THE COST to be the title sponsor for next year's inaugural Singapore Grand Prix is believed to be a cool $15 million.

That is, however, only the tip of the sponsorship iceberg, considering the millions that are poured into Formula One.

Last year, the 11 teams raked in US$664 million (S$970 million) in sponsorship among them.

A team title sponsor deal, like Vodafone for McLaren, is worth about US$30 million annually, while ING's deal with Renault is a whopping US$55 million a year.

Just why are they willing to fork out such huge amounts?

Sponsors whom The Sunday Times spoke to point to the sport's global appeal and reach.

Take this weekend's season finale in Brazil. With the drivers' title locked in a three-horse race, an estimated 100 million viewers are expected to tune into today's race.

Said Isabelle Conner, managing director of ING Renault's F1 programme: "You sign one contract and you gain access to 17 Grands Prix around the world, and it's 18 next year.

"The benefits are clear: visibility from TV broadcasts to over 180 countries and 850 million viewers worldwide, every year."

Those viewership figures are the most for any sport, and are behind only the Olympic Games and football's World Cup.

Sponsors say F1 provides a valuable platform to build brand awareness and drive their business globally.

They can also offer their top clients an exclusive race-day experience, entertaining them at the Paddock Club at various circuits all over the world.

But there is another intangible element that sponsors are keen to leverage on.

Said Andy Fuchs, the Toyota team's general manager for marketing and communications: "Don't forget the enormous benefit and value also associated with Formula One - it is engineering excellence, passion, glamour."

In fact, Johnnie Walker's partnership with McLaren has been so successful that a fortnight ago, both parties announced a three-year extension to their original deal, which ends in 2009.

"It's the world's most global sport, and we regard Johnnie Walker as the most global brand in our portfolio. There was a natural fit," said Nick Rose, chief financial officer of Johnnie Walker's parent company Diageo.

Last year alone, the whisky label invested S$60 million in F1-related sponsorship.

It has also cleverly built a brand campaign around responsible drinking, using the tag-line "Winners always stay in control".

The strategy is different for automobile companies like BMW, who compete under the BMW-managed Sauber team.

F1 is, as its motor-sport director Mario Theissen puts it, "a high-speed laboratory" for them to test automotive technology.

He said: "The sport is a unique test bed for our car engineers, generating synergy benefits between development for F1 and volume production."

The numbers suggest the sponsors have got it right.

Johnnie Walker has seen 13 to 14 per cent annual growth in sales since entering F1, with Rose saying: "The brand's health is the best it has ever been."

Product sales are just one facet. ING also noticed higher brand awareness, as attested in market research surveys, since signing a three-year deal with Renault in January.

Market research results after the Malaysian GP in April have shown a 193 per cent increase in kowledge about the Dutch banking and insurance conglomerate.

The corresponding figure after August's Hungarian GP: 429 per cent.

Said Conner: "I don't think the board expected such results so fast, the numbers coming in are at a speed we never expected.

"To go global, this has proven to be an ideal platform so far."