski resort in Vail, Colorado where they spent New Year’s Eve and earlier this week heading out for dinner in Los Angeles.

With Scherzinger’s recent departure from the judging panel of X Factor U.S., she’ll have a bit more time on her hands, so perhaps that will boost Lewis’ morale and enable him to focus on winning another championship.

If you’re an ardent F1 fan, then you’ll already have pored over all the details on autosport.com, FormulaOne.com or the main UK broadcast rivals BBC and Sky F1 Digital. For a dose of intelligent reflection from the most popular experts, pay a visit to James Allen on F1, Joe Saward and F1 Pit Reporter for SPEED channel, Will Buxton.

If not, then it’s worth setting aside a few minutes and reading what they have to say.

The MP4-27 is the car that Vodafone McLaren Mercedes hope will deliver them back to the top of the rostrum in both the Driver’s and Constructor’s Championships, after a drubbing by Red Bull Racing in 2011 (and previously in 2010). The combination of Adrian Newey, the hottest engineer in F1 and Sebastian Vettel, the hottest driver in F1, has made a formidable opponent and McLaren are determined to fight back from the first race of the season in Melbourne.

In the following video, former World Champions Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton share their thoughts on the upcoming 2012 season, together with what drives them and their team in their pursuit for success. In addition. McLaren MD Jonathan Neale also provides his insight into the development of the MP4-27 and how it differs from last season’s car.

Given how early we are in the season, with only 2 cars (from Caterham F1 and McLaren) currently revealed, I was surprised to see the comment from Sky Sports’ Technical Analyst Mark Hughes that the MP4-27 represented “..nothing new” and the more asinine remark that “..McLaren are still yet to uncover the secret of Adrian Newey’s ongoing success at Red Bull.”

Hopefully such speculation is not indicative of Sky’s F1 coverage for the season ahead. As McLaren’s Team Principal Martin Whitmarsh said yesterday, even they don’t know how good a car they’ve built and won’t really know until qualifying at Melbourne. To conclude anything at this stage, especially given how much the cars will change between now and mid-March, smacks of naivety or downright link-baiting to grab prominence in the search listings.

I guess all we can say just now is the drivers looked calm and refreshed from the winter break, the engineers looked satisfied with their endeavours and the team as a whole were realistic in their aspirations for the season ahead and the amount of work they need to invest in order to beat Red Bull.

Roll on Melbourne.

Gallery

But even so it comes as something of a ‘slight’ surprise to hear that Director of Engineering Patrick Head leaves Williams F1 with immediate effect this morning. The statement adds “..The company wishes Patrick well in his future activities and remains indebted for his service to Williams F1 over the past 34 years.”

Head will continue in his role as a Board Director of Williams Hybrid Power Limited, a subsidiary of the company that develops and produces hybrid technologies and which is working with Jaguar on productionising the C-X75 supercar.

Williams F1 floated on the stock market earlier this year, citing its intention “..to broaden the shareholder base as the current Williams owners look towards their retirement”, so the move is in keeping with these plans.

Head co-founded Williams F1 in 1977 with Frank Williams and over three decades has led the team’s engineering department. In that time, Williams F1 has won 113 Grands Prix and secured nine Constructors’ and seven Drivers’ World Championships.

Frank Williams commented, “Patrick and I have been in partnership for 34 years. During that time, he has been the leader of the technical team that has won the majority of our race wins and championships. This is a remarkable legacy and one which will be treasured and definitely not forgotten.

“Patrick is a very straightforward, hard working and truly gifted engineer who comfortably operates at a world class level. I will miss him very much, as I am sure his colleagues will, and he will always be welcome at Grove. Indeed, Patrick will still be seen around the factory as he continues to be involved in the development of our hybrid power activities.”

The lack of comment from Head was notable by its absence.

For the magazine’s 600th issue the team decamped to Chateauroux Air Base in the central region of France, with a dozen of the fastest production cars on the planet. Plus of course one F1 car and a Le Mans prototype.

