Speed, celebs, Champagne: Formula 1 is having its Hollywood moment
If it seems like Formula 1 is inescapable this summer, there's good reason.
Apple's"F1: The Movie," starring Brad Pitt, hit theaters Friday. It's one of Apple's biggest bets on entertainment, with the company's characteristic slick production, A-list cast, aspirational feel, and hefty price tag. The tech giant has gone all out to promote the movie, and even pushed discounted tickets using an iPhone notification.
Apple isn't the only company betting on Formula 1. The sport, with its air of globe-trotting luxury and peak performance, has become a darling among brands. Tommy Hilfiger has a capsule collection tied to the "F1" film, and Heineken is using it to work itself into the cultural conversation. Formula 1 kept cropping up in conversations Business Insider reporters had with marketers during the recent Cannes Lions ad festival in the south of France.
How did an exclusive, complex sport, with drivers hidden behind helmets and cars, enter the cultural mainstream?
The sport got a big boost from the Netflix docuseries "Formula 1: Drive to Survive," which was not only a massive hit but was also credited with getting people to watch more races. The series started in 2019 and has run seven seasons so far.
Formula 1 owner Liberty Media has worked to capitalize on the sport's increased popularity in the US. It added a second American race to the calendar in 2022, the Miami Grand Prix, and a third in Las Vegas in 2023, and has amplified the glitz factor with celebrities and splashy ceremonies.
Teams are doing their part. McLaren Racing, home of the McLaren Formula 1 team, is doing a Trafalgar Square takeover in July to promote the team. Louise McEwen, CMO of McLaren Racing, said it was important to reach new and existing fans outside the track.
"Seeing the new fans come into the sport, we needed to show up in their worlds and be meaningful in their worlds," she told BI at Cannes Lions. "Only 1% of fans ever go to the track in their lifetime."
Formula 1 is still small compared to mainstream American sports like football and basketball, but the US has been one of its fastest-growing markets since Liberty's acquisition, according to Nielsen Sports. Globally, Formula 1 grew its fan base 12% to over 826 million in 2024. Women now make up 41% of the fanbase, and 16- to 24-year-olds are the fastest-growing age group, per Nielsen.
A limitation of Formula 1 is that its drivers are obscured by helmets and cars, making it hard for fans to connect to them. Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali has been on a mission to expand the company's global footprint and US audience by promoting its drivers as actors in the drama of the competition.
Cost is another limiting factor. Even basic tickets to this year's Miami Grand Prix went for hundreds of dollars. Those factors and the complexity of the sport have raised questions about how far its popularity can go.
Brands are eagerly capitalizing on Formula 1's rise
F1 is considered expensive and logistically challenging from a sponsorship point of view. Still, according to the research firm Ampere Analysis, sponsorship spending on F1 and its teams is expected to reach $2.9 billion this year, up 10% over 2024.
Jae Goodman, whose Superconnector Studios firm connects brands to entertainment, said he saw F1's impact directly at the Miami Grand Prix, where he said that for every official sponsor, there was another brand attaching itself unofficially to the race. He was eager to see how the new Apple movie would confirm its relevance.
"From a marketer's perspective, F1 feels like it's at the center of culture right now," he said.
Mastercard, Qualcomm, and Atlassian are among those that are hoping to get the sport's high-tech gloss to rub off on them through team and media partnerships on and off the track.
Some brands are looking beyond just putting logos in stadiums and on jerseys.
For its sponsorship with the Formula 1 Oracle Red Bull Racing team, the Norway-based videoconferencing company Neat had its products used by the team's staff and in their hospitality suite, so that Neat could invite prospects to sporting events.
Uber Advertising, pitching prospective clients, described how beauty brand La Mer sponsored rides to and from the Miami Grand Prix.
Lenovo marketer Emily Ketchen recently discussed with BI how its partnership with Formula 1 includes using AI tech to improve the viewing experience.
