Lenovo revs up with Williams

PRETTY GIRLS in tight t-shirts. Ludicrously loud engines. Chisel-jawed men in physique-hugging race suits. Glitz, glamour, and prestige.

It's all a long way from Chinese computer factories.

Which is precisely what Lenovo is counting on. As a maker of laptops, desktops and enterprise server kit, it faces the same problem that every IT provider does - making the brand stand out, and making the business seem sexy. It's hard to get consumers excited about Thinkpads, and so the idea that Frank Williams plots his GP strategies on one is something of a pull.

Lenovo has its logo all over this season's AT&T Williams car, possibly more so than AT&T actually does. This means exposure for the brand on TV around the world, especially so in the post-tobacco world F1 now inhabits. Exposure means brand recognition, and brand recognition means that customers might not go for HP next time they're buying kit (although, ironically, HP spent a couple of seasons as a Williams sponsor too).

The F1 sponsorship deal isn't a bad one. Pay a massive amount of money, get your branding on the car, and get to entertain important customers at race events. The INQ attended one such event yesterday, checking out the test day at Silversone which saw cars racing around the track in succession, testing out wing setups and downforce configurations and other such technical terms that make at least, oooh, 1/100th of a second of a difference on race day.

Of course, aside from the branding, Lenovo wants everyone to know that it really does make a difference to the Williams team - that its IT strategy can actually help out a big-name customer like Williams and that, therefore, there is substance behind the style. To this end, the company wheeled out Chris Taylor, head of IT at Williams, to regale the table of attendees with praise for the computer maker.

"These are exciting times," he said, referring to driver Alex Wurtz's podium finish in the last race. "Lenovo is an exciting partner for us."

That's certainly a good start to be sure, but what does a tech partner actually do for a Formula 1 team? "It's not just a case of supplying the hardware," said Taylor, "It's the support behind it. We get information about forthcoming technology, benchmarks, advice on the most appropriate technology for our applications." As well as a few million quids worth of Intel Xeons, no doubt.

Of course, the other high profile technology sponsor in Formula 1 is AMD's sponsorship of Scuderia Ferrari. With Schumacher gone the team may be lacking in driver skill, but AMD has spent a lot of wonga wooing Ross Brawn. What does Lenovo bring to the table that AMD doesn't? "Lenovo brings an end to end product solution rather than just being a processor partner. I mean, you might as well have a memory sponsor, or a hard disk sponsor as have a processor sponsor. It's good for us to have a sponsor that can actually supply end products to us." µ

The companies are currently working on implementing a top-secret new computer system at Williams headquarters, and Taylor says that he is also consulting Lenovo on implementing new computing technologies in their CAD/CAM workshops and machining factories. There is potential to roll out new equipment, he says, right across the business, not just in the pit lane. All of which circles us round, in a cunning way, to our original point. Lenovo is attempting to convince people that it is more than just the maker of little black boxes. Lenovo, it is said, can be a brand that is part of your work, your play, your business and your home. It's not Chinese and boring, it's international and glitzy. It's a 'solutions provider', hence it provides solutions, natch. With its Formula 1 sponsorship, Lenovo is going beyond the Stinkpad, into bold new territory, away from its business-class, Far Eastern image. Fast cars and hot women are as good a way to go as any.