Bernie Ecclestone eyes vodka sponsorship deal "We are chasing one or two people that want to be involved," said Mr Ecclestone. We are looking at phones and drinks. People like Vodka and things like that, they are out there . Luxury goods giant LVMH is thought to be in pole position to land the vodka deal with its Belvedere brand. While Belvedere is distributed internationally, it does not enjoy as wide recognition as rivals such as Smirnoff and Absolut. However, Belvedere president Charles Gibb said "there are no discussions taking place with F1." It is unclear with which telecoms company F1 is in talks. The leading brand in the sport is Vodafone which had advertising hoardings at five races last year and spends an estimated $75m (£47m) annually as title sponsor of the McLaren team. Advertising and sponsorship generated 14.7pc of F1"s $1.5bn revenue in 2011. There are 10 official F1 partners including UBS and Rolex . The cost of becoming an official F1 partner tends to be several times less than that charged for title sponsorship of a top team. Partners get trackside signage rights and use of the F1 brand in advertising for an annual cost of around $15m.