India welcomes the QNET-sponsored Marussia F1 Team Show Car Tour

The Marussia F1 Team’s Formula One (F1) race car is currently on a journey around the globe, thanks to the QNET Show Car World Tour 2012, and has made its way to the Indian subcontinent, where it will visit a staggering seven cities.

QNET, a leading international direct selling company specialising in exclusive lifestyle brands, is the team’s Official Direct Selling Partner and the organiser of this tour. Marussia F1 Team fans and supporters of the high-speed sport can enjoy the rare opportunity of seeing a stunning, state-of-the-art F1 car up-close over these four weeks, while the tension builds in the lead up to the Airtel Indian Grand Prix on 28 October.

Motor sport enthusiasts and India’s shoppers can catch the QNET-sponsored Marussia F1 Team show car at the first stop, which will be at the Forum Koramangala in Bangalore, from Wednesday, 3 October to Sunday, 7 October. The show car tour, organised by QNET, the team’s Official Direct Selling Partner, will then be moving onto Chennai from Tuesday, 9 October, for two days, followed by Pune, where it will be stationed at Phoenix Market City, Viman Nagar. The fourth stop off will be in Mumbai from 19 October, travelling onto New Delhi at the DLF Promenade for four days from 25 October. The impressive vehicle will then swing by Phoenix United in Lucknow from 31 October, departing on Thursday, 1 November.  The final stop of the show car’s tour will be in Kanpur for two days from 2 to 3 November. Motor racing fans will be closer to the car than they ever would be able to get at a race, gaining a unique view into the intricacies behind an F1 car’s engineering and design.

Timo Glock, Marussia F1 Team driver, said of the Show Car Tour, “QNET has done a fantastic job with its 2012 Marussia F1 Team world showcar tour. By visiting cities that do not currently have a race, QNET is giving F1 fans the opportunity to see our car up-close and give them an insight into the complexities of Formula One design and engineering.  I would recommend going to see the Marussia F1 Team show car if it makes a pit stop near you.”

The QNET Show Car World Tour 2012 has already visited Kuwait, Kuala Lumpur, Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh, Lebanon, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Indonesia, where it was welcomed with much fanfare, receiving celebrity visits. This tour allows QNET to share the partnership experience with its millions of customers and distributors worldwide, as well as fans and supporters of the fast-paced sport. QNET invites those interested, to have photo opportunities with the car before the tour leaves the richly-cultured country.

CEO of QNET India, Mr Suresh Thimiri expressed his delight at the show car tour, “We are the only Direct Selling Company supporting F1 as a Sport. F1 is all about teamwork and so is Direct Selling. QNET hopes to showcase this along with educating the general public on the wonderful sport of Formula1.”

QNET has been involved in motorsport through its sponsorship of teams in the Formula BMW, Formula V6 and the GP2 Asia series since 2006. November 2010 marked its entry into the prestigious Formula One World Championship. At this time, Malaysian entrepreneur Vijay Eswaran, the Executive Chairman of the QI Group of Companies – of which QNET is the flagship subsidiary – and Sir Richard Branson founder of the Virgin Group, announced the three-year partnership between the then-Virgin Racing team (now known as Marussia F1 Team, since 01 January 2012) and QNET.

The F1 Show Car sports the livery of the 2012 Marussia F1 Team cars, which this season are raced by Timo Glock from Germany and Frenchman Charles Pic. Mr Joachim Steffen, Director of Research and Development, QI Group, and responsible for the company’s sports sponsorship portfolio (which also covers the Asian Football Confederation Champions League, among others), said the Show Car is a key engagement tool for QNET.

“We are proud of our multicultural, worldwide presence in almost 30 different countries through representative offices and agency partnerships, and customers in practically every country on the planet,” said Mr Steffen.

“With such a worldwide reach, we want to share our exciting F1 sponsorship with everyone involved in our company, which is why we’re taking the race car on this world tour, allowing our customers and Independent Representatives the opportunity to see the QNET-branded Marussia F1 Team race car for themselves.”