TW Steel partners with Renault F1

TW Steel, the Dutch watch firm, has become the first brand to sign a sponsorship deal with Renault F1 since the team was involved in the race-fixing scandal.

The watch brand, has signed a three-year partnership with Renault to become its “Official Timing Partner”, a move which will see the brand’s logo appear on team uniforms and driver racesuits.

Jordy Cobelens, chief executive of TW Steel, says the partnership provides the firm with a “tremendous global platform”, adding it intends to launch a marketing programme as part of its activation plans.

The deal comes just over a month after the World Motor Sport Council ruled that Renault conspired to cause a deliberate crash in order to fix the result of a 2008 Grand Prix in Singapore, an offence, it said “of unparalleled severity”.

The scandal led to Dutch bank ING, which had planned to pull-out of F1 at the end of the current season, ending its sponsorship four races early.

TW Steel, which means “The Watch in Steel”, will make its F1 debut with the team at this weekend’s 2009 season finale in Abu Dhabi, though the deal is officially effective from next season through to 2012.