China is home to the second-largest economy in the world, generating close to $20 trillion in annual output and sitting only behind the United States in global GDP rankings.
The country is also a corporate heavyweight. Chinese companies consistently feature heavily among the world’s largest businesses, with around 130 firms appearing in the Fortune Global 500, more than almost any other country.
Yet within Formula 1’s sprawling sponsorship ecosystem, Chinese brands are almost entirely absent. Across the championship and its teams, the only Chinese-based partner currently present is technology company Lenovo.
That contrast creates an intriguing commercial question. In a country with one of the world’s biggest economies, a vast consumer market and a rapidly growing Formula 1 fanbase, why have Chinese companies remained largely on the sidelines of the sport’s partnership landscape?
According to Mark Thomas, a business and marketing professional with extensive experience in China, the answer lies in a mix of domestic commercial priorities, structural differences in how brands approach global marketing and the simple fact that other markets have proved easier hunting grounds for F1 in recent years.
Domestic focus
Despite China’s economic scale, relatively few companies from the country have pursued international sports sponsorships compared with their counterparts in Europe or North America.
Within F1 itself, the picture is even more stark. Lenovo stands as the only Chinese-based brand currently present among the championship’s commercial partners.
Thomas said this largely reflects the way many Chinese companies have historically prioritised their domestic market rather than pursuing global marketing platforms.
“A long time ago Lenovo bought IBM’s ThinkPad division so even though it is a Chinese brand it has a lot of international footprint on what it does,” Thomas told Sector.
“In many ways it more or less acts like an international company – but it is standing alone as a single Chinese sponsor at the moment.”
F1 is not the only global sport which sees a dearth of Chinese sponsorship and, for Thomas, the reason behind the low engagement stems from within the country.
“If you look at Chinese sponsors that have sponsored international sports rights and you start to count them up there are very few of them,” he said.
“Probably 12 to 15, something like that and there’s a spattering of them around UEFA, FIFA, the IOC and their Olympic Partner programme and then you get a few sporadic ones.
“So there’s actually not that many Chinese brands that sponsor international events and one of the fundamental reasons for that is most of them are still focused on the domestic market and that’s where they put most of their effort in.”
If Chinese companies have traditionally focused on their domestic market, Formula 1 and its teams have also spent relatively little time pursuing China commercially.
Looking elsewhere
For many teams on the grid, China has not historically been a priority commercial market compared with regions where existing partners are already active.
In recent years, F1’s commercial expansion has been driven heavily by growth in the United States and in markets where brands are increasingly looking for global platforms.
Against that backdrop, China has often been viewed by teams as a market where fewer sponsors are operating and where opportunities to activate partnerships during race weekends are more limited.
“Formula One has had its social media transformation and the Drive to Survive success that we all know about – also the ground in other markets is much more fertile,” Thomas explained.
“The US market, the traditional European market and obviously the emerging Middle East market has been a much more fertile space geographically in the last five to eight years.
“Coupled with the geopolitical hands-off association that a lot of western governments have with China, I don’t think anyone’s been chasing back here because there are just easier places to find money, to be honest.”
With fewer sponsors operating locally and more lucrative commercial opportunities emerging elsewhere, China has often slipped down the list of priorities for teams pursuing new partnerships.
“I was recently talking to a commercial guy from one of the teams and I asked if he was coming to China and he said no because it’s a low-profile market for them, they haven’t got any partners out here,” added Thomas.
“The partners they have got don’t really have much business in China so they’re not really activating, not many customers through their hospitality. That’s not true for all teams – for the likes of Ferrari and some of the big automotive players it’s a massive market still and they have to take it very seriously.
“Then the likes of LVMH – it’s a big market for them on the luxury side as well so I think that sort of depends on different teams and their positionality.”
Yet despite that limited commercial focus, F1’s audience in China has been expanding rapidly.
The missing link
In recent years, F1 has benefited from the same digital expansion that has driven audience growth across many global markets, with social media and streaming helping the championship reach a younger generation of viewers in China.
