SharkNinja’s 5-Year McLaren Bet Turns F1 Fandom Into an Asset

SharkNinja has signed a five-year sponsorship with McLaren, treating Formula 1 fandom—not signage or ad slots—as the asset it wants to keep. The appliance brand got a taste of that fandom when its products appeared in Brad Pitt’s racing film last year. Fans warmed to the brand and many finally connected Shark and Ninja as one company. Then the buzz faded.

“The movie was great but it spiked and then it left,” said Laura Dyer, svp of global brand and partnerships at SharkNinja. “What’s great about this is it’s going to continue.”

An early start for a longer game

F1 sponsors typically arrive over the winter, ready to show logos on new cars in February. SharkNinja went live in mid-September with most of the season already run. The brand asked McLaren whether anything could launch before the year ended; McLaren said yes, giving SharkNinja a few months of practice before 2027.

That matters because SharkNinja has never backed a sports property this big. Its earlier deals were built around single moments—an appliance partnership at a women’s rugby World Cup, or a faux video call with Thierry Henry, Peter Crouch and Bastian Schweinsteiger before Euro 2024. Each was over within weeks. McLaren, by contrast, brings four racing series over five years, access to McLaren engineers and a direct line to drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.

Drivers as co-creators, not script-readers

Dyer is most focused on how Norris and Piastri appear. If they show up, she wants them helping shape the idea, not reading a sponsor line and leaving. “Getting them to do the things that they’re comfortable with is way better than handing someone a script and saying ‘there you go.’”

Fans follow drivers as closely as teams, so keeping both onside matters—especially for winning on social media. Most content will run on McLaren’s and SharkNinja’s channels, and nothing goes live until both sides sign off. Even then, a post won’t automatically appear on Norris’s or Piastri’s accounts. “Their channels are theirs to own and theirs to editorialize,” Dyer said.

What success looks like

Dyer admits the engagement yardstick is still rough. Comments, shares and dwell time go into the mix, with reach a step behind. The goal is a fan seeing content and thinking “I totally get it,” rather than “this feels like advertising.”

Further out, SharkNinja will track brand recognition and whether putting McLaren behind a product line changes its sales trajectory.

The marginal-gains hook

The engineering link was a big reason for choosing McLaren. A set number of hours a year, McLaren engineers will sit with SharkNinja engineers in Needham, Massachusetts, to solve problems together—battery life is one early focus. “If we can get a battery to last like 50 seconds longer or get a fan to be 10% more efficient, we’ll do it,” Dyer said.

That reflects the wider shift in sports sponsorship. Live sport is one of the few moments when a huge audience watches the same thing at once, but brands now want to know what fans themselves are worth—whether they follow the team or the people in its cars.

What to take from the deal

• Buy an ongoing relationship, not a single-event spike—activation space can be more valuable than logo placement.
• Give talent room to co-create; authentic, comfortable involvement beats a scripted cameo.
• Measure engagement by comments, shares and dwell time before reach, especially in loyal fan communities.

Source: Digiday