The driver of the LRGP R30 was Nicolas Prost, son of two-time F1 world champion Alain Prost and it wasn’t just a Veyron and F1 Car that the magazine brought along for the test, the 0 – 300 km/h time trial included a Porsche Panamera Turbo S, Pescarolo LMP1 driven by Christophe Tinseau, Audi R8 V10, Cadillac CTS-V, BMW X6 M, Nissan GT-R, Mercedes SLS AMG and a Suzuki Hayabusa ridden by Baptiste Guittet..

Driving the production cars was none other than ex-F1 driver and 4-time Le Mans winner, Yannick Dalmas.

The film features exhilarating footage of the best road cars in the world trying to attain a speed of 300km/h before the R30, driven by Nicolas Prost.

To save you pausing the video, the times recorded were as follows:

Some context..

We’ve extracted a few times from a previous Sport Auto Germany test to provide context to the above and if you’d like to delve deeper and take a look at highly modified tuner vehicles, then I suggest you visit the 0-300-0 section within the Sport Auto website.

If you’d like to read the full story (and can parles français), the feature will be published in late December together with the final video. Keep an eye on the sportauto.fr website or follow them at @SportAutoMag.

As an additional bonus, sportauto.fr have published a 16-minute arty teaser of their own. It’s a little odd (i.e. much of the video is silent and in slow motion), but the sound is turned up for the in-car shots, so it’s worth staying with it.

The reason for my request was to provide some background to the BBC’s coverage of McLaren’s new £50m Production Centre (MPC), which is being opened by British Prime Minister, David Cameron, this afternoon.

Journalism student, Beth Andrews, was one of the first to respond and selected to appear on BBC Surrey alongside Professor John Watts, from the University of Surrey. Here’s what they both had to say..

The MPC is the new production facility for McLaren’s MP4-12C supercar and will also house the bulk of McLaren’s race car collection, which up until recently was housed at the secretive Unit 2 Access Point in Portsmouth.

The Prime Minister met with the team’s F1 drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button and was escorted around the MTC and MPC by McLaren’s Executive Chairman, Ron Dennis.

When speaking to a small gathering of media and invited guests, the Prime Minister said, “Thank you for inviting me. It is incredibly inspiring to be here. I’ve been to a few car factories in my time but I have never been to anything like this. Formula 1 is an incredible British success story. It is not just McLaren. When Michael Schumacher races it is in a car built in Britain. Perhaps that is a point I will make to Chancellor Merkel tomorrow to break the ice!”

Ron Dennis was keen to point out that McLaren Automotive had already sold 2,000 MP4-12C road cars in 2011, and was well on target to achieving 5,000 cars in 2012.

“Just like our racing cars, the McLaren Group never stands still – and you may like some of the pioneering new directions we’re taking.”, said Dennis.

“McLaren is more than just a builder of beautiful and successful Formula 1 cars: we’re a relentlessly competitive entity, bred on high-performance and determined to bring to market ground-breaking products and solutions that are set apart by their top quality and dependence on totally unique and highly innovative steps in performance.”

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]]> http://skiddmark.com/2011/11/prime-minister-david-cameron-opens-the-new-mclaren-production-centre-mpc/feed/ 0 http://skiddmark.com/2011/11/att-williams-and-ingenie-bring-formula-1-style-technology-to-young-drivers/ http://skiddmark.com/2011/11/att-williams-and-ingenie-bring-formula-1-style-technology-to-young-drivers/#comments Thu, 17 Nov 2011 11:34:42 +0000 Steve Davies http://www.skiddmark.com/?p=25960 As a young driver, you know how frustrating an experience it can be finding affordable insurance for your car. You’ve followed all the advice, chosen a cheap car, with a small engine, that stands about as much chance of winning the traffic light grand prix as Ed Miliband being our next Prime Minster.

And yet every insurance quote you receive seems to have the decimal point in the wrong place. Price comparison websites resemble a game of Monopoly, where each click of the mouse lands a player in even greater debt and nobody seems to care about your good driving record or your discipline behind the wheel.

That’s where the fresh-thinking car insurance brand Ingenie comes in. You see, Ingenie treats every driver as an individual so young drivers pay for their insurance based on how they drive, not on the collective risk of young drivers – which is how traditional car insurance works.

