ING cutting back on sponsorship

Renault's primary sponsor, ING, has announced it will be cutting back on its sponsorship of Formula One. The insurance conglomerate is set to report heavy losses for 2008, and are looking to decrease the costs of their operations. The measures announced to achieve this include the laying off of thousands of workers, as well as a reduction in F1 sponsorship.

"ING will cut operating expenses by EUR 1 billion in 2009," the company said in a statement. "The structural expense reduction will lead to annual savings of approximately EUR 1.1 billion from 2010 onwards. Of the cutback, 35% will come from a reduction of the workforce by approximately 7000 full-time positions in 2009.

"The remainder of the expense reduction comes from decreasing costs for our head office, marketing, the Formula One program, consultancy, third-party staff and the renegotiating of certain contracts with IT-vendors. Of the total expense reduction, EUR 650 million will be realized in Banking and EUR 350 million in Insurance."

As well as being Renault's title sponsor, the Dutch-based company also use trackside advertising and are sponsoring races in Australia, Belgium, Hungary and Turkey this year.

Source: Planet-f1.com