Sebastian Vettel becomes the first ambassador for Infiniti
His world champion title has already allowed him to quadruple his salary at Red Bull. But Sebastian Vettel is also taking advantage of it to sign personal sponsorship contracts: after Head and Shoulders, the German has just become the first brand ambassador for Infiniti, already a major sponsor of Red Bull.
This is therefore an extension of the agreement that ties Infiniti to the Milton Keynes team since Sebastian Vettel was already using the Japanese brand’s vehicles as company cars during the various races, which shows an important change compared to last year.
In fact, even though the team was officially powered by Renault in the race, the vehicles used by the team members were Touaregs provided by Volkswagen. The Renault group (Infiniti is the luxury brand of Nissan, 43% owned by Renault) therefore took back control in terms of communication.
The reigning world champion also has, like many team members, a personal vehicle provided by the car manufacturer, similar to what Ferrari or Mercedes do with their drivers, in order to boost the brand’s notoriety.
Simon Sproule, vice president in charge of marketing and communication at Nissan, states: “Red Bull Racing has demonstrated over its short period in F1 that they are a great brand, unafraid to implement their own approach to create a winning team. Sebastian Vettel has played a key role in this development. It was thus a natural progression to work more closely with Sebastian. We officially welcome him today as a member of the Infiniti team.”
Some might be surprised by this choice given that the Japanese brand’s target audience is significantly older than the driver, who is only 23 years old. Nonetheless, he is establishing himself as one of the greatest of his time (as evidenced by his start to the season, with four wins in five races) and Infiniti needs a figurehead capable of opening up the European market, a profile that perfectly matches Sebastian Vettel.
With the participation of RacingBusiness.fr
