Fiat to sponsor Italian Volvo Ocean Race team

23 September 2009 | Posted in Sponsorship, Miscellaneous | By Adam Fraser

Car company Fiat will sponsor an Italian Volvo Ocean Race campaign skippered by Giovanni Soldini.

The sponsorship, which will fund the design and build of a new boat to compete in the 2011 race, will see the first Italian campaign since Brooksfield in the 1993/4 Whitbread Race.

Soldini has previously sailed across the Atlantic with John Elkann, grandson of Gianni Agnelli, and heir to Fiat.

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The move follows the withdrawal of the Ericsson Racing team, which released a statement saying: "Ericsson first entered the Volvo Ocean Race in April 2005, but now its journey has drawn to a close. The team's victory in the Volvo Ocean Race 2008-2009 is the perfect closing chapter to the company's involvement in the globe-girdling race. After having attained overall victory and great business-to-business success, Ericsson has decided not to participate in the 2011-12 edition."