What Ferrari's Sponsors Actually Buy (And What Ferrari Gets Back)

There are two ways to look at Ferrari’s sponsor list.

The first is the way most drivers look at it: a wall of logos, arranged by size, proof that if you drive fast enough and wear the right red suit, companies will throw money at you.

The second is the way a business person looks at it: a portfolio of commercial relationships, each built on a specific value exchange, each justified by a measurable return.

If you are trying to build a sponsored racing career — even at club level — the second view is the only one that matters. Because the same logic that makes HP write a nine-figure cheque to Ferrari applies to the reason a local engineering firm might back your season. The scale is different. The principle is identical.

So let us go through Ferrari’s major partners, and for each one ask the same question: what are they actually buying?

HP — Title Partner

The headline number is somewhere between $90 million and $100 million per year, making it the joint-highest title sponsorship deal in Formula 1 alongside Red Bull’s arrangement with Oracle. The money received by both teams from their respective sponsors is understood to reach $100 million, making it the joint-highest sponsorship deal of any F1 team currently on the grid.

But what does HP actually get for that? The name, first of all. The team is now officially called Scuderia Ferrari HP — a rare concession from a brand as protective of its identity as Ferrari. HP’s blue logo sits on the car, on the drivers’ overalls, on every press backdrop, and on the kit of every team member. That is blanket global exposure across 24 race weekends, broadcast into over 180 countries.

The deeper value, though, is repositioning. HP is a hardware brand — laptops, printers, workplace technology — in a market where perception of innovation matters enormously. Ferrari will deploy advanced HP technology and services, including adaptive PCs and devices, collaboration products and services, and printing capabilities, to help accelerate performance on and off the track. That is not just a logo play. HP’s products are embedded in Ferrari’s race operations, which means every time a journalist writes about Ferrari’s data infrastructure or garage technology, HP gets the association. Speed. Precision. Engineering excellence. Those are brand values that money cannot simply buy — but a Ferrari partnership can confer them.

The deal also extends to Ferrari’s F1 Academy programme and esports team, meaning HP’s reach goes beyond the F1 paddock and into younger, digitally-native audiences. For a company trying to stay culturally relevant in a market dominated by Apple and Samsung, that matters.

Shell — Innovation Partner

Shell and Ferrari’s partnership has yielded 10 Constructors’ Championships and 12 Drivers’ titles in Formula 1 alone. It is, by most measures, the longest-running technical partnership in the sport’s history — stretching back to 1929 when Enzo Ferrari first went racing with Shell as his fuel supplier.

That longevity is not sentiment. It is because the arrangement works on both sides in a way that very few sponsorships do.

Ferrari gets fuel and lubricants developed specifically for their engine, with over 21,000 man-hours and more than 50 Shell technical staff dedicated to that work each year. Shell claims that its F1-specific fuel and lubricants can contribute up to 23% of a car’s performance. That is a competitive advantage, not a branding exercise. Shell is not just on the car — Shell is inside the engine.

Shell, in return, gets the world’s most demanding testing laboratory. Every compound they develop for Ferrari’s race fuel eventually feeds back into their consumer product range. Shell V-Power contains 99% of the same types of compounds found in the Shell V-Power race fuel developed through the innovation partnership between Shell and Ferrari and used by Scuderia Ferrari in every race. When Shell runs a television advert saying their fuel is “race-bred,” it is not a marketing claim. It is literally true. The Ferrari partnership is Shell’s most powerful product development and credibility tool — and they have been renewing it ever since.

The deal now extends to Ferrari’s Hypercar programme at Le Mans and the Ferrari Challenge series, meaning Shell’s branding and technical work spans Ferrari’s entire motorsport ecosystem, not just the F1 car.

UniCredit — Major Partner

UniCredit joined Ferrari in 2025 as a major partner, and the move was straightforwardly strategic. UniCredit is Italy’s largest bank and one of Europe’s biggest financial institutions. Ferrari is Italy’s most iconic global brand. The two companies share a home nation, a premium positioning, and — crucially — a global audience.

