PepsiCo signed a five-year partnership with Silverstone last week, becoming the circuit’s official soft drinks and snacks partner.
On its own, that is a routine venue sponsorship story. However, it is the third such deal PepsiCo has struck inside Formula 1 in 15 months.
Combined with existing partnerships covering the sport itself and Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team, Silverstone – home of the Pirelli British Grand Prix – completes a set spanning championship, team and circuit.
Three separate commercial layers of the same sport, each with different brands from PepsiCo’s portfolio being pushed as part of the deal.
The sport: Formula 1
PepsiCo’s first move came in May 2025, when it signed a multi-year worldwide partnership with F1 itself, bringing three brands, Sting Energy, Gatorade and Doritos, into the sport for the first time.
The deal secured PepsiCo TV-visible trackside advertising, Fan Zone activation rights at 21 races, and tickets and hospitality access, built around F1’s cumulative global audience of 1.6 billion viewers and an active fan base of 826 million.
“Formula 1’s unmatched global platform and tremendous growth trajectory align perfectly with our ambitions to accelerate our brands, particularly Sting Energy, on the world stage,” said Eugene Willemsen, Chief Executive Officer of International Beverages at PepsiCo.
Stefano Domenicali, President and Chief Executive Officer of F1, framed the deal around reach rather than any single brand. “PepsiCo will tap into the unique potential of Formula 1 as a global platform to connect with new audiences, and we will benefit from their energy, their extraordinary products, and their loyal community.”
This first deal was the broadest and the most passive of the three, a media and activation footprint across the entire calendar rather than a relationship with any single team or venue.
The team: Mercedes
Seven months later, PepsiCo went a level deeper.
In December 2025, it signed a landmark global partnership with Mercedes, beginning in 2026, marking the first time three PepsiCo brands, Gatorade, Sting and Doritos, had partnered with a single F1 team together.
The deal replaced Monster Energy as the team’s previous energy drink partner.
The most substantial element is Gatorade’s, which brings 60 years of heritage and the expertise of the Gatorade Sports Science Institute into the paddock for the first time, delivering a customised hydration programme for Mercedes drivers and crew.
George Russell and Kimi Antonelli are both confirmed for promotional and digital roles across the partnership.
Willemsen again led PepsiCo’s framing, describing the deal as something closer to embedded culture than sponsorship. “This partnership unites performance, energy, and flavor under one banner, connecting three of PepsiCo’s most iconic brands with the world’s most successful Formula 1 team,” he said.
“Through Gatorade, Sting, and Doritos, we’re inside the culture of the sport, fuelling both the athletes and the fans who live for the thrill of F1.”
Toto Wolff, Mercedes Team Principal and Chief Executive Officer, positioned the deal as validation as much as commerce. “Welcoming a company with a portfolio as strong as PepsiCo’s into our partner ecosystem is another sign of the strength of our team and our sport.”
Unlike the F1 deal, this one is functional as well as promotional. Gatorade’s science division has an actual operational role inside the team, not just a branding presence.
The circuit: Silverstone
The most recent deal closes the loop.
PepsiCo becomes Silverstone’s official soft drinks and snacks partner across its full year-round calendar, the British Grand Prix, British MotoGP, the British Touring Car Championship, CarFest and Christmas at Silverstone, for the next five years.
Carlsberg Britvic, PepsiCo’s bottling partner, will support delivery of the drinks portfolio, giving the deal an operational backbone beyond signage and activations.
Six major brand experiences will run each year, building on activations already tested at July’s British Grand Prix, which drew a record 564,000 spectators. Silverstone hosts more than two million visitors annually across its full calendar.
Mark Whitaker, Away From Home Business Unit Controller at PepsiCo UK, tied the deal to consistent fan access rather than a single event. “Silverstone is one of the world’s most iconic sporting venues, and it brings together fans in moments that truly matter.
“This partnership gives us an exciting opportunity to connect with those fans in new ways, through bold flavours, immersive brand experiences and shared moments of enjoyment across our food and drink portfolio.”
Where the F1 deal is broad and the Mercedes deal is functional, the Silverstone deal is about frequency. It is PepsiCo’s only one of the three not tied to the F1 calendar alone, giving the brands a presence at the venue across MotoGP, touring cars and non-motorsport events too.
Why it adds up to more than three deals
Read individually, each of these is a straightforward sponsorship story.
Read together, they describe a company building vertical presence across every commercial layer of the same sport in the space of 15 months, governing body reach, team-level performance integration, and venue-level fan frequency, with a different brand doing distinct work at each layer.
Willemsen’s own language across two of the three deals points to a deliberate sequencing rather than opportunistic stacking.
Whether that reads as a coherent strategy or an increasingly crowded PepsiCo presence across the same sport is the more interesting question, and one Sector will keep tracking as the Silverstone partnership beds in.