"That fusion of tech and performance is where we see a really nice alignment for our brand and for theirs," she said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
American Press
27 minutes ago
- American Press
Genes give Portie her athletic prowess, but work to compete is all her
Sam Houston junior two-sport star Aubrey Portie is the American Press Female Athlete of the Year. (Rodrick Anderson / American Press) A s a daughter of Division I athletes, athleticism courses through Aubrey Portie's blood. There was added pressure for her to succeed that others didn't have. Still, she channeled their knowledge to hone her abilities to excel as a multi-sport athlete, become a state champion and this year's American Press Female Athlete of the Year. 'It's a tough area to be in sometimes because, if I'm not succeeding well, then they know like what I'm doing wrong or what I need to fix,' Portie said. 'It's just tough because they are so hard on me because they know how good I can be, but I really appreciate them. 'I'm glad that they know what they're talking about to help me grow and be better at the sport that I play.' The Sam Houston junior shortstop helped lead the Broncos to their first state championship since 2015. As a powerful 5-foot-10 outside hitter, Portie and the Broncos reached the volleyball semifinals for the first time since 2009. 'It was pretty awesome to do that in both,' Portie said. 'That was definitely a different experience for volleyball because we made it to state my sophomore year, but it was not really anything the same as this past year. 'It was just a great learning experience, and it was just something that I was really looking forward to and that we worked for all season.' Portie's mother, Sarah (Everingham) Portie, was a four-time all-Southland Conference softball infielder (1994, '95, '97, '98) and coached the Barbe High softball program for two decades. Her father, Jarrod Portie, was an all-district baseball and football player at Jennings High School and went on to pitch for McNeese State from 1998 to 2001. He helped lead Jennings to the Class 3A baseball semifinals in 1996 and 1997. 'My dad is my hitting coach,' Portie said. 'I do hit a lot on my own, but there are days that I ask them to hit with me. '(Mom) helps with my hitting, too. She has obviously played it a while and coached it, so she knows the little things. Her being the one who travels with me to all my tournaments, she gives me some pointers and helps me out through it all.' With a brother, Riggins, a year younger than her, Portie said she always had someone to compete against. When she was younger, she played on the same youth baseball team as her brother, and eventually moved to softball. In her second season as a starter on the high school level, Portie was part of one of the most feared lineups in the state. The Broncos combined for 57 home runs and scored 357 runs on their way to the Non-select Division I state championship and a 30-2 record. Portie accounted for 14 of those home runs while batting .519 with eight doubles, two triples, 48 RBIs, 55 runs and 12 stolen bases. She had a .628 on-base percentage with four strikeouts in 81 at-bats. She earned all-district first team, Class 5A all-state honorable mention and American Press All-Southwest Big School honors. 'I had a year underneath my belt,' Portie said. 'I knew what I was going into, so it wasn't anything really new to me.' In junior high, she added three sports, including volleyball. 'I just grew up in the world of softball because of my parents,' Portie said. 'My dad played baseball, so I just grew up around that sport. But volleyball was just a random thing. 'One day, going into middle school, I was like, 'I think I want to try out for volleyball.' I didn't even know how many people were on the court at a time or any of the rules, but I made the team and started playing volleyball since then.' On the volleyball court, Portie earned co-district MVP honors and played in the Louisiana Volleyball Coaches Association Top 100 Player Showcase for a second consecutive season. She was ninth in the state with 466 kills in addition to 80 blocks 68 aces, 505 digs and 59 assists for the 39-7 Broncos. 'I did a lot of extra work,' Portie said. 'I did a lot of jump training with Barry Painter, and I feel like that has helped me grow as an athlete. 'My freshman year, I was not 5-10. I was definitely more like 5-5, 5-8, so just growing a couple of extra inches and learning your body. I would just say that I was more aware and just an overall better athlete.'
