The Netherlands is the centre of the Formula One universe this week

The Netherlands is the centre of the Formula One universe this week. 

First, there was Dutch driver Max Verstappen's astonishing win in Spain, and now there are rumours that brewing giant Heineken are set to announce a new sponsorship deal with the racing series.

 

The agreement is said to be worth $150 million over five years, according to a report in Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf (h/t the Guardian's Paul Weaver).

This is great news for Formula One Management (FOM), the sport's commercial rights holder, coming on the back of Shell's recent withdrawal as a series sponsor (though their relationship with Ferrari continues), per German website Motorsport-Total.com

It is not necessarily great news for F1's teams, though.

That is because FOM, a privately held company, takes a cut of the revenue from series sponsors (as opposed to the teams' individual sponsors) before distributing the rest to the teams through annual prize money disbursements. FOM's cut is approximately 35 percent, according to Autosport's Dieter Rencken and Lawrence Barretto.