Credit to @rage2 who noted here that TAG Heuer will move its F1 Sponsorship to Red Bull in 2016, ending the relationship with McLaren after 30 years.

JC Biver was asked here about moving TAG Heuer's sponsorship to Red Bull: "Oui, nous venons de signer Red Bull Racing en F1 pour la saison prochaine...."

"Yes, we have just signed Red Bull Racing in F1 for next season. It is a young, dynamic, go-getter, perfectly consistent with the TAG Heuer strategy"

Sorry to see the end of the McLaren relationship, but I'm a big Ricciardo fan

 

He sold his shares when TAG Heuer was floated in 1999

 

The new Renault engine Danny Ric was using last race, which Renault spent all year working on, 11 engine tokens to bring to track, and in rejection of Mario Illien's advice which Red Bull paid for, is apparently... 20hp less than the previous Renault. They developed it all year and made an engine worse than the one they already had, which was in turn worse than the 2014 engine. Really want Dan to get a WDC but I hope they're able to choose their own path next year, otherwise if they're stuck with Renault TAG Heuer could be watching this year with McLaren Honda all over again. Honda at least know whats wrong and intend to fix it, Renault seem to be completely inept.

 

Wonder if its possible that JCB doesn't like McLaren/Dennis too much, he'd have been the one making the Ferrari deal for Hublot as well.

 

No I meant he's been with McLaren's biggest competitor in the past in Ferrari

 

No, I think it's a lot simpler than that. If you look at where JCB wants to position TAG Heuer, there is a better overlap with Red Bull than McLaren- even though there was a hell of a lot of value in the McLaren relationship given its longevity. The second factor will be that there have been some former Red Bull marketing managers join TAG Heuer recently who I'm sure bring perspectives on the power of Red Bull as a brand and how they generate engagement.

 

Seems to be more and more rumours floating around about the Red Bull rebadged engine possibly being called a TAG as the 80s Porsche turbo engine was:

https://joesaward.wordpress.com/2015/12/01/notebook-from-abu-dhabi/

Bit of a co-incidence both TAG Heuer pulling out and switching to Red Bull after 30 years and former TH owner and current TAG owner Mansour Ojjeh also dumping his McLaren stock at the same time when Red Bull are in need of a new engine brand partner.

 

Also to quote Christian Horner:

Now the only thing he wouldn't be happy with is a Honda, or possibly a Mercedes. A rebranded and modified Renault which it nearly certainly is would be perfectly acceptable in Ron's eyes as he feels the Honda will be far better next year once the ERS is fixed.

A TAG branded engine with TH and Mansour's TAG backing it would definitely bother Ron immensely.

 

Would be an amazing deal, but Joe is right- "TAG" and "TAG Heuer" are two totally separate companies.

Let's see...

 

Just posted an hour ago... Swiss Engineering closing the gap to next season... With TAG Heuer branding and engineers in TAG Heuer white coats working on the exposed engine of the 2016 Red Bull



When asked if this is the new Red Bull engine deal, TAG Heuers official Twitter replied with "Stay tuned"



Looks like we're about to see Red Bull TAG Racing And yea Ron won't be happy

 

Even more entertainingly, RenaultSport F1's head Cyril Abiteboul, who Horner was openly taking the Mickey out of at the Abu Dhabi GP comments in reply to Red Bull's TAG Heuer engine photo:



Only to be heckled by the fans for his crummy engine: