With even decent teams like Lotus and Sauber struggling for cash, it really makes me wonder why there are very few "real" sponsors involved in F1? It has a fanbase of hundreds of millions around the world, probably of a good demographic, yet there seem to be very few big brands interested in F1 these days.

By "real" sponsors, I mean ones which don't either

- own the team (Red Bull)
- Are owned by the owner of the team (Kingfisher e.t.c.)
- Are linked specifically to the driver (PDVSA, Venezuela e.t.c.)

It seems not only is F1 too expensive, but the corporate world is not really interested.

I think it's a problem when even relatively successful teams like Lotus can't pay their bills.