It is believed the Brackley based team instead wanted to devote its full corporate attention to title sponsor Petronas, the Malaysian state-owned oil company that also owns the naming rights of its home race at Sepang. Mercedes ran a new sponsor on the livery of its 2010 car at Sepang this weekend, despite not officially announcing the deal.

But a new deal had clearly been reached by Mercedes GP with a company called Autonomy, whose name and ‘A’ logo was seen on the monocoque sides as well as the aerodynamic piece in front of the sidepods.

Autonomy is a jointly UK and US-based software company.

GMM