- 12 May 10, 04:36#198942Even if Formula One is still not pushing the boat out at this weekend's Monaco Grand Prix, Force India's billionaire owner Vijay Mallya excepted, the corporate high-rollers are at least prepared to be seen on deck again.
Last year, with the world racked by recession and the global credit crunch that turned some bankers into pariahs, many of the sport's backers felt it best to adopt a low profile in the Mediterranean principality.
Some companies handed over chartered yachts for charitable use while others went unbranded or simply stayed away.
This year, even with reduced budgets and widespread cost-cutting measures in place among the teams, should be different.
"We have moved on," Mercedes GP chief executive Nick Fry, a winner last year in Monaco on a tight budget with Brawn and eventual world champion Jenson Button, said at last weekend's Spanish Grand Prix.
"I think the first part of last year was so close to the massive financial crisis at the end of the previous year that it was inappropriate for people to show up.
"I think things are looking up. You've only got to look at the level of sponsors on our car this year," added the Briton, whose team's title partner is Malaysian state oil company Petronas, with another important backer likely to be announced before the weekend.
"I think there is growing confidence in the market and I think that will be reflected in the VIP attendance in Monaco."
The entertainment may be less ostentatious, and the paying public more careful with their spending, but there will still be plenty of parties.
Aviation, beer and liquor tycoon Mallya will be throwing an opening bash on his 95-metre yacht "Indian Empress" on Thursday while there will be a celebrity fashion show and auction at the exclusive Amber Lounge on Friday night.
Diamond company Steinmetz will be catering to a well-heeled clientele at a 'Salon Prive' in a villa formerly owned by fashion king Karl Lagerfeld.
Triple world champion and former Monaco winner Jackie Stewart, who missed last year's race, will be back - but not in the hotel suite that cost some 55,000 euro ($NZ105,490) for a five-night stay in 2008 when he was 'global ambassador' for now-government-owned British bank RBS.
Despite the rise of Singapore and Abu Dhabi, Monaco - a tiny strip of land with more millionaires per square metre than anywhere else on Earth - remains the social highlight of the Formula One calendar and the place where deals are done and contracts renewed.
Once upon a time, when the world was simpler and Formula One was fuelled by tobacco money, a wealthy sponsor might have been happy to stick a company logo on a car and sit back to enjoy the view. But those days are long gone.
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There is now far more commercial justification for attending.
"The deals we are doing are very sophisticated and not reliant on media exposure in terms of stickers on cars, but much more reliant on a structured sponsorship model behind that which delivers," said Jim Wright, a former sponsorship head for Williams and Toro Rosso who is now Virgin Racing's Marketing Director.
"From what we are seeing, there seems to be a lot more interest in Monaco," he told Reuters.
"What I see is people effectively buying business through sponsorship deals," he added, referring to the situation where sponsors use F1 as a platform to generate deals among themselves outside the sport.
"Everyone can hold their heads up and say: 'Well, we've got new business here so that makes sense'. Those are the kind of deals that work well."
Virgin's billionaire boss Richard Branson will be in attendance this weekend, with the team using a handful of locations for their guests rather than the usual paddock club hospitality.
Wright said a number of key sponsors would be represented by their principals, bringing VIP guests with them.
Tony Fernandes, the Lotus team principal whose Air Asia airline also sponsors Williams, also detected a new confidence.
"We're not huge in corporate hospitality...but we've seen a lot more interest from people (wanting to come to Monte Carlo)," he said.
"It's still the glamour race and I still think people want to be associated with it.
"There's probably a bit of caution, but people are beginning to see there is tremendous value in Formula One and so people who are smart are still involved in it very much."
Stewart Bain, chief commercial officer of watch maker TW Steel who are Renault partners, agreed that there was a more positive feeling than a year ago.
His company also has a yacht in the harbour, using it for promotional purposes and to entertain customers.
"Monaco is still the number one event for Formula One," he said. "From a sponsor's perspective we will use races that are good for engaging the consumer...for us, it's what happens off track that's the focus."
Le coeur a ses raisons que la raison ne connaît point. 