Sir Frank Williams talks about the crash that changed his life, the risk posed to young people by driving and the role of technology in creating safer roads.

Premiums are reviewed every three months with better drivers rewarded through discounts to help lower the cost of their car insurance premiums.

The company focuses on drivers aged 17 to 25, and uses advanced telematics to assess individual driving styles and compare against an ever evolving knowledgebase. Ingenie’s goal is that of mentoring and developing its customer base, leading to better drivers who are both less risky to insure AND more attuned to the principles of smooth and efficient car control.

Rather like the skills involved in driving an F1 car.

And that’s where AT&T Williams get involved. In an official announcement released this morning, the highly-respected F1 team have formed an official partnership with insurance provider Ingenie.

To underline just how committed both companies are to incentivising better driving, the team are offering special visits to the AT&T Williams factory as a reward for the best and most improved drivers. Whilst there, customers will be able to view the team’s Grand Prix Collection and try out the simulator to feel what driving a Formula One car is really like.

Adam Parr, Williams F1 Chairman, commented, “The Ingenie proposition immediately stood out because we liked the idea of sharing technology, similar to that used in our own Formula One cars, to help young drivers improve their skills and be rewarded with cheaper car insurance. We also have an interest in road safety, not least because our Founder and Team Principal, Sir Frank Williams broke his neck in a road accident.”

Adam Parr, Chairman of AT&T Williams explains why they teamed up with Ingenie

I should disclose that I have a personal interest in this new venture and have been keen to support the founders in launching the Ingenie brand, addressing a long-overdue gap in the market. The proposition has been developed to recognise the individual driver, make learning and development fun and reward participation.

Feedback is available via Twitter-style messages on Ingenie’s innovative mobile app and their website will provide insights to encourage young drivers to improve their skill and precision and become better, safer drivers.

Richard King, Founder and CEO of Ingenie with spokespersons Gary Lineker and F1 reporter Natalie Pinkham.

The similarity with Formula One’s telemetry-based philosophy is palpable and I believe it will provide a real incentive for young drivers to take pride in their driving and earn recognition for doing so.

Richard King, CEO and founder of Ingenie, said this morning, “We are delighted to be involved with one of the most respected names in motorsport. Ingenie is all about rewarding young people for better driving and there could be no better partner than AT&T Williams, given Formula One’s determination and use of technology to reduce serious injuries and fatalities on the track.”

And do you know what the best news is? No Meerkats were exploited in the making of their new ads.

You can check out Ingenie for yourself by visiting their website.

Now, I suspect there are many who can’t wait to return. Forget about the odd dog or two, delays with visas, and commentary boxes without windows, this was a festival for the world to see, and we loved it!

In terms of racing, the GP, surprisingly, under-delivered. There were, of course, “incidents”, but there was little of the wheel to wheel action that we have seen throughout much of this year.

Watching Friday’s first Free Practice, it seemed that Hermann Tilke’s stunning design of flowing and undulating track, with wide entries and sharp kerbs would reward the brave and punish the tyres. But this was not to be. Instead, we were treated to another flawless display by Sebastian Vettel and an almost resigned acceptance by those following behind.

For once though, this grand prix was not about the racing; it was about the way in which a country, with a GDP per capita of just 10% of that here in the UK, went about welcoming Formula One and in the process, demonstrated that India is a nation that means business.

There are many who must take credit for this achievement and notably, two names that have a familiar ring to many who follow F1 must be singled-out for their efforts – Vicky Chandhok (father of Karun) and Vijay Mallya, Team Principal of Sahara Force India.

Both have worked tirelessly for years, in India, in the UK, and within F1, lobbying for support, creating and presenting a credible media case and most importantly, finding the local funding to make the whole thing happen.

And of course, there is the Jaypee Group who set about building the circuit and all of its facilities: If ever a job has been well-done, this has been it. Also working fervently in the “best supporting” role has been Karun Chandhok, a young man who exudes class and who for several years now has been travelling across continents to engage the media and sell India’s story.

Only this week, in the build-up to the Formula One circus arriving, he performed over 50 one-to-one interviews with local media, going to great lengths to extend the hand of friendship to journalists who would normally be passed-over as outsiders of the high-profile formula one circus.