Cosmopolitan
37 minutes ago
- Cosmopolitan
The Ending of 'F1 The Movie', Explained
You've heard this story before: Person from [insert legitimate or criminal career] returns for one last go at [taking down a sworn enemy/entering the boxing ring/pulling off a heist] even though they're older and hardened and said they'd never do it again. Welcome to the genre, F1 the Movie. In the new summer blockbuster hopeful, Brad Pitt stars as Sonny Hayes, a former Formula One driver who retired 30 years prior after suffering terrible injuries in a crash. He's convinced to return to racing on the team of his former friend and fellow ex-driver, Ruben (Javier Bardem). Sonny's teammate is an up-and-coming driver, Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris), and they're on the worst team in the league, APXGP. Will the newbie and the veteran be able to pull off a comeback, save the team from being dismantled by its board, and stop Ruben from being forced to sell it? Will Sonny change his legacy in the sport? Will Joshua make a name for himself? That's what audiences are there to find out. And, if they're F1 fans, they're also there to check out all the cameos from the real drivers and critique how accurate the film is to actual racing. If you've already seen F1 and want a bit more clarity on how things turned out, keep reading. If you think you might see F1 and don't want it spoiled, turn back now! We're about to get into how things shake out for Sonny, Joshua, and the APXGP team. With Sonny driving for APXGP, the team steadily works their way closer to the podium. This is despite Sonny doing a number of things that certainly wouldn't fly in real F1 Grands Prix and Sonny and Joshua not initially getting along. During the Las Vegas Grand Prix—the second to last race of the year—Sonny is injured and hospitalized, at which point Ruben finds out just how bad Sonny's injuries from 30 years earlier were. Like, he was nearly paralyzed and should have never raced again. So, Ruben fires him. After he's released from the hospital, Sonny is approached by APXGP board member Peter (Tobias Menzies), who reveals that he wants Ruben to be forced to sell the team so that he can start his own team, and he wants to bring Sonny on as the team principal. Peter also admits that he forged documents to try to get APXGP banned from racing by saying their car included illegal components. Anyway, just prior to the last race, Abu Dhabi, Sonny returns to the track and is all, "Hey Ruben, you better let me back on this team because... it's the last race, you have no better option." Okay, sure! He also texts Peter a middle finger emoji. In the race, Sonny pulls all of his questionable Sonny stuff again, setting up Joshua to win the race. But, with moments left, Joshua and Lewis Hamilton collide, leaving Sonny to take the lead and win the race. Kate (Kerry Condon) is the APXGP technical director and Sonny's love interest. At the end of the movie, Kate and Sonny say goodbye to one another—for now. Sonny has some business to take care off, which is just temporarily becoming a driver for a different type of race, because it is only through driving that he can seek true euphoria. So, Kate and Sonny are a... long-distance hookup situationship? Not so romantic, but this is about the love of driving cars, man! Joshua was really put through the wringer. He ended up with Sonny as his teammate halfway through the season, was bossed around by him, was hospitalized from a serious crash, missed three races, and returned and almost won the last race only for Sonny to end up winning it instead. In the end, though, he tells Sonny that it's cool that Sonny took this one, because he's "gonna win a million races." You go, JP! Movie shoulda been all about you! To sneaky board member Peter's dismay, it seems APXGP will continue on, because they were able to win one race and having a 60-year-old former racer be the one to win it was quite the sensation! Unclear! A big deal is made about Sonny winning the final race—I mean, the movie is about him, so that's fair, and some drivers never even win one Grand Prix—but we don't get to find out which of the actual drivers won the F1 season. Max Verstappen won the last four IRL, so him, I guess! Or maybe in this fictional movie Lewis Hamilton won the championship because, conveniently, he's a producer on the movie.
New York Times
2 hours ago
- New York Times
F1 penalty points: How they work and why they're needed even though drivers have doubts
Between the Racing Lines | Formula One is complicated, confusing and constantly evolving. This story is part of our guide to help any fan — regardless of how long they've watched the sport or how they discovered it — navigate the pinnacle of motorsports. 'I don't like how we're racing at the moment,' Williams' Alex Albon said ahead of the 2025 Austrian Grand Prix weekend. His comment, part of a longer answer, was not in regards to how his team was performing as Formula One neared the halfway mark of the 2025 season, but rather about the racing guidelines documents shared publicly by the FIA for the first time ever ahead of the race weekend. Advertisement The purpose of F1's penalty and driving standard guidelines is to help stewards 'with fair and consistent decision making,' and the latter document is a set of rules about how the drivers can go wheel-to-wheel racing. The publication of these comes at a time when the FIA faces calls for more transparency and questions about the current officiating system. The specific penalty point system, in particular, has come under fire in recent years, with drivers arguing it needs to be changed. Infringements beyond just dangerous driving can result in penalty points, and they can add up quickly, putting some drivers in the past on the brink of a race ban, which Max Verstappen reached at the 2025 Spanish GP. 