Which Championship Fits Your Brand?

Porsche's Pascal Wehrlein won the Formula E drivers' championship at the London E-Prix on 16 August, the closing round of the Gen3 era. Fernanda Anselmo reports from São Paulo. Adapted from the original Portuguese.

Motorsport has entered a new era. With each passing season, the world's leading racing championships are evolving beyond sporting competitions into strategic platforms for global brands.

Today, the most important factor for sponsors is no longer simply the size of an audience, but what that audience represents.

The key question guiding sponsorship decisions has shifted from "How many people will see my brand?" to "Which championship will help my company achieve its business objectives?"

Each motorsport series offers a distinct value proposition. Formula 1, MotoGP, Formula E and the FIA World Endurance Championship each provide different opportunities for brands with different goals.

Formula 1 sponsorship: global scale and premium positioning

Formula 1 remains the benchmark for global reach and prestige. In 2025, the championship welcomed 6.7 million spectators across its race weekends, the highest combined attendance in its history. Its global fanbase reached 827 million people, up 12% year-on-year, with 43% of fans under the age of 35.

The commercial performance reflects that growth. Formula 1 generated $3.87 billion in revenue in 2025, an increase of 14%, while operating income rose 28% to $632 million. Brands including LEGO, PepsiCo and Standard Chartered have joined the championship's sponsorship portfolio in recent seasons, and sponsorship spend from American companies has increased by 68% since 2023, according to Ampere Analysis.

These figures position Formula 1 as the natural platform for brands seeking global scale, international visibility and association with one of the world's most established sports properties, at a premium entry point.

MotoGP sponsorship: rapid growth under new ownership

MotoGP is experiencing a different but equally significant moment: one of rapid growth and increasing commercial value.

In July 2025, Liberty Media, the owner of Formula 1, acquired 84% of Dorna Sports, MotoGP's commercial rights holder, in a deal valuing the business at approximately US$4.9 billion. MotoGP revenue reached $573 million across 2025, up 14% on a pro-forma basis, while attendance rose to 3.66 million spectators, representing 21% growth over 2024.

Commercial interest has followed the same trajectory. Monster Energy, title sponsor of Yamaha since 2019 and a sponsor of Ducati, has signed an agreement to become Aprilia's title sponsor from 2027. GoPro, Official Action Camera Partner since 2023, has also taken title sponsorship of individual Grands Prix.

This momentum makes MotoGP particularly attractive for brands looking to align themselves with a rapidly appreciating championship that still offers significant growth potential.

Formula E sponsorship: innovation and sustainable mobility

Formula E has established itself as the championship for innovation, electrification and sustainable mobility.

Season 12 closed at the London E-Prix on 16 August, with Pascal Wehrlein taking the drivers' title for Porsche and Jaguar winning the teams' championship. It also closed the Gen3 era. Pre-season testing for the Gen4 regulations begins in Madrid in November, which gives incoming partners a defined technical reset to arrive alongside.

In Season 11, the most recent campaign with published audience figures, the series delivered a record 561 million cumulative global broadcast audience, an increase of 14%, while its global fanbase grew to 422 million, up 13% on the previous season.

Sponsorship has expanded well beyond the traditional automotive industry. Financial institutions, airlines and consumer goods companies are increasingly investing in the series to associate their brands with innovation, clean technology and carbon-neutral ambitions.

For companies whose brand story is built around sustainability and technological leadership, Formula E offers one of the strongest strategic fits in motorsport.

WEC sponsorship: engineering credibility and technology transfer

The FIA World Endurance Championship occupies a distinctive position within motorsport: it serves as a showcase for technologies that ultimately find their way into production vehicles.

The Hypercar regulations were built around cost control, technical freedom and road-car relevance, strengthening the connection between racing and the automotive industry, and the championship runs on 100% sustainable fuel. Toyota describes the benefit directly: "From energy recovery to battery cooling and downsizing, the WEC helps us significantly advance the development of our road cars."

More than 750,000 spectators attended across the 2024 season. In 2026, the Rolex 6 Hours of São Paulo welcomed 84,960 fans at Interlagos, the largest crowd since the championship returned to Brazil, while the 2025 edition of the same race generated an estimated US$75 million in economic impact for the city.