For UniCredit, the Ferrari partnership is a client relationship tool as much as a consumer marketing play. Corporate sponsors at this level gain access to paddock hospitality, private garage tours, driver meet-and-greets, and exclusive event spaces. Those are not perks — they are B2B assets. A private lunch in the Ferrari motorhome at Monaco is not something a bank can buy anywhere else on earth. It becomes a tool for relationship-building with high-net-worth clients and institutional partners across UniCredit’s operating markets in Europe and beyond.

The deal also includes joint campaigns and fan activations — consumer-facing work designed to associate UniCredit with Ferrari’s emotional energy among younger audiences who may not currently be banking customers, but one day will be.

IBM — Technology Partner

IBM joined Ferrari in 2025, and the nature of the partnership goes well beyond logo placement. IBM’s role is in data analytics and AI-powered performance optimisation — helping Ferrari extract insight from the enormous volumes of data generated by a modern F1 car during race weekends.

For IBM, the value is demonstrably two-directional. Formula 1 is one of the most data-intensive environments in global sport. A Ferrari partnership lets IBM deploy its AI and hybrid cloud infrastructure against genuinely extreme real-world problems — tyre degradation modelling, pit stop strategy, live telemetry analysis — and then use the results as proof of capability in conversations with enterprise clients. The pitch to a logistics company or a bank becomes: “We process millions of data points per second for Ferrari’s F1 car. We can handle your supply chain.”

It is the same logic that Shell has used for decades with fuel. The racetrack is the ultimate reference case. IBM is building the same kind of credential — just in data rather than chemistry.

Richard Mille — Watch Partner

Richard Mille is not a household name in the way that Shell or HP is. The brand produces a small number of watches each year at prices that start around $80,000 and rise well above $1 million for limited editions. Once Charles Leclerc’s $2 million Richard Mille watch was stolen — which tells you something both about the watches and about the exposure they get at the track.

The Ferrari relationship works for Richard Mille for a very specific reason: technical credibility. The brand endeavours to apply the techniques and materials found in the most innovative sectors such as in the domains of F1 racing car development and the aerospace industry to watchmaking, with the goal of creating extreme timepieces. Ferrari gives Richard Mille the association with precision engineering and extreme performance that justifies those price points to buyers. When a Richard Mille watch is described as using materials developed in Formula 1, the Ferrari partnership makes that story real.

In return, Richard Mille produces limited-edition timepieces co-developed with Ferrari, each of which becomes a collectible asset for Ferrari enthusiasts and watch collectors simultaneously. The partnership also covers the Ferrari Driver Academy and the Ferrari Challenge series, giving Richard Mille touchpoints across Ferrari’s full ecosystem — not just the F1 paddock.

Puma — Official Supplier

Puma has been a sporting sponsor of the Ferrari F1 team since 2005, making it one of the largest existing collaborations based on the business insights of Ferrari F1. The arrangement is structurally different from most of the other partnerships here — Puma is not buying advertising space on the car. Puma is making the car.

The race suits, the team kit, the drivers’ clothing, the pit crew overalls — all of it carries Puma branding because Puma designs and manufactures it. That creates a different kind of visibility: the product is the placement. Every time a camera finds Charles Leclerc or Lewis Hamilton walking through the paddock, Puma’s name is on their chest.

Beyond the race weekend, Puma produces and sells Ferrari-branded consumer merchandise globally. Ferrari fans who will never attend a Grand Prix can still buy Puma’s Ferrari streetwear range in retail stores and online. That commercial arrangement generates revenue independently of the car’s performance and gives Puma a permanent presence in Ferrari’s passionate fanbase.

Ray-Ban — Eyewear Partner

Ray-Ban has been with Ferrari since 2016, and the partnership has since become strongly anchored to Charles Leclerc personally — who serves as a brand ambassador for the eyewear label. The trackside and paddock visibility is substantial: every pre-race walkabout, every press conference, every driver appearance with sunglasses in hand is a Ray-Ban moment.

