Personal Branding in Motorsport

Why do driver or rider moves matter so much in racing?

There are number of factors, but the short answer is sponsorship. Perhaps a little-known fact to casual fans, but teams are not the only ones that receive sponsorship over the course of a race season. Drivers receive direct sponsorship as well.

But why? Why would a brand, family or business need to sponsor a rider directly at all?

Using F1 as the easiest example, it costs a young driver an obscene amount of money in order to chase the dream of getting into formula 1. I’ll break it down:

• Karting: $300,000-400,000 over the course roughly 7 years, age 7-14
• Formula 4: $400,000 per season for 1-2 years
• Formula Regional: $400,000-$650,000 per season for 1-2 years
• Formula 3: $600,000-$1,000,000 per season
• Formula 2: $2,000,000-$2,500,000 per season

Most families simply do not have that kind of funding for their son or daughter to make it into racing. So they MUST have sponsorship. And oftentimes relationships with sponsors follow a driver or rider throughout their career, and can equate to a significant sum.

For example, Sergio Perez is backed by the eight richest man in the world supposedly worth $78.2 billion. That’s a hard for even a team like Red Bull to pass up. Now, factor in that each driver is unique in that they have their own branding, social media following, and fan base, and you have a recipe for teams to really sweat over a driver decision.

Which is why for young riders and drivers, your personal brand is so important, because it has the potential for following you over the course of a 10-20 year career. In today’s age, your social media presence and your business acumen are almost just as important as how fast you are. In fact, when you think about how much there is to do outside of racing, you could even say racing is maybe 10% of the sport.

Let’s break down a racer’s daily tasks:

• Social media engagement across multiple platforms. (Instagram, Facebook, X, Linkedin, TikTok)
• Photo Shoots
• Sponsor activations
• Track Time
• Physical Training
• Chasing new sponsors
• Interviews
• School
• Traveling to the next race

You have to be good at all of it…and THEN you can go race.

So when you think about being a successful racer, just remember that it’s important to be the full package in order to progress in this sport. Your team will thank you, your sponsors will love you, and your fans will have someone to cheer for years to come!

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