It will be interesting to see if Team Lotus can retain his services after failing to deliver him a race seat this weekend; if they don’t, it will be their loss.

India: an opportunity for all

To better understand why Formula One and India are so important for each other, you only need to understand a few simple statistics.

Currently, India has a population of approximately 1.2bn of which over 50% are officially catagorised as “poor” and only 18% can be considered “middle class” or better.

By 2025, it is estimated that the population will have risen to 1.4bn but significantly, 45% will be middle class or better. In other words, there will be 600 million active consumers or roughly speaking, the same number as the whole of Europe. Business, for some, will be very good!

At the same time though, India needs to support its growing population and this means attracting trade and jobs. Already, some African countries are taking highly lucrative call-centre and data contracts, and with the emergence of the region as a whole (China and Malaysia in particular), F1 can help to bring to India global attention, credibility and ultimately those all important revenues.

So whilst some teams made serious efforts to engage new support (Sahara Force India, HRT, Red Bull and McLaren), I was surprised that for most, it seemed like “business as usual”.

The manufacturers, of course, used the event to launch new product but what I particularly noticed was the lack of local language social media interaction . . . i.e.; “where were the Tweets in Hindi?!” This is a country that reveres its stars and it is possible that opportunities have already been lost.

That’s what I’m talking about

But going back to the racing, it really was all about Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull. Looking again at stats, Vettel is a driver who knows what he has to do. This was his 13th pole position of the season and Red Bull’s 16th (of 17). He is now equal (in terms of career total) with the great Juan Fangio on 28, and he is still only 24 years old!

He also, for statistics sake, led the entire race, won it and pumped in a fastest lap right at the end for good measure. Canada proved that he is not invincible, but his confidence in the car and himself is supreme and for the remainder of this season, I wouldn’t place my money anywhere else.

Unsurprisingly, team mate Mark Webber had another frustrating weekend. The Aussie has incredible nerve and skill, yet he has clearly also lost that element of belief that keeps Vettel in P1.

This is something that both Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso appear to recognise and no matter how many times Christian Horner smiles and says he supports “Number 2”, even he must acknowledge that the team are fortunate that they have the young German to keep the silver-ware coming in.

It was an equally diametric race for both McLaren and Ferrari. Jenson Button has done an incredible job this year of using his head and getting on with it. He never really got close to Vettel during the race, but then neither did anyone else trouble him. He’s a class act and McLaren did well to extend his contract!

The winners podium at the inaugural Indian GP with Jenson Button (2nd place), Adrian Newey (Red Bull Racing’s Chief Technical Officer), Sebastian Vettel (1st place) and Fernando Alonso (in 3rd place).

The Limping Horse

Fernando Alonso in 3rd place knows that this year’s car isn’t up to the job and as ever, he drove the socks off it. I’ve not always been a fan, but I can’t help but admire his ability and determination.

Ferrari have, of course, understood that Alonso’s results have somewhat flattered them and have been keen to continue the development of the 150 Italia, whilst also looking ahead to next year’s car.

This resulted in more on-track tests for the new Red Bull-esque front wing but throughout Free Practice and then mid race, Massa’s would flex violently, seeing both end plates alternatively hitting the ground, creating a shower of sparks.

Ferrari very wisely called Massa in to change it for an older design. Nevertheless, it’s encouraging to see Maranello take a less conservative approach and I suspect that by the time we get to Albert Park next March, red might just be the colour to look out for.

Gloves off…again!

Then we had MAS vs HAM (Round 6?).

Both are supremely talented, yet both have succumbed to making fundamental, often inexcusable errors on far too many occasions this season. I love Lewis’s passion and I still like to think of him as being the most gifted driver out there, but he’s too tense and is allowing his frustrations to colour his judgment.

At the end of the day, if you go side by side into a corner, you have to understand that there is a strong chance of contact.

As it was, the stewards made a strong call and penalised Massa for turning-in, and of course, just a few laps later, the hapless Brazilian once again took too much orange kerb and broke his front left suspension. It’s perhaps that latter action that worries me the most.