What Ray-Ban is buying is lifestyle adjacency. Formula 1 — particularly the Ferrari version of Formula 1 — occupies a specific cultural space: glamour, speed, aspiration, Italian style. These are brand values that Ray-Ban actively cultivates. A Ferrari partnership does not just put a logo on a car. It puts Ray-Ban in the same visual world as Monaco, Monza, and the Ferrari motorhome. That is aspirational brand positioning that television adverts struggle to replicate.

Peroni Nastro Azzurro — Beverage Partner

Peroni is an Italian beer brand. Ferrari is the world’s most famous Italian racing team. The fit is obvious enough that you barely need to explain it — except that the interesting story here is that Peroni’s primary product on the Ferrari partnership is the 0.0% non-alcoholic version of their beer.

That is a deliberate choice driven by the regulatory landscape of global sport, which increasingly restricts alcohol promotion at events, on broadcast television, and in territories with strict advertising laws. By positioning Peroni 0.0% — rather than the standard lager — as the official Ferrari beer, Peroni gets all the glamour and visibility of the partnership without the regulatory headaches. Non-alcoholic sponsors are increasingly favoured in global sport due to fewer regulatory barriers and broader event compatibility, making Peroni 0.0% a scalable, experience-driven partner aligned with Ferrari’s premium yet inclusive fan strategy.

It is a smart piece of commercial structuring — and a preview of how consumer drinks brands are likely to navigate sports partnerships going forward.

ZYN — Nicotine Partner

ZYN is a tobacco-free nicotine pouch brand, and its placement on the Ferrari car is one of the more culturally loaded sponsorship stories on the current grid. Ferrari’s history with nicotine brands is long — Marlboro’s barcode design was one of Formula 1’s most famous livery elements of the 1990s and 2000s, before direct tobacco advertising was banned. ZYN occupies the visual real estate that once belonged to Marlboro, in the same prominent position on the Ferrari livery.

For ZYN, the Ferrari association is straightforward reach into a premium, globally distributed audience. The brand is owned by Swedish Match, a Philip Morris International company — which gives the arrangement a historical resonance that the wider motorsport press has not missed. For Ferrari, it is a commercially significant partnership that trades on the same sightlines that made tobacco sponsorship so valuable for so long, with a product that currently navigates advertising regulations more easily.

CEVA Logistics — Operations Partner

Not all sponsors are buying brand exposure. CEVA Logistics is Ferrari’s official logistics partner, which means they are responsible for the physical movement of the team’s equipment — cars, components, garage infrastructure, and personnel — across a 24-race calendar that spans five continents.

For CEVA, the Ferrari partnership is primarily a commercial credential rather than a consumer marketing tool. “We manage the logistics for Ferrari’s Formula 1 operation” is a reference case that opens doors in enterprise sales conversations with major manufacturers, retailers, and multinationals. Formula 1 logistics are genuinely complex — time-critical, high-value, and unforgiving of error. Being trusted with Ferrari’s freight is a proof point that no case study document can fully replicate.

The Lesson for Club Drivers

You will not be selling to HP or Shell. But every single one of these partnerships is built on the same underlying logic that should govern your sponsorship conversations at club level.

None of these brands is paying for a sticker. HP is paying for technological credibility. Shell is paying for a product development laboratory. UniCredit is paying for client entertainment assets. Richard Mille is paying for materials heritage and storytelling. Ray-Ban is paying for lifestyle positioning. CEVA is paying for a commercial reference case.

Each partner identified a specific business problem they needed to solve — and decided that Ferrari was the most effective solution to it.

The question for your own sponsorship approach is the same one every brand in Ferrari’s paddock started with: what problem does your target sponsor actually have, and how does your racing career solve it better than anything else they could spend that money on?

That is not a question most club drivers ever ask. It is also the reason most club drivers never get a yes.

If you want help building that kind of thinking into your own sponsor approach, the free Sponsorship Audit is the place to start. It takes five minutes and tells you which of six sponsorship archetypes fits your situation — so you can build a pitch that actually speaks to what sponsors need, not just what you need.