Spotlight on: Chinese Grand Prix By James Knott, Senior Account Manager

It was back to business as usual for Mercedes at the Chinese Grand Prix over the weekend Lewis Hamilton dominated every single session in Shanghai to record his second win of the

season, with the increasingly frustrated figure of Nico Rosberg completing a 1-2 for the Silver Arrows. More importantly, the German manufacturer team re-asserted its performance advantage over the improved Ferrari, following Sebastian Vettels shock victory in Malaysia last time out.

China has been an ever-present fixture on the Formula 1 calendar since 2004, following an

investment of over $300 million for the construction of the Shanghai International Circuit construction that took a staggering 18 months to complete. However, it was clear to most watching that Formula 1 still has a long way to go with regards to winning over the Chinese audience. Aside from the main grandstand on the start finish straight, the vast number of empty seats around the remainder of the 5km circuit spoke volumes.

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By James Knott

Senior Account Manager

Octagon UK @JamesKnott

Spotlight on: F1 Chinese Grand Prix, Shanghai

In addition, the lack of Chinese sponsors involved in the sport suggests that it is still a way behind the likes of football, basketball and even table tennis in terms of which platforms marketers in China are looking at with regard to reaching target audiences effectively. Aside

from Weichai Powers partnership with Ferrari, the involvement of Chinese brands in Formula 1 is minimal.

As with the vast majority of races in the calendar, the Chinese GP was an extremely cluttered space in terms of sponsor presence. The big winners from the weekend were undoubtedly

Emirates Airline, who enjoyed a huge amount of airtime thanks to the regular and prolonged fly-bys around the heavily-branded pit straight grandstand. The on-going success of Mercedes ensured a strong presence once again for Petronas, while Banco Do Brasil enjoyed some decent exposure thanks to Saubers drivers being regularly embroiled in battles for position lower down the field. In contrast, it was easy to forget that Williams Martini Racing were even in Shanghai, as Massa and Bottas simply cruised round the 56 laps on their own too slow to challenge the Ferraris, and too quick for the likes of Toro Rosso and Red Bull to threaten their stranglehold and 5th and 6th places.

The under-performing McLaren has notably been without a title partner since its Vodafone deal ended in 2013. Its Chairman, Ron Dennis, was recently quoted as saying that; Title sponsorship doesnt exist anymore as a concept, and instead the team are targeting smaller sponsorships with companies who share similar philosophies and values to McLaren. However,

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with its cars continually hampered by performance issues and languishing towards the bottom of the pack, it remains to be seen just what pull the famous McLaren name still has for brands.

Not since 2008 has the Chinese Grand Prix had a Chinese event sponsor. Sinopec was replaced by Swiss banking giant UBS in 2009, and this years race was without a title sponsor entirely. If the seemingly empty stands were anything to go by, race attendances were also considerably down on previous years. It therefore begs the question as to whether the Chinese market, seen by so many as one of the key global audiences and revenue streams

for sports rights holders and sponsors now and for the future, will ever garner the same passion for Formula 1 as its European counterparts.

This can, perhaps, be put down to a shortage of national icons, in terms of teams or drivers, for the Chinese public to fully get behind. While 4-time race winner Hamilton remains an incredibly popular figure in Shanghai, Formula 1 lacks the effect of a Li Na or Yao Ming, who

have had such an enormous impact in their home country in terms of raising the profiles of tennis and basketball respectively. More often than not, the emergence of top talent is intrinsically linked to the popularity of a sport, and it is questionable whether Formula 1 will ever gain enough traction in China for us to see Chinese drivers regularly gracing the worlds premier motorsport championship.