This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on July 17, 2017 - July 23, 2017

NORTHAMPTONSHIRE: Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) over the weekend announced the extension of its contract with Mercedes-Benz as the title partner for the Formula One (F1) Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport team.

The contract extension — its second since the partnership was first established in 2009 — will essentially bring Petronas’ involvement with the benchmark motorsport to at least the year 2020.

It also ended rumours that both Mercedes and Petronas are pulling out from F1, as the earlier tie-up between the two companies was supposed to end in 2018.

With the extension, Petronas, through its two subsidiaries Petronas Research Centre Sdn Bhd and Petronas Lubricants International, will continue to utilise F1 as a testing ground for its fuel and lubricants.

Petronas president and chief executive officer, Datuk Wan Zulkiflee, who is commonly known as Wan Zul, said that the national oil firm’s involvement with motorsports provides a platform for the oil and gas (O&G) company’s technology advancement, aside from a huge exposure in terms of branding.

“Being an O&G company, we are not new to very sophisticated technology, and this is a platform for us where we have been able to develop our products.

“The secondment of our interns and staff provides us with a very close collaboration with the team, and that is very important for us,” said Wan Zul in a video note.

“Also very important but not very visible is the culture of working with a high-performing team. We are very intimate with the culture, and we intend to replicate it in Petronas itself,” he added.

The collaboration has driven Petronas to develop over 200 different fuels and over 100 lubricants and functional fluids which are adopted into its range of retail oil end-products under the Primax (fuel), Syntium (engine oil) and Tutela (functional fluid) brands.

Petronas has participated in F1 since 1995, beginning with a direct sponsorship deal with Red Bull Sauber F1 team at the time.

Its partnership with Mercedes, together with its sister company Mercedes-AMG GmbH, has translated into three consecutive world title wins for both constructors and drivers division from 2014 to 2016, with the team currently at second place this year going into the 10th race in the British Silverstone Circuit here.

Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton won his home British Grand Prix for the fourth year in a row yesterday, as he drove from flag to pole, with team mate Valtteri Bottas finishing 14 seconds behind to secure the one-two.