Formula One is attracting a new wave of sponsorships from consumer brands, as the global racing series and its teams win over a new generation of fans.
The sport has attracted record attendances of 6.5mn for events in 2024, thanks to the Netflix Drive to Survive effect and a rising profile in Hollywood on the back of F1 themed films.
Nestlé’s Kit Kat, which will become F1’s “official chocolate bar” next season, and luxury group LVMH, including the Moët & Chandon, Tag Heuer and Louis Vuitton brands, are among the recent additions to the competition’s growing list of blue-chip sponsors. McDonald’s, Toymakers Lego Group and Mattel’s Hot Wheels have also signed deals with F1 this year.
Thomas Josnik, head of motorsport at Puma, which has sponsorship deals with F1 and teams including Ferrari and Aston Martin F1, said the rise of a “much wider and much younger audience” had “made F1 much more attractive”.
“It’s not about the pure sport any more,” he added. “It’s more about the entire culture and the entire culture around the sport, including fashion, celebrities, and music,” he added.
Under the ownership of US group Liberty Media, F1 has positioned itself as a premium sports and lifestyle brand, with a young and diverse fan base. The company generated $632mn of sponsorship revenue in the 12 months to the end of the third quarter of this year, more than double the amount it made in the entirety of 2019, according to an investor presentation.
The races in Melbourne, Silverstone, Texas and Mexico City, each attracted more than 400,000 attendees. On top of Texas, Mexico City and Montreal, F1 has also added US races in Miami and Las Vegas, boosting attendance figures in North America.
“With five events in North America now, it’s much easier for brand marketers in the west to justify the spend,” said Jonathan Jensen, an academic and consultant who follows F1.
Brand awareness has also shot up thanks to Netflix’s Drive to Survive, a behind the scenes series that took drivers and team bosses mainstream.
Films such as Rush (2013), which tells the story of the rivalry between former drivers James Hunt and Niki Lauda, have “raised the F1 consciousness around Hollywood”, said Joe Cobbs, professor of sports business at Northern Kentucky University, while a new F1 film starring actor Brad Pitt is set to be released next year.
“F1 drivers and teams became much more recognisable in the US, which enabled consumer brands to more readily activate F1 sponsorships effectively in the American market,” Cobbs added.
F1 estimates that 42 per cent of its 750mn fan base is under 35 years old. The percentage of female fans has increased to roughly 41 per cent from 37 per cent in 2018.
As attendances and digital audiences rise, a growing percentage of team sponsors are B2C companies, according to analysis provided by Cobbs and fellow academic Jonathan Jensen. In 2023, more than 63 per cent of team sponsors were consumer facing, with the remainder being B2B, up from 55.9 per cent in 2020, when Drive to Survive took off on Netflix.
The average value of a team sponsorship deal is now just above $5mn, almost double 2019 figures, according to Nielsen Sports. Deals are also shorter, down from an average of 5.2 years in 2019 to 3.2, allowing a greater quantity of sponsorship deals and partners.
Demand among sponsors has moved beyond the main F1 racing series.
F1 Academy, a racing league designed to produce female drivers, has signed up a range of consumer-facing brands, including Tommy Hilfiger, Charlotte Tilbury, Puma, American Express, and Red Bull.
The racing teams have also won over consumer-facing companies. Chipotle Mexican Grill struck a sponsorship deal with Haas F1 in 2023, while clothing retailer Adidas will become the clothing partner for Mercedes F1 team in 2025. Ferrari announced a partnership with whisky brand Chivas Regal in November, and McLaren with telecoms provider T-Mobile in October.
“The story of superhuman [efforts] will never get tired,” said Kate Dalton, head of brand and marketing at Aston Martin F1. “Definitely through Netflix and now much more in places like TikTok, that has just come to life again, and people are seeing it with fresh eyes.”
Behind-the-scenes sports content has always done well for TikTok, which has a content partnership with the Aston Martin F1 team, according to Aoife Moran, sports marketing lead in Europe at the social media platform.
“It’s not just the stories and how they’re performing on track, it’s the mechanics, the engineers, all of those people behind the scenes that make it matter,” Moran said. “That emotive storytelling through content creation . . . those are the moments that land well on TikTok . . . they’re not broadcast stories.”