Having already made the same mistake in FP2, Massa really ought to have learned a lesson and if anything casts yet more doubt on his credentials for the 2012 drive, it’s failing to finish races through avoidable damage.

As for Lewis, as I’ve said before, McLaren, his family and his friends need to be there for him. He may be in a dark place but his pole in South Korea showed that he’s lost none of his ability.

Schumi comes on form, leading Mercedes towards 4th in the championship

Elsewhere, we almost saw a race between the two Mercedes but for once, it was Michael Schumacher’s pace that saw-off his young rival, Nico Rosberg.

More interesting though was Schumacher’s body language both before and after the race; here is a man who has absolutely no intention of quitting but instead is reveling in his new found form and clearly looking forward to a more competitive car next year.

In the midfield, there’s tremendous competition from all four teams to secure both bragging rights and prize money. Although seemingly secure in 5th, Lotus Renault have been struggling with form lately.

Ironically, Toro Rosso, currently in 8th, have made such rapid progress that they are fast becoming the team to beat. Getting both cars into the top 10 for the first time in qualifying was a statement of intent from the Italian squad and despite losing Sébastien Buemi to a Ferrari engine failure, Jaime Alguersuari was on top of his game to finish in P8, ahead of highly credible performances from Adrian Sutil and Sergio Perez.

Sutil knows that he’s fighting for his F1 life at the moment and post race interviews with Nico Hulkenberg suggest that he has every right to be concerned. Meanwhile, Perez continues to impress, bringing his Sauber through the pack and keeping another under-threat driver, Vitaly Petrov, at bay to score the final point.

Lotus Renault are another team with a surplus of talent fighting for just two seats in 2012. Petrov and (Nick Heidfeld’s replacement) Bruno Senna, have both delivered inconsistent results and whilst they both bring strong commercial backing, reserve driver Romain Grosjean, fresh from his GP2 Championship victory, has already been confirmed for more FP1 tests in the year’s two remaining races.

Then, of course, there is Robert Kubica, still side-lined after those appalling injuries to his hand following his rally crash, but still, doubtless, one of the finest F1 drivers of our time (and seemingly recovering well).

Bringing up the rear

It’s sad that I have to describe Williams as “tail-enders”, but on recent form, this is exactly where they’ve been heading.

Of the remaining teams, Team Lotus will have been pleased with Heikki Kovalainen’s 14th place finish, despite the fact that they are still well off one-lap pace in qualifying.

Marussia Virgin endured another difficult weekend, and perhaps the biggest smiles of the weekend could be found at the bottom of the pit lane with Narain Karthikeyan bringing his battered HRT home ahead of his much fancied team mate, Daniel Ricciardo.

HRT’s decision to put their faith in Karthikeyan will hopefully bring rewards and give the affable Indian a chance to secure a decent seat for next year.

As for Williams, I suspect that they need more than talk of former champion, Kimi Raikkonen, returning to the F1 grid to race with them next year. “Yes”, they’ll have Renault power, “yes”, they’ll have KERS but unfortunately, they’ll also have a team who just can’t get their car to work well and who have clearly already made significant sacrifices to bring it in within budget.

It’s now a good few hours after the race as I write this and the formula one circus has long ago left town. All that will remain are scattered posters on the busy streets and the noise of 24 highly-strung V8 engines still ringing in their ears.

But one thing is for certain, the circus will return and next time, it will be even bigger and better. Motorsport in New Dehli might never be as big as cricket, but a statement was made this weekend; from the marshals, the press, the fans and the tuk-tuk drivers, India can love Formula One, and Formula One clearly loves India.

Images: Mercedes GP Petronas, Red Bull Racing, Getty Images

A consortium comprising Capita Symonds, Populous and DIMTS (Delhi Integrated Multi Modal Transit System Ltd) has been appointed by the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) to build the new circuit, who will work with the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) and Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) to ensure that all aspects of the scheme meet the future licensing and regulatory requirements of national and international motor sport on four and two wheels.

Buddh Internation Circuit was designed by renowned circuit architect Hermann Tilke and stretches to 5.137-kilometres. With its two sizeable straights and an interesting mix of corners and elevation, the track should guarantee plenty of challenges for drivers and engineers alike.

