Mastercard Becomes McLaren Formula 1 (F1) Team’s New Title Sponsor

Global financial services giant Mastercard is poised to become the new title sponsor of the McLaren Formula 1 (F1) motor racing team from next season. 

Under the deal, the team favoured to win the F1 constructors’ title this season will be known as the McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 team from the 2026 season. This is the first time the F1 team will have a title sponsor since Vodafone backed them in a similar capacity between 2007 and 2013.

The deal is reportedly worth US$100m per season will be the biggest in the team’s coffers, and ramps up the existing commercial partnership between them. Besides Mastercard, the other key partners of McLaren include OKX, Google, Cisco, and DP World.

Following the deal, Zak Brown, chief executive at McLaren Racing, stated, “Mastercard is a fantastic partner who shares our passions and values, so to have them on board as naming partner will offer us the perfect launch pad to keep pushing on and off track.

Raja Rajamannar, Mastercard’s chief marketing and communications officer, echoed, “Our partnership has been grounded in putting fans in pole position since day one, and becoming the official naming partner of the McLaren Formula 1 team takes that commitment to the next level.”

According to ASN data, Mastercard (11.8%, ~US$29m) is the fourth largest spender for its category in the Asian sponsorship landscape since Q422, with an average quarterly investment of almost US$2.5m. However, investment is tipped to be a mere US$566k in Q325, similar to Q225, just 23.1% of the usual average quarterly investment.  

Apart from Q125, which saw investment of US$2.3m+, Mastercard’s spending since Q423 has ranged between US$250k and US$1.3m, this has been muted due to a string of high-profile withdrawals including an endorsement deal with Naomi Osaka and title sponsoring the Irani Cup.