For a car company, there are few successes as sweet as a victory in Formula One, the most glamorous competition in motorsport. Last year, the sport had a global television audience of nearly 600m people. More major carmaking groups now sponsor teams than do not, with Audi and America’s three struggling carmakers among the few exceptions.

But what are the tangible benefits to a carmaker of participating in F1? For some companies, racing technology – innovations devised to make cars faster, lighter or more powerful – have made their way onto road cars, especially at the top end of the market. BMW, for example, has put lightweight carbon fibre roofs on its high-performance M cars. And Ferrari has introduced an automatic gear shift first employed on the steering wheels of its F1 vehicles into most of its road-car models. At Renault, meanwhile, chief executive Carlos Ghosn speaks of the “halo effect” the company’s F1 team sponsorship has had on its mass-market carmaking business.