The convoluted tier system that reveals an F1 strength

It was McLaren’s Ron Dennis and Ekrem Sami who decided, back in the 1980s, that sponsors were no longer sponsors. Instead, they were partners. Commercial partners, technical partners or, at the bottom of the ladder, official suppliers.

Being a sponsor suggested something altogether different. A charitable donation or a cash contribution towards a worthy cause, such as winning the world championship.

Going into this season, Formula 1’s 10 teams sported no fewer than 301 ‘partners’, although the  nomenclature differs from team to team.

Scuderia Ferrari has 36 equitably named ‘official partners’. Whether you’re Shell, Santander or Virtual Gaming Worlds, you have the same billing as Brembo brakes, Garrett turbochargers or Technogym sports equipment.

Oracle Red Bull Racing has that much-sought-after beast, a title sponsor. Yet Oracle is listed as a ‘technical partner’. This neat positioning reflects its role in helping Hannah Schmitz and her colleagues in the strategy department to run millions of simulations in order to give Max Verstappen an optimal race.

Mercedes has four categories of partner, from ‘title partner’ Petronas and ‘principal partner’ Ineos to 19 ‘team partners’ and half a dozen ‘team suppliers’.
 Aston Martin likes the ‘title partner’ approach, applying that to Cognizant, while Saudi energy giant Aramco is referred to, rather cryptically, as a ‘strategic partner’.

While Mercedes and Aston Martin sport 27 partners each, McLaren is simply bursting at the seams with 50, three of which are ‘primary’ – OKX, Android and Google – while 41 are ‘Formula 1 partners’ and six ‘McLaren licensees’.

The McLaren MCL60 offers plenty of decals for study

Photo by: Lionel Ng / Motorsport Images

It comes as no surprise that a team headed by Zak Brown 
should be good at wooing partners. Anyone who can list Unilever, Coca-Cola, Dell and VM Ware among its partner list has, quite literally, done the business.

A surprising second in the numbers game is Alfa Romeo Racing. In a nod to tradition, the team lists both Alfa Romeo and the
 Stake gambling business as ‘title sponsors’. It’s refreshing to see
 the folk at Hinwil recognise sponsors for what they are. Throw in 
its ‘main partner’, the Kick streaming platform, along with the
 41 ‘official partners’ and two ‘team suppliers’, and the Swiss
 team quietly impresses.

Alpine’s support from the modestly named Best Water Technology Company
 is that of a ‘title partner’, while the Enstone team refers to both Castrol and BP Ultimate as ‘premium partners’ even though BP
 owns both. They are joined by Renault.
 The team has a further 26 official, technical and supplier partners.

Haas’s deal with Moneygram is significant, fully integrated into the team’s brand identity and something it is rightly proud of. The arrival of the Chipotle Mexican Grill company, with 3,200 restaurants across North America, the UK, France and Germany, shows Haas may have turned the sponsorship corner. It sports 14 partners in total.

Williams has 21, including owners Dorilton, and the neat way in which it has applied Duracell branding to the FW45 illustrates nice creativity. AlphaTauri has landed Polish energy company Orlen, formerly with Alfa, but its modest line-up of 16 partners belies the support of Red Bull.

All of this reflects the rude health in which the industry finds itself. So far there is no sign of sponsors worrying about being lost in the clutter, and each is carving out its own storyline. They keep countless advertising, sponsorship, PR and hospitality agencies in work, cascading the benefit of F1’s growth far beyond the paddock gates.

If you’ve ever wondered what a heyday looks like, this is it.

Haas and Moneygram have a close...partnership.

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images