The project team is built around world class experts with unrivalled experience of regeneration, development, engineering, transportation, motorsport and other major sporting events. Capita Symonds and Populous have delivered designs for some of the world’s most famous iconic sporting venues, including the London 2012 Olympic Stadium and the surrounding Olympic Park, Wembley Stadium, Wimbledon Tennis Ground, Oval Cricket Ground, and Silverstone – the original home of British motorsport.

Mumbai is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the most densely populated city in India (4th in the world). Mumbai is also the richest city in India, and has the highest GDP of any city in South, West or Central Asia.

Nevertheless, the project announced today is heavily focused on regeneration and will incorporate community, commercial, retail, leisure and residential properties.

Jerry Muscroft, of Capita Symonds, said, “The consortium understands how large sporting projects can be ‘Urban Generators’ that enhance and encourage development.”

“We are committed to delivering the next generation of racing circuits, with great racing, overtaking, world class facilities and architecture; but above all the intention is to create a sustainable venue that will not need continuous financial support, and will facilitate investment and re-generation.”

The new Buddh International Circuit as seen from Neel Jani’s Red Bull F1 car.

You might consider this inevitable, given that they’re working with the most successful F1 team of the last few seasons – but most brands would have used such an arrangement to boost their corporate hospitality offering or add a by-line to their newspaper or TV ads, but Infiniti have approached the opportunity quite differently.

We were recently asked to write a sponsored editorial about their latest video campaign – Infiniti M Hybrid race, we hesitated because the video on its own doesn’t tell a particularly compelling story. Take a look..

Sebastian Vettel pits a 359 bhp Infiniti M35h against Mark Webber in a 315 bhp Infiniti M37 S around the demanding Nürburgring Nordschleife.

Only when we stepped back and looked at the substance behind Infiniti’s message, did we see a story worth sharing – and it’s a story about the power of content marketing.

Display advertising – if it’s broke, why doesn’t somebody fix it?

Firstly some context. If you’re a regular visitor to SkiddMark, then you will be familiar with my view on display advertising. Back in the early 1990s when we first started using banner ads, we were seeing click through rates (CTRs) of between 70-80%. They worked remarkably well and many of us predicted that the Internet would overtake TV and print by the end of the decade. That didn’t happen. Partly because, unlike TV or print, the inventory of available online ad spots became almost infinite, but also because advertisers merely re-purposed existing content and then tried as many intrusive ways to get their ads seen.

Nowadays we see banner ads earning CTRs of 0.2% or less, with those irritating ones on Facebook and other social networking sites achieving as little as 0.08% – that’s 8 people in every 10,000 bothering to show any interest. Wowzer!

Yet despite the appalling efficacy of online ads, the sector is growing faster than ever before. This morning’s figures from the Internet Advertising Bureau show UK spend up 13.5% year-on-year to £2.26bn and for the first time online ad spend exceeded TV (27% versus 26%). Traditional media such as TV, radio and print saw growth of a just 1.4% in the same period.

So perhaps you’ll understand how ridiculous it looks to a veteran such as myself, to see more money being pumped into a medium that is less and less effective. In desperation to turn the tide, some advertisers are pushing out more intrusive forms of interaction (text links, web pages that interrupt the viewing experience and page takeovers), but these are counterproductive and only serve to annoy. With a few simple browser plugins you can already disable these ads, not to mention that people become increasingly ‘blind’ to them – sometimes deliberately so.

No, The future of advertising lies in taking the brand centre stage, becoming a content provider rather than a content divider. Brands have already found that with Facebook they no longer need publishers to act as mediators – people follow the music, whoever plays it, and brands are beginning to realise that when their outreach adds to the user experience then response rates rise accordingly (6-8% CTRs being more likely).

It will never return to those heady days back in the 90′s (there’s simply too much content and too little time), but as brands discover the power of content marketing at least engagement will be heading in the right direction.

