The Russian oil company Lukoil could become the new partner of Mclaren F1 according to Russian media “Championat” in order to take the place of Petrobras the current technical and sponsor partner of Mclaren.

 

The “Championat” stated that the head of Lukoil Racing, Evgeny Malinovsky, has held talks with the head of McLaren Zac Brown on starting cooperation during the Russian GP.

 

However, we don’t know whether the two parties agreed or not, although, it would be a chance to fill the gap of leaving partner Petrobras.

 

Meanwhile, many reports from Brazil say that the Government of Brazil has canceled Petrobras's deal with the McLarenF1 squad. Moreover, Petrobras oil company is 64 percent owned by the Brazilian government. It's known that the oil company has signed five years deal two years ago, worth £163 million. 

 

Brazil’s Ministry of Economy claimed earlier to have terminated the sponsorship deal with Mclaren which they called it an “unjustifiable” deal in papers published by the ministry this week, according to a report from Motorsport.

 

The document stated: "An unjustifiable Petrobras sponsorship agreement for the McLaren Formula 1 team - worth £ 163 million - has been terminated." 

 

This came after a post the Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro made on Twitter earlier this year saying: "In 2018, Petrobras signed an advertising contract of R$782 million with McLaren, valid for five years. At the moment, the company, by the decision of my government, seeks a way to terminate the contract."

Petrobras has been reducing investment in all sports such as rugby, tennis and handball's sponsorship this year not in F1 only. The decision was taken from the arrival of Roberto Castello Branco to the presidency of the state company. As a result, some projects are losing support or their funding has been reduced.

 

McLaren reported via a press office on Friday that the spokesman of Mclaren F1 preferred to not speak further due to confidential matter saying: "Such matters are commercially confidential and therefore we are not able to comment further at this time."