Much more than a title sponsorship, the agreement between Scuderia Ferrari and HP, announced on 24 April 2024, is yet another piece of a marketing puzzle that the Prancing Horse has been building with care and precision for some time. The technology giant (HP is the world’s second-largest personal computer maker: in 2025 it shipped 20.2% of the traditional PCs sold worldwide, according to IDC’s preliminary data) has appeared on the Maranello car since the Miami Grand Prix in May 2024, under a multi-year contract whose figures have never been disclosed but are certainly in the many millions. Unsurprisingly, the deal also covers the esports team and the F1 Academy car, driven in 2024 by Maya Weug: two communication assets the Palo Alto company had no intention of letting slip.

The title sponsorship

The Scuderia had not had a title sponsor since Mission Winnow, the marketing and communication initiative through which long-standing partner Philip Morris, according to its critics, got around at least in part the rules on tobacco sponsorship: launched with Ferrari at the 2018 Japanese Grand Prix, it featured in the team name in 2019 and for part of 2021, and disappeared from 2022. Under the current agreement, Ferrari races as Scuderia Ferrari HP, a name that immediately drew curiosity, interest and applause from several online communities, quick to point out that “HP”, besides standing for Hewlett-Packard, is better known in racing as the abbreviation of horsepower, the unit that measures an engine’s power.

How much it is worth, the agreement does not say. According to journalist Will Buxton the deal is worth two thirds of the budget cap, about $90 million a season in PlanetF1’s calculation, while according to Black Book Motorsport it is considered comparable to Oracle’s title sponsorship of Red Bull, estimated at around $300 million over five years. These are press estimates, not declared numbers: but they are enough to place HP at the very top of the market, the tier worth reading alongside our guide to the cost of a Formula 1 sponsorship.

The red and the blue

The day before the announcement, Ferrari had let it be known that in Miami it would race with a special livery, and over the weekend Leclerc, Sainz and almost the whole team would wear a light-blue kit created for the occasion. The official reason was an anniversary, the 70 years of Ferrari’s presence in North America, celebrated with two blues from the past: Azzurro La Plata, a blue similar to the one Alberto Ascari, the Scuderia’s first world champion, wore as a lucky charm on his shirt and helmet, and Azzurro Dino, used for the race suits of drivers such as Arturo Merzario and Clay Regazzoni until 1974.

Without wishing to be mischievous, though, the blue chosen for Miami took on a particular meaning the day after the partnership with HP was announced, since HP’s logo is blue. On the Florida track the two Maranello cars carried the large HP logo for the first time on a livery with light-blue accents, which became a small classic of sports marketing and an unmissable PR and photo opportunity.

Innovation, sustainability and the importance of a partnership in Formula 1

Innovation, sustainability, performance and excellence were the words chasing one another through the press releases launching the partnership, as is right and natural. In a world of very high technology like Formula 1, a computer maker is perfectly positioned and represented, and the agreement says so explicitly: Ferrari uses HP PCs, devices, collaboration and printing systems. Sustainability too, a theme very dear to both technology and automotive and one on which both industries face strong pressure, was one of the keys to this sponsorship, we read.

And yet, to be clear, it is impossible not to count among the “reasons why” of this deal the extraordinary centrality of Formula 1 in modern marketing and global popularity. The circus is to all intents and purposes an extraordinary communication platform, like the Olympics and very few other properties in the world, one that brands cannot afford not to be associated with. In this, Ferrari is certainly, and always has been, the brightest jewel in the crown, if not on track then at least in marketing.

Lewis HP

The Hamilton factor cannot be left out of the equation. Announced on 1 February 2024, almost three months before HP, the Briton has raced for Ferrari since 2025 alongside Charles Leclerc, who in June 2026 renewed his contract, according to the press until 2028. Hamilton is not simply one of the most successful drivers in Formula 1 history, but also one of the most recognisable figures in world sport, with a following that reaches far beyond the paddock, thanks also to his commitment to many of the most debated causes of recent years. His arrival had marketing repercussions even before sporting ones: Hamilton is at the centre of attention and carries with him the whole Ferrari world around him, sponsors included. This too is genuinely not something to underestimate.

The puzzle, two years on

Today the team is still called Scuderia Ferrari HP, and the puzzle has grown: in 2026 the Prancing Horse has 40 official partners, with HP at the top of a pyramid that, in our classification, includes main sponsors, official sponsors, supporting partners and technical sponsors. Anyone who wants to see them all, sector by sector, will find the full analysis of Ferrari’s Formula 1 sponsor portfolio. The point, however, is still the one of 2024: HP did not just buy a name on the bodywork, but a place inside the most told story in motorsport, the one in which even a colour, if chosen at the right moment, becomes a message.

Sources: Ferrari, the agreement with HP; Ferrari and HP, the joint announcement; Ferrari, the Miami 2024 livery; PlanetF1, the deal’s value according to Will Buxton; Black Book Motorsport, the HP title partnership; IDC, the 2025 PC market; Ferrari, Leclerc’s renewal.