Infiniti strikes a chord with F1 enthusiasts

Assuming that you’ve watched the video above, you’ll probably have concluded “yeah, nicely shot video, but it was never really a race”. Which is true and personally I’d like to see Infiniti letting two of the most down-to-earth and fun loving F1 drivers express a bit more of their playful nature, but it’s a start – and most importantly you chose to watch it and probably didn’t feel advertised to.

Both Seb and Mark have taken part in several more Infiniti videos, all of them content rather than advertising based – so as brands continue along this path (perhaps with our encouragement) expect more content-rich online experiences where entertainment, fun and participation replace the staid old monotony of the banner ad.

I’ve picked out a few of our favourite pieces of content from and around Infiniti during the past six months, but expect to see plenty more after Seb is crowned 2011 F1 world champion this Sunday.

Infiniti & Red Bull Racing: Anatomy of Performance

A film which dissects all the elements that go into producing Inspired Performance on the track, featuring Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber, David Coulthard, Christian Horner, Adrian Newey and Infiniti’s Andy Palmer.

Feature: Making of the Infiniti FX Sebastian Vettel Version

This 7-minute piece tells the full story of the creation of the car, from the initial concept stage, the production process and design, right through to its official launch at the Frankfurt motor show.

Red Bull Racing Showcar run in Austin, Texas

A remarkable piece of film showing ex-Red Bull Racing driver David Coulthard drive an F1 car in Austin, Texas where next year’s US Grand Prix will be held – driving the first ever ‘dusty’ lap of the track.

Infiniti M35h hybrid Guinness World Record

Tim Pollard from CAR Magazine takes the Infiniti M35h along to Northamptonshire’s Santa Pod Raceway, speeding it into the record books as the world’s fastest accelerating full hybrid.

Sebastian Vettel drives an Infiniti FX50

Red Bull Racing F1 driver Sebastian Vettel showing fans in China what an Infiniti FX50 can do.

Mark pushes an Infiniti to its limits at Rockingham

Mark Webber takes to the track in an Infiniti M37 Sport, while his passengers experience the thrill of a ride in wet and dry conditions.

Mark takes a journalist around Rockingham during a PR day for Infiniti, conducting the interview whilst going sideways. Brilliant!

Paraglider vs FX50S: The Duel

From the top of a mountain, twins Mike and Stuart race each other down to the foothills – one paragliding, one driving the FX50S.

SLOWNESS MAKES FASTNESS…the secret behind extreme performance

More of an advert than a content piece, but still worth a look. The message conveyed is “If you take time, scrutinise every detail, you reach the ultimate in performance.”

Disclosure: This article is sponsored in part by Infiniti, however all views expressed within are entirely our own. They asked us to talk about their latest ad – which we did – but we also chose to focus on the wider scope of their content marketing practice. Sponsored articles are accepted at our own discretion and only where we believe such additional focus or analysis will benefit our readers. If you have any questions or would like to discuss this further, then get in touch via email or using the contact tab on this page.

Following a 12 year stint in F1 from 1989 to 2001, Alesi moved onto DTM racing and then last year made his most recent competitive race appearance in the Le Mans Series. In January 2011 he joined Group Lotus as a brand ambassador and development consultant on the F1 customer race car, the T125. Although never straying far from the race track, the Indy 500 and oval racing represent completely new challenges for Jean.

Commenting on the announcement Jean Alesi said: “I’m thrilled that Lotus has given me the opportunity to compete in such a world famous race. It’s going to be a very special experience for me but I also know that I have a lot of hard work ahead. I’m very focused on the task I’m facing – I’m taking my training very seriously, I have some amazing support on this front from a ‘comeback’ expert and of course I will be testing extensively. I’m really excited about the race.”

Jean’s development role with Group Lotus will stand him in good stead as he prepares for his new challenge as he will be competing in a Lotus powered by the new Lotus IndyCar engine. Development of the 2.2-litre twin turbocharged V6 is going to schedule with the first engine fire-up set for mid October and track testing planned to commence in December.

Group Lotus Director of Corporate Operations Gino Rosato said: “IndyCar racing represents a really important element of our overall motorsport program. The Indy 500 is the highlight of the race calendar, the atmosphere is always incredible and having Jean racing for us there will make it extra special.”