OCTOBER 28, 2005

Looking for a sponsor?

The oil companies of the world are currently making vast profits as demand for oil soars. The US giant Exxon Mobil, which sponsors McLaren with its Mobil brand and Toyota with Esso, has just announced an astonishing profit of $9.9bn for the third quarter. This is the largest profit made in US corporate history. The companies revenues are up 32% with sales of more than $100bn. At the same time rival Royal Dutch Shell (which sponsors Ferrari) said it made $9bn net profit in the same quarter.

The oil boom around the world gives F1 the chance to find large sums of money from an industry which has close links with motorsport.

Of the major oil companies in the world only BP, ChevronTexaco, Conoco-Phillips, Pemex and others are not involved in the sport.