'I think it's a little bit harsh to see drivers getting race bans for trying to create action,' Haas' Ollie Bearman said. Penalty points are just one of the numerous punishments that the stewards can hand to the drivers for various infractions, ranging from some safety car and virtual safety car infringements to causing a collision with another driver. The system was introduced at the start of the 2014 season and a limit does exist. Once drivers reach 12 points in any 12-month span, they receive an automatic one-race ban. The slate is wiped clean after the ban is served, or if they avoid a race ban, penalty points will start dropping off a driver's super license once the 12-month mark of each infringement passes. For example, heading into the 2025 Austrian Grand Prix weekend (June 27-29), Verstappen had 11 penalty points. But two points were set to drop off his license on June 30th, a year since he received two penalty points for causing a collision with Lando Norris at Red Bull Ring. The most recent case of a driver receiving a one-race ban for accumulating too many penalty points within the 12-month stretch was Kevin Magnussen, who was sidelined during the 2024 Azerbaijan GP. Advertisement 'You get punished, and then you come back, and you're all ready to… f— s— up now!' Magnussen joked when he returned to the paddock during last year's Singapore GP weekend. 'It's funny how that works.' Penalties as a whole are left up to the discretion of the stewards, a rotating panel of volunteers from the motorsport world. Ahead of the 2025 Austrian GP weekend, the FIA made two documents public that are there to help stewards 'with fair and consistent decision making': the 2025 F1 Penalty Guidelines and the 2025 Driving Standard Guidelines. It was released ahead of the next FIA presidential election in December. The penalty guidelines document alone covers around 100 common infringements, as well as what penalties and penalty points should be given out depending on the situation occurring in practice, qualifying and the grand prix. A caveat to highlight is that some of the penalty points listed in the guidelines are 'the Maximum Number of Penalty Points depending upon the severity of the infringement,' and it is ultimately up to the stewards' discretion how many might actually be dished out. For instance, a driver can receive a maximum of three penalty points for 'causing a collision with no immediate and obvious sporting consequence' during practice, qualifying or the grand prix, but they could get less depending on exactly what happens in each incident. But when an incident results in a fine or a reprimand, penalty points cannot be given. 'The points indicated are intended to be the norm for a particular offence. The Stewards may vary these, taking into account mitigating or aggravating circumstances,' the FIA noted at the bottom of the guidelines document. 'However, the authority of the Stewards to increase the points assessed is intended to be used only in exceptional circumstances.' With the way the current penalty point system is set up, in certain circumstances a driver can end up on the brink of a race ban without making a particularly dangerous maneuver. 'We saw Kevin (Magnussen) last year get a race ban. Although it obviously helped me, I felt like he was really hard done by to have that race ban from all of these tiny infractions,' said Bearman, who filled the seat at Haas when Magnussen had his race ban. 'At the end, he tries an overtake, and it doesn't work. They both cut the corner. It's no harm, no foul. Everyone keeps going, no dangerous maneuvers, no damage, and two penalty points. Advertisement 'Those add up quickly, so it's a shame.' It's a tricky balance to strike because, as Bearman noted, 'drivers need to be punished in some way to stop them from doing some things.' But is the current penalty system going too far with the types of infractions that can result in penalty points being added to super licenses? There is a difference between making a mistake and dangerous driving, the latter of which is only when Fernando Alonso feels penalty points should be used as a sanction. He gave a few different scenarios that he considers driving mistakes, such as crossing the white line at the exit of a pit lane. The Aston Martin driver said mistakes should result in five-second or drive-through penalties only. 'When you are pushing someone into the grass in the middle of the straight, or when you are doing different things, that should be a penalty point, because it's a dangerous driving,' said Alonso. Both Isack Hadjar and Pierre Gasly of Alpine stressed during the Austrian GP FIA news conference that they don't like penalty points, with the Racing Bulls driver going as far as to say, 'I think it's very clean field. It's not very needed.' And it's unlikely that the drivers will change their approach to racing, a question Verstappen faced after reaching the brink of a ban. 'You're joking? Is this like a trap?' the Red Bull driver said in Austria, having faced similar questions at the previous race in Canada. 'I'm getting this question every single time, every weekend.' Motorsport will always be inherently dangerous, as drivers race at fast speeds and make daring moves en route to fighting for points, podiums and wins. It's clear where the limit is, but mistakes do happen. But should penalty points apply for those moments or only when a truly dangerous move does occur? It's clear what the drivers think, but deterrents such as this have become necessary as rows over stewarding decisions became ever more common place in the modern era. Advertisement 'I think the level we have in Formula One – we are professional in what we do,' Gasly said. 'We obviously push things to the limits, but to have a race ban potentially… I was (once) in that situation, and I don't think I was a dangerous driver on track. So, for me, it's something that can be reviewed. Maybe there's another way of applying some sort of penalty without getting into the risk of having a driver missing a race.' Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; David Ramos, Rudy Carezzevoli / Getty Images
