Sponsorship in Formula 1 no longer means a name on a sidepod and little else.
The five deals below cover insurance, artificial intelligence and luxury brands, each one telling a different story about what brands actually want from the sport in 2026 and beyond.
These partnerships are not selected purely on financial grounds but on what they bring to F1 and how they change the sport moving forward.
Sector also asked Chris Gowland, Managing Director and Co-Founder of The Sports Marketing Group, to offer his expert take on each of the five picks.
Ferrari see off competition to land WHOOP wearable tech (19 January)
Scuderia Ferrari HP’s first new commercial partnership of 2026 went to WHOOP, named Team Partner and Official Health and Fitness Wearable Partner.
Sector understands Ferrari saw off competition from across the grid to land it, a mark of how sought-after the wearable maker had become. It is WHOOP’s first entry into F1, arriving off the back of a roster that already includes golf, the NFL and college sports.
“WHOOP and Scuderia Ferrari HP share the same obsession: performance at the edge,” said Will Ahmed, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of WHOOP.
“Scuderia Ferrari HP has spent generations turning data and precision into speed. We’ve done the same for the human system.”
The deal includes a first-of-its-kind integration between Ferrari’s medical team and WHOOP’s Performance Science group, aimed at producing research on human performance under race conditions rather than simply supplying wearables.
Chris: “F1 is the world’s most data-rich sport, but almost all partnership use cases and storytelling have focused on the car – lap times, telemetry, tyre degradation etc. We’ve barely scratched the surface on the human side.
“There’s an incredible story in driver, pit crew and even team principal performance under that kind of pressure. While some of it will understandably stay behind closed doors, I think fans would love even a glimpse into what the human body goes through at 200mph.”
Microsoft switches sides for Mercedes (22 January)
The Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team signed Microsoft as a Global Partner, ending the tech giant’s long-standing relationship with rival team Alpine.
The deal was reported to be worth as much as $60 million a year, putting it firmly among the biggest individual team sponsorships in the sport.
“We are delighted to partner with Microsoft, one of the world’s foremost technology leaders, whose name is synonymous with ground-breaking innovation,” said Toto Wolff, Chief Executive Officer and Team Principal of Mercedes.
The branding sat on the car, but the real value sat inside Mercedes’ systems. Microsoft Azure supplied cloud and AI capacity for simulation, performance analysis and race strategy modelling, while Microsoft 365 and GitHub were rolled out across engineering and operations at Brackley and Brixworth, giving Mercedes an infrastructure upgrade rather than just a name on the airbox.
Chris: “Beyond the prominent branding on the Mercedes airbox and driver race suits, this partnership is a true example of how leading technology brands sit at the core of an F1 team’s setup, both on and off the track, with a genuine integration that fuels performance.
“F1 is becoming a hotbed for AI, and it’s therefore no surprise to see Microsoft become a principal partner to one of this season’s title contenders.”
Williams sharpens up with Wilkinson Sword (29 January)
The Atlassian Williams F1 named Wilkinson Sword its Official Men’s Grooming Partner in what its parent company, Edgewell Personal Care, called its biggest single brand sponsorship to date.
The multi-year deal put Wilkinson Sword branding across the FW48’s nose box, halo and engine cover from the team’s livery launch.
“For both Atlassian Williams F1 Team and Wilkinson Sword, performance means pushing boundaries and innovating for the future,” said James Vowles, Team Principal of Williams.
We are proud to have Wilkinson Sword by our side as we drive performance to razor thin margins.”
The partnership grew into a proper fan-facing campaign in June with the launch of Partners in Smooth, fronted by the brand’s fictional “Blade Master” character, installed as the team’s first ever “Director of Smooth” and shown working alongside Vowles to prepare Carlos Sainz, Alex Albon and Luke Browning for race weekends.
The push runs the rest of the season, extending into creator content, retail activations and a fan zone presence during British Grand Prix week, treating the sponsorship as an ongoing story rather than a one-off livery reveal.
Chris: “Whilst somewhat biased – this was an SMG-brokered deal – Wilkinson Sword’s first installment of their ‘Partners in Smooth’ campaign is exactly the kind of playful confidence F1 needs more of.
“Making the Blade Master ‘Director of Smooth,’ coaching Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon on handshakes and taking compliments – that’s a brand willing to lean into the funny side of F1 and subsequently engage fans with a more lighthearted tone rather than just focusing solely on brand awareness.
“It’s refreshing to see a consumer brand lean into a more playful way of communicating and I’m excited to see what’s next.”
Risky business as F1 adds Marsh to partnership portfolio (28 April)
Marsh signed as F1’s first Official Risk Partner and Official Insurance Brokering Partner, an entirely new sponsorship category for the sport. The deal marks the insurance broker’s first enterprise-wide global sports partnership since unifying its businesses under one brand.
“Formula 1 embodies the pinnacle of performance, precision and resilience, values that are deeply aligned with Marsh’s commitment to helping clients navigate complexity and unlock opportunity,” said John Doyle, President and Chief Executive Officer of Marsh.
Beyond trackside branding, the partnership includes The Risk Perspective, a content series on F1.com examining nine circuits where teams have to interpret risk and make split-second calls under pressure, a genuine attempt to turn a sponsorship into content rather than just a logo.
Chris: “A good example of how a global brand is leveraging sport as a platform and more specifically, F1 to communicate a significant rebrand to ‘Marsh’.
“The alignment with risk, reliability and precision is evident but I’m looking forward to seeing how certain ‘risk’ elements could be integrated within F1’s broadcast.”
Alpine’s lap of luxury with Gucci (27 May)
Alpine confirmed Gucci as its title partner from the 2027 season, the first time a luxury fashion house has held a title partnership in F1. The team will race as Gucci Racing Alpine Formula One Team, replacing outgoing title partner BWT.
“This partnership with Alpine Formula One Team writes a new chapter: Gucci becomes the first luxury fashion house to serve as Title Partner in Formula 1,” said Francesca Bellettini, President and Chief Executive Officer of Gucci.
The deal is reported to be worth $50 to $60 million a season, with the potential to exceed $150 million across its term including performance bonuses, and lands as Gucci looks to reverse eleven straight quarters of declining sales by buying its way into F1’s younger, more international audience.
Chris: “A real statement partnership for Alpine and a first of its kind. We know how integral title partnerships are within a team’s setup – SMG brokered the Stake x Sauber title partnership – and given the launch of GUCCI Racing, we can expect to see more racing dedicated activities and engagement from the GUCCI brand.
“Alpine has arguably lacked a bit of identity recently, but this completely shifts everything for the team which I’m sure is driving a lot of new partner conversations. Additionally, I’m looking forward to seeing how other Kering brands potentially lean into this partnership and of course, I’m sure there are big plans for a standout car livery.”
With F1’s calendar filling out further and its audience still skewing younger and more international, expect more brands to follow Gucci’s lead in treating a partnership as a full rebrand opportunity rather than a logo placement.
There will also undoubtedly be more AI companies to follow in pitching infrastructure rather than trackside visibility.
The rest of 2026 still has room for surprises. If the first half of the season is anything to go by, it is only a matter of time until the next unexpected category to arrive on the F1 grid.
