18/12/2008
NEWS STORY
Although it has yet to be officially announced, Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo has revealed a sponsorship deal with India car maker Tata.
"For the first time an Indian brand will appear on the Ferrari," di Montezemolo said yesterday. "It's historic."
The deal comes at a time when, courtesy of the global economic crisis, almost everyone in F1 is fearing for the future, with teams working hard to retain existing sponsors far less bring new sponsors into the sport.
However, the Tata deal is helped by a joint venture which sees the Indian manufacturer, which also owns Rover, Jaguar and Land Rover, link up with Ferrari's parent company Fiat in a number of technical partnerships. Indeed, there is talk of Tata and Fiat linking up in a bid for Chrysler.
While this is a first in terms of sponsorship for Ferrari, Pitpass understands that there has been Tata 'involvement with Ferrari for some time, with engineers from the Indian giant spend time at Maranello, learning the Ferrari way of doing things.