[poor boy]

As many of you know Infiniti has been an integral part (read contributing dollars) to the Red Bull Formula One effort since 2011, holding tittle sponsorship since 2013.

The visibility is well and good, the prime driver was large scale exposure in Europe for a brand that is starved of PR and relevance on the old continent.

Then Chief Johan de Nysschen:

While our first 24-months have been very beneficial to both parties, our new increased relationship will bring increased advantages to Infiniti and Red Bull Racing. As title sponsor, Infiniti Red Bull Racing will help us garner even more worldwide exposure for our brand, products and technology.”

While RBR team principal Christian Horner had this to say:

“Red Bull Racing and Infiniti have been working on a number of initiatives since the start of our relationship in 2011. During that time, Infiniti has demonstrated significant technical prowess and I’ve been impressed by the depth of the wider engineering capabilities of the Nissan Motor Company. In terms of marketing, Infiniti has leveraged their involvement with Red Bull Racing and Formula One extremely effectively to become much better known in a short space of time. These two attributes make Infiniti the ideal title and technical partner for Red Bull Racing.”

But is the mashup really helping to sell more cars, better yet does anyone even care? Lets look at the data shall we (which is difficult to parse out for Q60/G Coupe specifically because Infiniti was smashing Coupe and Sedan figures together)

USA:

Infiniti Brand

2006: 121,146
2007: 127, 037
2008: 112,989
2009: 81,089
2010: 103,411

Infiniti RBR Sponsorship Signed

2011: 98,461
2012: 119,877
2013: 116,455
2014 YTD: 93,925

Now for Q60

2013: 9806
2014 YTD: 6254

G (remember this is both Sedan and Coupe)

2006: 60,741
2007: 71,809
2008: 64,181
2009: 47,174
2010: 58,143

Infiniti RBR Sponsorship Signed

2011: 58,246
2012: 59,844
2013: 57,878
2014 YTD: 13,466 (G Sedan Only)

Well what about Europe where Formula One's visibility is maximized?

Europe (Figures are from the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom):

Infiniti Brand

2006: 392
2007: 235
2008: 453
2009: 1,319
2010: 2,393

Infiniti RBR Sponsorship Signed

2011: 3,686
2012: 2,995
2013: 2,209

G (Coupe and Sedan)

2008: 103
2009: 329
2010: 400

Infiniti RBR Sponsorship Signed

2011: 335
2012: 197
2013: 367

Well, the data certainly paints a morbid picture. Shall we call the effectiveness of the Infiniti RBR partnership marginal at best (for selling cars that is)?