Formula One team Marussia has furthered the sport’s links with football by agreeing a strategic partnership with English Championship club Reading.
Reading, which returns to the Championship this season after a one-year stay in the Premier League, will have its club badge displayed on Marussia’s cars, with the F1 team’s logo displayed on the reverse of the Berkshire outfit’s playing shirts in the upcoming 2013-14 campaign.
The two parties said the partnership will involve an exchange of benefits including significant branding exposure in their respective team environments, joint marketing and promotional initiatives, as well as integration at a human performance level, collaborating on fitness, nutrition and coaching programmes.
Marussia is Russian-owned, while Reading also has a Russian owner in Anton Zingarevich.
Andy Webb, chief executive of Marussia, said: “Through Formula One we are able to combine our love of racing with our strategic business objectives for the Marussia brand, but we are also part of a sport within sport, so naturally we are keen to look more comprehensively at what we can learn from other sporting properties and indeed what they can learn from Formula One. This is all part of our ethos of taking our team and Formula One to the widest possible audience.”
Marussia’s fellow F1 backmarker Caterham is owned by Malaysian aviation businessman Tony Fernandes, whose Queens Park Rangers club was relegated from the Premier League with Reading. Caterham’s cars carry the QPR badge. Elsewhere, Chelsea enjoys a similar partnership with the Sauber team.