At the same time, Thomas points to wider societal changes that have also altered how audiences engage with major sporting events.
“There was a major shift over the COVID period. Before, generally speaking, for Chinese people to show themselves as being successful was all about having the luxury brands or buying nice cars or whatever,” he said.
“The shift is far more now about health, lifestyle and leisure experiences that we probably understand in the west and that has been a phenomenal change in Chinese society in the last few years so they treasure things like Formula One as an ultimate sporting experience.”
Tickets for the Chinese Grand Prix sell faster now than they did before the five-year absence from the calendar between 2019-24.
However, translating that growing fan interest into commercial partnerships may require a stronger local connection to the sport itself.
Zhou Guanyu, born in Shanghai, raced for Alfa Romeo and Sauber between 2022-24 and despite remaning in the sport, he is now a reserve driver for the Cadillac F1 Team.
“Apart from the splurge with Zhou Guanyu at Sauber, Formula One doesn’t really offer much relevance for the Chinese market – there’s no obvious team or driver to necessarily support and without that you can’t get the emotional connection,” said Thomas.
“That relevance is obviously an important thing because if you can bond some sort of passion trigger to the Chinese consumer it would make more sense for a Chinese brand to get behind that.”
While not something that could occur in the short-term, reports that BYD – a major Chinese manufacturer of electric vehicles – could be interested in moving into motorsport could present another local angle.
For now though, without that emotional hook, China’s growing F1 audience has yet to translate into a comparable wave of commercial partnerships, but there are several reasons why that could soon change.
Untapped potential
Despite the relatively limited commercial presence of Chinese brands within F1 today, Thomas believes the long-term opportunity for the sport in the country remains significant.
One factor is the emergence of Chinese companies that are increasingly looking to expand beyond their domestic market, particularly in sectors such as electric vehicles, technology and consumer electronics.
“There is definitely going to be a change. We’ve seen the emergence of the Chinese EV markets over the last couple of years and they are starting to dominate that market.
“BYD, per unit, is by far the biggest seller of EV vehicles in Europe now and if you are in domestic China you realise there are another 10, 15, 20 major brands coming behind that.
“They’re all going to be competitive so they will start to sponsor stuff to become competitive not just with their international competitors but also against each other.”
“The EV and mobility market – they’re going to expand but what you see at the moment they’re taking a very safe bet with football, with the Olympics – which is really quite traditional type of sponsorship platforms.
Mark Thomas
However, even with F1’s new regulations bringing in more reliance on electrification – a decision that helped attract the likes of Audi, Ford and GM into the sport – there are still concerns with Chinese brands.
“The EV and mobility market – they’re going to expand but what you see at the moment they’re taking a very safe bet with football, with the Olympics – which is really quite traditional type of sponsorship platforms.
“Formula One is a much bigger beast to handle, it’s incessant. It is more difficult for a company in terms of how they’re going to brand themselves globally and chances are most Chinese brands aren’t in half of those markets. So when they’re asked the price to have a global partnership it’s difficult for them to justify that.”
That mismatch between a global sponsorship platform and companies whose commercial footprint may still be largely regional can make F1 partnerships difficult for Chinese brands to justify.
At the same time, Thomas believes the shifting geopolitical landscape could force the sport to reconsider how it approaches China as a commercial market.
“If you look at the risks that Formula One has put in the Middle East we potentially could have four races that get cancelled this year,” he said, referencing the current situation in the region.
“That’s why you’ve got to de-risk your strategy and actually look at China as an option. Certainly, if I was looking at the world today where my future opportunities come from I would spend more time here.
“I would basically tell Formula One teams they need to spend the time here, to work with partners on the ground that can help them develop because they used to do it a lot when China first came to the market – they came here expecting money to be fruitful but very soon that money went away and they looked for greener markets.
“I would suggest that actually they have got to come back now because things are far more mature – the fanbase, the understanding of the sport, the event itself – that’s all great.”
