Formula 1, the ideal platform for sponsors
In 1960 the Formula 1 crossed the finish line of ten years since its creation. It was a decidedly different sport from today’s, set in an era made up of gentleman drivers who took risks that were now unacceptable. Clearly the money that gravitated around the category was clearly lower than the current one and the first sponsors who approached the teams were seen as a sort of betrayal of the competitive spirit. The first brand who made an agreement with a team was the Yeoman Credit LTD, an automobile insurance company, which signed an agreement with the British Racing Partnership, which brought Coopers to the track. Owners Ken Gregory and Alfred Moss renamed the team “Yeoman Credit Racing Team” for an investment of £40,000 for equipment and £20,000 for stable management. The partnership lasted for three seasons and was followed by a real advertising boom that invaded F1, starting with the 1968 Lotus Golden Leaf, up to the present day, with liveries that have marked the history and imagination of the category, such as the Lotus John Player Special, McLaren Marlboro and Williams Camel.
Currently companies are associated with Formula 1 or with teams with purely financial operations or the sharing of specific technical skills. Each brand enters the top of motoring with the clear objective of having a commercial return from your investment, which can be read in terms of increased sales, increased visibility and brand recognition or with purely strategic purposes. As analyzed by marketing expert Maksim Minkov, the main sectors that are investing in Formula 1 are IT and software services, engineering and automotivewhich have gradually replaced historical areas of reference such as alcohol or tobacco.
Demographics of F1 fans and sponsor retention
Formula 1 reaches further 180 countries in the world, thanks to the transfer of television rights and therefore offers a truly wide audience for sponsors who intend to join it. A recent search of Nielsen pitted i audience demographics which follows the grand prizes:
The fan base is made up of well-to-do, educated men between the ages of 25 and 54 |
56% of fans are men |
68% of fans are between 16 and 44 years old |
47% of fans are highly educated |
60% of fans have an annual income of more than $50,000 |
Lewis Hallett shared the results of a survey carried out on the platform F1 Fan Voice on a sample of 2,000 enthusiasts who told their story degree of loyalty to the sponsors present in F1:
40% follow a brand on social media because it sponsors an F1 team |
About 30% follow a brand on social media because it sponsors F1 |
40% bought a product because they sponsored a team or F1 |
11% are reluctant to buy a rival team sponsor product |
For 40% the loyalty of a brand to the team encourages them to buy |
Research shows that companies are more likely to reach consumers by sponsoring a team than the entire F1. While the 40% of enthusiasts who have purchased a team or category partner brand may appear to be a significant figure, it is lower than figures from other series such as NASCAR, reflecting the description of the average American football fanwhich has a level of ‘compulsive buying’ higher than in the rest of the world.
The boom of American sponsors
It is no mystery that the TV series Drive to Survive has attracted a new, younger and global audience to Formula 1. Especially in the United States the ultimate expression of motorsport has attracted enormous attention, immediately monetized in substantial investments. Grands prix in the USA has increased from one to three in the space of two years, as has the cost of television rights purchased by ESPN it has risen 18 times.
But not only that, because an analysis carried out by the Finns of Spomotion Analyticshe showed it historic overtaking of sponsors made in the USA compared to those of the main European markets. At the start of the championship there were in fact 105 American companies associated with the ten Formula 1 teams, compared to 104 from the sum of Italy, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Germany and France.
The number of US brands has almost doubled compared to 2019 (they were ‘only’ 55), with progress comparable to the growth chart produced by Drive to Survive.
Of the new sponsors who arrived in 2023, 30% come from the United States.
Clearly, the world champion team, i.e. the, benefited from the major investments Red Bull, which in the last two years has gone from 9 to 18 partners and in 2026 is preparing to embrace a brand like Ford, which will make it even more attractive to American companies. McLaren is also well established in the States, with 25 brands, while Haas is third at 8.
To give an idea of the US cash flow that is coming to the teams, the three-year agreement between Stake and Alfa Romeo has been quantified at 93 million dollars, the three-year agreement between MoneyGram and Haas at 20 million dollars per year, the one between Oracle and Red Bull a staggering $300 million total (from 2022 to 2026).
The USA is confirmed as a boundless prairie
As told on the television rights front, the United States are a boundless prairie for Formula 1 to ride also in terms of sponsors.
Red Bull and associates can add up the sizeable sum of 105 US companies that invest in their product, a significant figure compared to, for example, Formula E (22) and the WRC (5), but ddistinctly lower compared to the two main categories of American motorsport. L’IndyCar Series has 151 brands in his wallet, while the NASCAR dominates with ben 296 US brands, for the dynamics of the “compulsive buying” of his fans mentioned above.
Establishing itself more and more in the United States, Formula 1 has the clear objective of welcoming more and more local investors both for the teams and for itself, in a historical period in which European companies do not seem so inclined to pour capital into motorsport. Let’s also not forget that among the global partners in the category there are the American companies AWS (Amazon Web Services) and Salesforce.
And also at the level of average cost of tickets, the US is king. According to the analysis of F1DestinationLthree-day Las Vegas is the most expensive, with an average price of $1667followed by Miami at 1113 dollars, with the first of the European stops, that of Monte Carlo, fourth at 677 dollars.
But there is a reverse side of the coin: yes, to meet the interest of American fans and companies runs the risk of modifying sport too much for the historic European audience. What if the American public – extremely fickle, as demonstrated by the boom generated by Drive to Survive – decided to turn his attention elsewhere?
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