In January 2025, LVMH — the world’s largest luxury group, owner of Louis Vuitton, Moët Hennessy and TAG Heuer — signed a ten-year deal with Formula 1, estimated at around one billion dollars. This is not an ordinary sponsorship agreement: it is a strategic alliance between two systems that share the same DNA. Luxury meets the sport that, more than any other, has become a space of meaning for global brands.

What is striking is not the size of the deal. It is the fact that it arrives now, nearly a decade after Bernie Ecclestone called young F1 viewers “too poor to buy a Rolex.” LVMH clearly disagrees. And the numbers prove them right.

The Market: Numbers That Tell a Story of Transformation

In 2024, Formula 1 teams collectively generated $2.05 billion in sponsorship revenue. Three hundred and forty deals, 319 different brands, for an average of $250 million per team per year — a figure that grew by 20% compared to the previous season. The entire F1 sponsorship ecosystem, combining the championship and its teams, exceeded $2.9 billion in total.

The leading sectors are technology ($543 million, 26% of team sponsorship totals) and financial services ($379 million), followed by a crypto sector in strong recovery that has already reached $565 million across the championship and teams. The geography of money has shifted: in 2025, 34% of new sponsorships come from US companies, a direct reflection of the three American grands prix on the calendar (Miami, Austin, Las Vegas) and 52 million US fans, up 10.5% year-on-year.

The New Audience Nobody Predicted

Formula 1’s global fanbase reached 826.5 million people in 2024, growing 12% year-on-year according to Nielsen Sports. The fastest-growing regions are the Middle East — Saudi Arabia (+11%), United Arab Emirates (+6%) — and China, where growth reached 39%. These are numbers that explain why brands across every sector, from Silicon Valley tech players to European luxury conglomerates, are actively seeking a position in the F1 ecosystem.

This audience is young, global, with high spending power, and engages with motorsport through channels that simply did not exist a decade ago: Netflix productions, the championship’s own social content, grands prix as full-scale entertainment events. It is no coincidence that the 233 million YouTube views Formula 1 generated in 2024 came primarily from the US, UK and India — three markets that were marginal for F1 just ten years ago.

Liberty Media and the Construction of Value

Liberty Media’s acquisition in 2017 was not just a change of ownership: it was a radical redefinition of the product. Formula 1’s total revenue grew from around $1.8 billion in 2017 to $3.65 billion in 2024, reaching $3.87 billion in 2025. Growth of over two billion dollars in eight years, driven by commercial expansion, the addition of new grands prix in premium markets, and a content strategy that multiplied the F1 brand’s exposure well beyond the race weekend itself.

For sponsors, this has meant a step change in the environment in which they operate. Being associated with Formula 1 today does not mean appearing on a car for twenty-two Sundays a year: it means entering a media ecosystem that produces content year-round, in every language, on every platform. It is an exposure structure that few other sports in the world can offer.

What It Means for a Brand Considering Formula 1

Entry into this market is not limited to the world’s largest companies. There are different levels of partnership, with activations that allow internationally ambitious brands — not necessarily global giants — to find their entry point. The critical factor, as with any Formula 1 sponsorship, is not the size of the logo or its position on the car: it is the quality of the activation, the ability to turn a sponsorship right into a system of content, relationships and credibility that extends well beyond the contract itself.

What the 2024–2025 data makes clear is that the market is expanding rapidly, but also becoming more competitive. Brands across every sector are discovering Formula 1 as a global platform. Those who arrive early in a segment still hold the category advantage. Those who wait find a more crowded space and rising prices.

RTR Sports has spent thirty years helping brands find the right position in the motorsport ecosystem, structure the deal, and — above all — activate it in ways that generate real value. If you are considering Formula 1 sponsorship as a marketing lever, this is the right moment to understand what is possible, and how.

Frequently Asked Questions about Formula 1 Sponsorship