"Win on Sunday, sell on Monday": marketing opportunities and challenges for Chinese automotive and technology brands in the automobile racing industry.

自19世纪末汽车赛事诞生以来，各大汽车品牌便在世界赛道上展开较量，以彰显其相较于竞争对手的技术优势。赛车运动催生了诸多享誉全球的汽车品牌、国家传奇与文化现象——法拉利便是典型例证——至今仍是汽车企业全球营销战略的核心组成部分。随着众多赛事类别在2020年代迎来新一轮“黄金时代”，“周日夺冠，周一热销”这一永恒法则正推动全球顶尖汽车品牌及集团积极参与国际赛车运动——至少以某种形式介入。但中国品牌始终是个显著例外：它们对全球赛事计划态度谨慎，直至近年才迈出初步步伐。当中国汽车制造商试图在国内外市场立足之际，本论文旨在通过考察中国企业进军赛车运动产业的初步尝试，分析全球赛车计划的营销潜力。在概述国际赛车产业格局并提供背景分析后，本文将深入研究两个典型案例：吉利集团的赛车运动实践与蔚来汽车在电动方程式锦标赛的征程，这些案例为赛车运动如何为中国汽车品牌创造营销机遇与挑战提供了宝贵洞见。此外，本论文聚焦于中国科技品牌在赛车运动领域的赞助与合作机遇，通过分析F1赛事与联想的全球合作伙伴协议，以及索伯F1车队与商汤科技的技术合作案例展开探讨。

Ever since the birth of car racing in the late 1800s, automobile brands have faced each other on the world's race tracks in order to show their superior technical prowess compared to their competitors. Motorsports have contributed to the birth of prestigious marques, national myths and cultural phenomena, such as the Ferrari brand, and remain to this day a crucial part of an automotive firm’s global marketing strategy. As many racing categories seem to be entering a new “golden age” in the 2020s, the ever-important “win on Sunday, sell on Monday” mantra has pushed the leading automobile brands and groups from all over the world to get involved in international motorsports, at least in some capacity. With a notable exception: Chinese brands have been reluctant to commit to global racing programmes, and only recently the first steps in this direction have been made. As Chinese car makers try to get a foothold in the domestic and global market, this thesis aims to analyse the marketing potential of a global racing programme for Chinese companies by examining their initial endeavours in the motorsport industry. After introducing and contextualizing the landscape of the international motorsports industry, two specific cases will be studied: Geely Group’s Motorsport activities and NIO’s stint in the Formula E Championship provide valuable insight into how racing can create marketing opportunities and challenges for Chinese automobile brands. Furthermore, the thesis focuses on sponsorship and partnership opportunities in car racing for Chinese tech brands, by analysing the case of Formula 1 and Lenovo’s Global Partnership agreement and the Technical Partnership between Sauber F1 Team and SenseTime.