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The deal includes broadcast sponsorship of all race and qualifying programmes on ITV1 and highlights on ITV2 as well as sponsorship of itv.com/f1 and online viewer competitions.

Last season’s sponsorship package with the Daily Telegraph was worth £4.5m, while the 2005 deal with LG Electronics is said to be worth around £3.5m.

The decreased value of the deal has led some to speculate that F1 has started to lose its value to advertisers in recent years after a sustained run of victories for Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher and lack of competition from other teams.

Mark Rosenegk, sponsorship manager at ITV Sales, who negotiated the deal, said he was delighted to find such a high-tech sponsor in LG Electronics.

“It reflects the sophistication of Formula One and ITV’s state-of-the-art coverage,” Rosenegk said. In 2004 Formula One on ITV1, races averaged around 3 million viewers.

The British Grand Prix at Silverstone drew in 3.6 million F1 fans to the channel.

James Jeong, president of LGE UK, said: “LGE is a leader in the innovation and development of cutting-edge technologies and the audiences that F1 on ITV delivers are an extremely good fit with our individual brand policies right across our product range.”

By Matt Chittock