Mercedes-Benz headlines AUTOSPORT Awards partners in anniversary year

Mercedes-Benz headlines AUTOSPORT Awards partners in anniversary year    Major global brands link up with leading motor sport Awards ceremony Mercedes-Benz title sponsor in anniversary year  F1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton and team-mate Nico Rosberg both potential award-winners The star-studded 2014 AUTOSPORT Awards – set to take place at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London on Sunday, 7 December – will benefit from strong support from a raft of high-profile partners led by Mercedes-Benz.   The evening’s guest list is expected to read like a glittering ‘Who’s Who’, and the Awards sponsors are likewise industry giants. From Mercedes-Benz to Bahrain International Circuit – host to the Bahrain Grand Prix – automotive manufacturer BMW, global oil producer Castrol, tyre-maker Pirelli, telecommunications and internet service provider Tata Communications and financial services specialist UBS, each is at the very top of their game.   Mercedes-Benz is no stranger to the AUTOSPORT Awards, having similarly headlined in 2013. In a year in which Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg and the MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team dominated the pinnacle of international motor sport – winning 16 of 19 Grands Prix, a new record – Mercedes-Benz UK Limited CEO Gary Savage reflects that the partnership is the perfect fit.   “The AUTOSPORT Awards ceremony is one of the undisputed highlights on the annual motor racing calendar, and appropriately, the Great Room at the Grosvenor House Hotel will be filled with great names, great drivers and great teams,” he explains. “It is a privilege to be a partner to such a prestigious and popular event, and our sponsorship is a combined effort between Mercedes-Benz’s road car business and our Formula 1 colleagues.   “Our ongoing support of the AUTOSPORT Awards is a celebration of motor sport in general. It’s a terrific event in its own right and one that we always enjoy attending, and at Mercedes-Benz, we are marking 120 years of motor racing this year, meaning the timing could not be any more apposite.”   Indeed, what is commonly perceived as the first official motor race took place in the south of France in 1894, with the winning car powered by an engine produced by Daimler – one of the two companies that went on to form Mercedes-Benz.   Bahrain International Circuit might not have been around as long, but in its ten-year existence, it has hosted a number of F1 and World Endurance Championship (WEC) classics, whilst Mercedes’ German rival BMW was the dominant force this season in the DTM. Marco Wittmann triumphed four times in the fiercely-contested, pan-European touring car series to lift the drivers’ laurels and help BMW Team RMG to clinch the teams’ crown.   Castrol is a key supplier to the M-Sport World Rally Team in the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC), with its Castrol EDGE brand lubricating the Ford Fiesta RS WRC piloted in 2014 by young British star Elfyn Evans. Pirelli, meanwhile, is one of the world’s pre-eminent motor sport tyre-suppliers, with exclusive contracts to both F1 and the World Superbike Championship amongst others.   Tata Communications and UBS are similarly pivotal partners to the international pinnacle of four-wheeled motor racing, and the fact that all AUTOSPORT Awards sponsors are returning following the hugely successful 2013 event is testament to the evening’s illustrious standing and reputation within the motor sport world.