For B2B companies operating in engineering, mobility, electrification, advanced manufacturing or technology development, the WEC provides a particularly relevant environment in which to demonstrate innovation through real-world engineering.

How to choose the right motorsport championship

There is no single best category. There is only the category best suited to each brand's objectives.

Choosing the right championship, team, driver or platform is the foundation of a motorsport sponsorship strategy, and it requires far more than analysing audience figures. Brands need to understand the audience profile, their own commercial objectives, activation opportunities and their ability to turn a partnership into tangible results.

The strongest partnerships run on a wider set of assets: physical presence at events, content production, hospitality, digital activation, and integration with the brand's marketing calendar across the full season rather than race weekends alone.

Defining from the outset which indicators will be used to evaluate the return, whether media reach, digital engagement, lead generation, brand perception or direct sales, allows a partnership to demonstrate the real value it delivers to the business.

Sports sponsorship is also undergoing its own transition into the digital era, and that is changing the way results are measured. Traditional measurement in motorsport still revolves largely around television exposure, but audience behaviour has already moved. Relo Metrics found that social media accounted for 73% of total brand value tracked during the 2025 Australian Grand Prix, the season opener, an event that generated US$41 million in sponsor media value across more than 200 brands.

Some brands build a presence across more than one championship at the same time, using each to achieve a different objective: one for scale and brand awareness, another for connecting with a younger audience or one more engaged with innovation.

DHL is Official Logistics Partner to Formula 1, MotoGP, Formula E and the WEC. Lenovo takes a different route, holding a global partnership with Formula 1 while backing a single team, Ducati Lenovo Team, in MotoGP. Both routes work, and the distinction between buying a series and buying a team is one of the first questions worth settling.

The sequence matters as much as the shortlist. Define the commercial objective before the championship. Map each calendar against the markets that matter to the business. Establish what the brand can genuinely activate or integrate. Then agree how the result will be measured, before anything is signed.

What matters is that each choice is anchored in a clear business objective rather than the visibility a championship can provide.

Motorsport is open to more categories of business than at any point in its modern history, and the entry points are more varied than the headline deals suggest. The brands that gain most are the ones that start with the objective and build the partnership around it. For companies weighing where they fit, that first conversation is the one worth having. Racing United works through exactly that question, from initial assessment to the structure of the deal itself, and you can start that conversation here.

Frequently asked questions

Which motorsport championship is best for brand sponsorship?

There is no single best championship, only the one that matches the objective. Formula 1 offers the largest global audience and the most established commercial platform, at the highest point of entry. MotoGP is growing quickly under Liberty Media ownership and prices below Formula 1. Formula E suits brands built around sustainability and electrification. The FIA World Endurance Championship rewards companies with an engineering or manufacturing story. The right answer follows from what the business is trying to achieve, not from audience size alone.

How do Formula 1 and MotoGP compare for sponsors?

Formula 1 delivers scale: 827 million fans, 6.7 million spectators at circuits in 2025 and US$3.87 billion in revenue. MotoGP delivers momentum: revenue of US$573 million across 2025, up 14%, and attendance up 21% to 3.66 million, following Liberty Media's acquisition of 84% of Dorna Sports. Formula 1 is the choice for brands buying established global reach. MotoGP is the choice for brands buying into a championship still repricing, at a lower point of entry.

Which motorsport series suits a sustainability-led brand?

Formula E is the most direct fit, built around electrification and sustainable mobility, with a global fanbase of 422 million and a record 561 million cumulative broadcast audience in Season 11. The FIA World Endurance Championship is the stronger fit for companies whose sustainability story is engineering-led rather than consumer-led: it runs on 100% sustainable fuel, and its Hypercar regulations tie racing development directly to production vehicles.

What should a brand decide before choosing a motorsport championship?

Four things, in order. The commercial objective the partnership is meant to serve. The markets that matter to the business, mapped against each championship's calendar. What the brand can genuinely activate or integrate beyond visibility. And how the result will be measured. Settling the measurement framework before signature, rather than after, is what allows a partnership to prove its value later.