McLaren almost got sponsored by the government of Libya
It is once the dictators are gone or about to be that old files resurface and their former interlocutors play Pontius Pilate. Thus, we learn today that the cars of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button could have carried the "Visit Libya" stickers during the 2010 season.
As often happens in such cases, a well-intentioned intermediary was involved. In this instance, according to the Daily Mail which reports the story, it was former Formula 3 driver Alex Waters. In exchange for a fee if the deal materialized, he reportedly used his connections with the Woking team to benefit his uncle Brian, an architect who was negotiating urban planning projects in Libya.
In this context, Brian Waters is in direct contact with Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of the colonel who has been leading the country since September 1, 1969. The funding considered to promote the Libyan Ministry of Tourism reached 25 million pounds, with McLaren even sending computer simulations of what such sponsorship would look like and sending an invitation letter to their premises in Woking.
Contacted by our British colleagues, the team confirms that preliminary contacts took place before Saif Kadhafi lost interest in the matter: « McLaren was approached by Alex Waters in January of last year. Waters asked if we would be interested in meeting a consortium from Libya to discuss a commercial sponsorship. We explored this with Waters, sent computer illustrations of what a McLaren car would look like if such a sponsorship were to materialize. But no meeting of a McLaren employee took place with any member of the consortium, and thus the deal did not even reach the first stage. »
If the deal had materialized, it would not have been McLaren’s first business relationship with Arab countries, since one of its main shareholders is none other than the investment fund of the Kingdom of Bahrain, which is also currently experiencing political unrest. But before well-meaning individuals cast judgment on the Woking team for considering such a partnership, it is worth noting that in January 2010, Libya was on the path to normalizing diplomatic relations with the Western world by deciding to renounce the development of weapons of mass destruction. This is reminiscent of Muammar Gaddafi’s state visit to the Élysée in December 2007.
With the participation of RacingBusiness.fr
