By Emanuele Venturoli| Posted May 8, 2025 | In Motorsports
By Emanuele Venturoli| Posted May 8, 2025 | In Motorsports
The World Rally Championship (WRC) is much more than a competition between cars and drivers: it is a global ecosystem that attracts millions of spectators, fans and business partners worldwide.
In this context, the sponsorships play a crucial role, allowing brands to fit into a narrative of endurance, speed, technology and passion.
In this article we look at the official sponsors of the 2024 WRC, their presence in the championship and the strategies they use to maximize the return on their investment.
Choosing the WRC means positioning oneself in a context:
From 2025, Hankook becomes the sole supplier of tires for the championship. A strategic role that guarantees:
Strategy: demonstrate the reliability of its products and strengthen global positioning in the premium sector.
Wolf is the official lubricant partner of the WRC. Its presence is based on:
Strategy: transferring race performance to the road, with a focus on reliability and engine protection.
The Japanese advanced materials giant is an official sponsor of the WRC with focus on:
Strategy: strengthen reputation as a responsible innovator and promoter of technologies for the future.
Fanatec, a leading brand in the world of sim racing peripherals, is a key sponsor of the WRC, integrating:
Strategy: merge real world and digital, and build relationships with new generations of fans.
Forum8, a specialist in 3D simulation and virtual reality software, supports the WRC with:
Strategy: demonstrate the applicability of its technologies globally and multi-sectorally.
An emerging British brand in premium sportswear, Castore provides:
Strategy: build a premium, dynamic image related to high-level sports.
SafetyCulture is a B2B brand that has found in the WRC a way to communicate:
Strategy: leverage rallying as a metaphor for risk management and continuous improvement.
With the release of the official EA SPORTS WRC game, the video game giant is a key part of the rally ecosystem:
Strategy: expand the WRC audience to gamers, consolidating a global, active fanbase.
ProGrade is a manufacturer of memory cards and solutions for the video-photographic world. In the WRC:
Strategy: to position itself as a leader in the professional next-generation memory segment.
Tata provides the digital infrastructure for data and video transmission of the WRC:
Strategy: demonstrate their ability to connect the world, even in the most remote places on the planet.
All official WRC sponsors are not limited to static visibility. Their strategies include:
This integrated approach multiplies the value of sponsorship and creates memorable experiences for fans and partners.
The WRC is not just a sport, but a global platform for innovation, marketing and communication. The brands that sponsor it are exploiting its potential in an increasingly strategic and creative way, positioning themselves in an ecosystem where performance, sustainability, and engagement are key players. If you would like to find out how to sponsor a global championship like the WRC or get in touch with the teams and organizational structures, RTR Sports Marketing is your one-stop shop.
Experience the power and put your brand in front of millions with motorsport sponsorship. Whether it's Formula 1, MotoGP, NASCAR, IndyCar, or WEC, RTR Sports give your brand the opportunity to appear on television at the most prestigious race tracks in the world.
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A graduate in Public, Social and Political Communication from the University of Bologna, he has always been passionate about marketing, design and sport.
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By doing so, we are convinced that we are shortening the value chain, saving time and money. However, these DYI methods are anything but risk-free and what initially appears to be a competitive advantage soon turns into a problem that is difficult to resolve. That’s why there are agencies. And this is why you should rely on us for your sponsorships.
When first approaching a motorsport sponsorship project, it is difficult to know immediately which stakeholders are correct, what the decision flow is, and what the right timelines are for each process. Motorsport is a very specialized field of action, and fitting effectively into its paths can take a lot of time and therefore money. We, on the other hand, know referents and spheres of action and know who to talk to, when and how. So you are also more effective.
Motorsport is an immense passion, and for our heart colors we would be willing to do anything. But business is a different business, and it is important to make the best possible strategic decisions based on independent research, statistics and reliable data. A motorsport sponsorship agency like RTR has an objective, 360-degree picture of the scenario and can tell you what is really best for you: which racing series, which athlete, which team. This is because we possess a great deal of data and information on ratings, segmentation and attitudes. Because the numbers don’t lie. Never.
Activations are the real heart of motorsport sponsorship. Without them, there remains only a blank sticker on a motorcycle, car or uniform and no contact with the public, no emotional connection, no impact on the bottom line. Then how do you do it? It certainly won’t be the teams or the athletes who will help you leverage sponsorship and enjoy the many marketing rights you have paid for. To bring out the best in a motorsport marketing project, you need an agency that knows how to use sponsorship to engage the fanbase online, to reach out to Shopping Centers, to organize hospitality, to develop B2B and B2C opportunities, and to get “your” athletes in front of millions of potential consumers.
Would you ever go to the dealer who sold you the car and ask if the competitor’s car is better? No, of course. So, how do you expect to get firm measurements of the effectiveness of your sponsorship if you do not rely on someone super partes? At RTR, we have always worked with independent third-party agencies that allow us to know the return on any exposure of your brand on TV and in the media. In addition, we believe in calculating ROI as the ultimate measure of your success-so we can tell you for every penny you spend how much you are making.
We have been involved in motorsport sponsorship and sports marketing for more than 15 years. We are consultants in the sense that our goal is to maximize your investment, but we are also an agency that manages the project from start to finish. We have been doing this since 1995 with passion and professionalism, following three principles that have become cornerstones of our business: independence, verticality and transparency.
I would like to highlight the fact that one of the qualities of RTR is its great ability to approach the sponsorship scenario strategically, together with its passionate attitude, its amazing enthusiasm for solving problems, and its high level of professionalism.
Gianluca Degliesposti
Executive Director Server&Storage EMEA
Eurosport is truly delighted with its business relationship with Riccardo Tafà, who has become extremely popular, thanks to his detailed knowledge of the sports marketing sector and his highly diligent attitude to work.
Francois Ribeiro
Commercial Director
Passion and Expertise are the features that I have found in RTR since the very beginning. Serious and reliable professionals but also very helpful, nice and open-mind people, willing to listen and compare different ideas. All the values in which RTR believes make this agency a partner, not just a supplier, a partner with whom we have had the opportunity to achieve significant commercial results in term of success and image.
Luca Pacitto
Head of Communication
We have been working with RTR Sports Marketing for over 10 years. The objectives and the programmes of collaboration continue to be renewed and to grow with mutual satisfaction. I believe RTR is a team of great professionals led by Riccardo Tafà, who I consider a manager of exceptional skills and with a great passion for his work.
Lucio Cecchinello
Team Principal
I have known and worked with Riccardo Tafà since 1995 when we collaborated for the first time on a project for the Williams Formula 1 team. Several clients followed. After leaving Williams to work for Gerhard Berger then owner of the Toro Rosso F1 Team, I turned again to Riccardo to seek his help in finding a tool supplier for the team and Riccardo duly obliged with an introduction to USAG, a partnership with Toro Rosso which endured for five years. I recently started a new role as Group Commercial Director for the renowned Andretti Autosport organisation and I find myself working with Riccardo once again on a number of interesting projects. Why has this relationship with Riccardo endured ? He’s smart, knows the commercial side of sport inside out and back to front and he’s honest and trustworthy. Riccardo Tafà is a “doer” not a “talker”: in over 20 years I have never had a dispute either with him or with a company that he has introduced and each partnership introduced by Riccardo has delivered quantifiable ROI to rights holder and sponsor alike. I can think of no better testimonial of Riccardo’s diligence, knowledge, contact base and hard work than that.
Jim Wright
Group Commercial Director
The online platform where you can discover the latest trends, strategies and insights from the exciting world of sports marketing.
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