The Formula 1 Brand Boom: 5 Power Plays Redefining Global Sports Marketing

With all eyes on the highly anticipated Formula 1 movie starring Brad Pitt and Damson Idris, and creators already flooding socials with red carpet moments from the premiere, Formula 1’s cultural grip is tighter than a perfectly executed apex.

Once dubbed an ‘old man’s club,’ F1 has pulled off one of the greatest sports rebrands of all time, evolving into peak entertainment royalty.

@leonae22

F1 The Movieve premiere, London. ✨ #f1 #f1movie #london #bradpitt #tomcruise #tatemcrae #edsheeran #lewishamilton #fyp #viralvideos

♬ Just Keep Watching (From F1® The Movie) – Tate McRae

As of December 2024, Formula 1 was crowned the most popular yearly sporting series, with 750 million tuning in, out of which 41% were women. And 16-24 year old’s the fastest growing demographic. 

A few years ago, the story was different. Viewership was limited, younger audiences weren’t tuning in, and the sport felt locked behind an exclusive gate – hyper-restricted, male-dominated, and, thanks to Ferrari’s long reign, a little predictable. The sport seemed stuck in neutral, while the rest of the world looked to ball and racket sports to fill the engagement that motorsport lacked.  

Now? It’s another story. F1 has gone mainstream. Today, every brand wants a share of the Formula 1 fandom, including global beauty heavyweights, who would’ve previously never inked a deal with the hyper-gated motorsport. 

So, here are five partnerships from 2025 that show how far the grid has come:

Pepsi Co’s Triple Whammy: Stint, Gatorade, and Doritos

PepsiCo’s new multi-year deal with Formula 1 brings three of its brands, Sting, Gatorade, and Doritos, into the sport’s growing commercial ecosystem.

It’s a move aimed at broadening global reach: targeting F1’s younger, digitally native fanbase across key markets in Europe, North America, and Asia. It also marks the first time PepsiCo has invested at this scale across multiple product categories within a single global sport and within a sport it hadn’t previously touched.

In a calendar that now stretches across 24 global races, and with race weekends increasingly treated as content events as much as sporting ones, PepsiCo seems to be positioning its brands to align with how modern fans consume F1: not just from the stands, but across screens, cities, and social feeds.

Barilla’s Pasta Pit-Stop: FMCG Storytelling at 300 km/h

When this partnership first hit the wires, many asked: pasta… and motorsport? But the connection runs deeper than you’d think. Paolo Barilla, the company’s owner, was once an F1 driver for Minardi, so this is a true passion project brought full circle.

For Barilla, this is less about sheer reach and more about storytelling. The goal is to weave the brand into modern F1 culture, positioning Barilla as the table-to-track choice for an experience-led, food-loving fan base.

In short, Barilla wants to own the culinary moments that fuel F1 weekends.

LVMH’s $1.5 B Luxury Lap: Louis Vuitton, Moët & TAG Heuer

The biggest luxury deal on the F1 grid this year comes courtesy of LVMH, whose $1.5 billion partnership reshapes the brandscape of the sport.

This is a 10-year move that replaces Rolex as F1’s official timekeeper and sees LVMH brands, including TAG Heuer, Moët & Chandon, and Louis Vuitton, create halo moments at every grand prix.

It’s an unmissable luxury-meets-speed crossover: monogrammed podium trunks, Moët flowing at trophy lifts, and TAG Heuer’s precision woven into every millisecond of race coverage. The partnership sharpens F1’s already-premium image, while LVMH earns priceless cultural cachet with global fans.

F1 Academy × Netflix: Content Flywheel for Women in Motorsport

With the sport making huge strides in diversity and accessibility, this Netflix docuseries couldn’t be better timed. Produced by Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine, the upcoming F1 Academy series will spotlight rising female talent across the motorsport world.

It’s a major brand equity driver for F1 and a signal to younger, more diverse fans that this is a sport for everyone. Expect this series to spark fresh fan communities, creator content, and new commercial opportunities for partners keen to tap into the Academy’s cultural momentum.

Lando Norris’s Monster Energy Drink

@noaegreen

a taste test for you and what an iconic and delicious pr package from @Monster Energy 💚

♬ original sound – noa elizabeth 🏁❤️‍🔥

While this one isn’t a brand partnership with the motorsport, rather with the McLaren driver, we had to add this to the list. Lando Norris is no stranger to social fame. A McLaren driver by day and YouTuber by night, he has one of the biggest creator-like followings on the grid. Now, he’s translating that influence straight onto shelves with the launch of his own co-created Monster Zero Sugar drink.

With F1 fandom skewing younger and health-conscious, this low-sugar line is perfectly timed. 

What’s Ahead?

It’s becoming harder to argue that F1 belongs to any one audience or category. As the sport continues to broaden both its grid and its fan base, beauty brands are increasingly finding space to play, not through token sponsorships, but through partnerships that tap into the cultural crossover between style, self-expression, and sport.

With Hamilton fronting Lululemon and Sainz lending his locks to L’Oréal, the lines between F1 and beauty are clearly blurring. Charlotte Tilbury’s partnership with F1 Academy, OPI’s tie-in with Alpine, and a growing wave of beauty-sport collaborations show that this is no passing trend. In this context, beauty brands aren’t awkwardly gate-crashing the paddock; they’re finding authentic ways in. And for a sport built on speed and spectacle, it’s an evolution that feels perfectly on pace.

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