Max Verstappen wasn’t the only one setting records in F1 this season.
The series went through an important milestone in 2023 as it surpassed 300 corporate sponsors for this first time in its history. These were spread across the 10 F1 teams and the series itself. And significantly, over half of them are American companies.
McLaren alone has over 50 sponsors, while Red Bull Racing now has five Fortune 500 companies in its sponsor roster. As team boss Christian Horner says: “They would not have been there previously. We brought in companies such as ExxonMobil, Oracle and Ford was reintroduced to F1 (as a partner from 2026). It’s only because of the popularity of F1 that brands like these are choosing to get involved.”
One of the agencies at the heart of this growth story is Right Formula, based in London. The CEO is Robin Fenwick, once an account manager at McLaren who started his own agency in 2009 at the age of 28.
The company now boasts 112 staff worldwide, an increase of 50 in the last 12 months, partly due to staffing up a new office in the US, from where so many new F1 sponsors are coming. Right Formula is a sponsorship broker as well as one of the largest agencies for managing sponsor activations throughout the year. Their clients include Exxon Mobile, SAP, Qatar Airways, Hilton, Pirelli and Oracle, among others.
“We look after more brands in Formula 1 than any other agency,” says Fenwick in his office overlooking the River Thames in Battersea Power Station. “We are completely team agnostic; we always choose the team that the brand will be the best fit at.”
Sports sponsorship is becoming increasingly sophisticated; it’s a far cry from a sponsor placing a sticker on a car and measuring the resulting TV viewership. Agencies like Right Formula manage data and analytics departments, measuring the return on investment and directing sponsorship strategy, especially when it comes to driving a hard bargain with teams on rights packages.
This has been a bumper year for Right Formula, “helped by the general groundswell of Formula 1,” says Fenwick. “I think we’ve gone beyond the excitement and growth in America and now businesses in America are truly embracing F1 and motorsport in general. There seems to be a growing desire and need for businesses to be able to justify their relationships. And whereas perhaps historically, the heart ruled the head, that is starting to turn as more businesses are demanding…
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