The question used to be whether Formula 1 belonged in the same conversation as the world’s biggest commercial properties. Nobody is asking that anymore.
F1 reached that moment some time ago and the marketing world is only just catching up.
This week, as the paddock convenes at the Red Bull Ring for the Lenovo Austrian Grand Prix, the sport’s commercial footprint sits across two continents simultaneously.
Drivers were appearing on stages at Cannes Lions while Emily Prazer, F1’s Chief Commercial Officer, was being named to Forbes’ global CMO list.
Last year, George Kurtz’s investment in Mercedes valued the team at $6 billion.
That is more than a sevenfold increase on the price INEOS paid for its stake just five years earlier, while total sponsorship spend in the sport has passed $3 billion for the first time in 2026.
It must be said that a sport still seeking commercial validation does not post numbers like these.
Yes, the cynical read is well-rehearsed – critics will point to sanitised paddock access, the Netflix effect, to a sport that has traded some of its rawness for mainstream attention.
Commercial mainstream status and sporting excellence are not in conflict in Formula 1 right now. They are feeding each other.
There may be something in that argument – F1 is a more polished product than it was a decade ago, with a Hollywood blockbuster under its belt, luxury brands wanting to invest and a growing list of destinations keen to host economically lucrative race weekends.
But any criticism does not understand – or at least fully value – the direction of travel. The commercial legitimacy F1 now holds was not handed to it by Liberty Media or unlocked by a documentary series.
It was built methodically, over years, through a genuine expansion of what the sport is and who it speaks to.
Drivers giving keynotes at Cannes Lions is not a novelty act. It is a deliberate strategy to position F1 as a cultural and commercial platform, not merely a sporting one.
The brands that have followed – across luxury, technology, finance, beauty and beyond – did not arrive by accident. They arrived because the audience and the access made commercial sense.
The Forbes recognition of Prazer reflects something similar.
F1’s commercial operation is now being measured against the best in global marketing, not just the best in sport. That is a meaningful distinction.
Where this conversation sometimes loses its thread is in treating commercial success as separate from, or even in tension with, the racing itself.
It’s not.
More partners mean more resource. More resource means more competition. The 2026 season – with five power unit manufacturers, eleven teams, a genuine four-way fight at the front, and arguably the most compelling championship narrative in years – is not a coincidence.
Commercial mainstream status and sporting excellence are not in conflict in F1 right now. They are feeding each other.
The sport isn’t chasing a seat at the table. It is already in the room. The racing, for those still watching for that reason, has never been better for it.
