F1 Sponsorship Deals: How the Money Works

Sponsorship is the second river of money into Formula 1 after broadcast rights — and, like driver pay, almost none of the deal values are officially published. This page explains how deals are priced, and labels everything the way we label salaries.

How an F1 sponsorship is priced

Value follows visibility: the engine cover and sidepods are the most expensive real estate on the car, followed by the wings, the drivers' overalls and helmets, and garage and hospitality assets. A title partnership — the brand in the team's official name — is the top tier and is generally reported in the tens of millions of dollars per year at front-running teams (Estimated, from industry reporting); smaller logo-only deals run from low single-digit millions down. Deals are usually multi-year and are announced by press release with the value undisclosed.

What we can verify

Team revenue lines in filed accounts (for UK-based teams) put hard floors under total commercial income — Mercedes' reported revenue of $839m and Ferrari's $670m include sponsorship, prize money and licensing combined. Individual deal values published by named reporting are labelled Reported on the relevant team pages; everything else stays an explained estimate rather than a invented number.

Why sponsors pay it

F1 sells a global, affluent, increasingly young audience across 24 races, plus B2B hospitality that few sports can match. The 2026 grid's newest team, Cadillac, arrived with a full commercial programme despite scoring no points yet — proof that in modern F1 the audience, not the standings, sets the price.