McLaren Technology Group and global media giant Cable News Network (CNN) International today announced that the news organization would become McLaren-Honda partner from this year’s season.
CNN’s branding will appear on the front-wing endplates of the McLaren-Honda MP4-30, which will be unveiled in an online launch on January 29th. The partnership will allow for CNN’s use of McLaren’s new thought leadership centre, based within the McLaren Technology Campus in Woking, Surrey, UK – from which CNN International will produce several programmes to be broadcast globally across its network.
CNN has won News Channel of the Year for the past two years from the Royal Television Society and numerous other awards over its 30-year existence. McLaren is one of Formula One’s most successful teams, having won the F1 driver’s championship 12 times and constructor’s championship eight times. Champion in 2005 and 2006 Fernando Alonso returns to the team after a seven-year hiatus to partner 2011 champion Jenson Button.
“This is a groundbreaking partnership between two trusted brands with a passion for high performance and continued innovation. Committed to being first, we share a mutual respect for each other’s operations – whether that’s the tenacity of CNN journalists in going to the heart of a story or McLaren’s forensic focus for every F1 race,” says CNN chief commercial officer Rani Raad.
“The partnership between McLaren and CNN is unique in that it operates on a very broad scope. Our shared love of technology has united us. Together we will pursue new opportunities far beyond the conventional scope of a Formula 1 partnership,” McLaren CEO Ron Dennis said.
