Formula 1’s boom of American sponsorship has reached the point where 83% of commercial partners supporting the 11 teams on the grid are US-based.
That incredible statistic was shared by Williams team boss James Vowles when speaking on stage at at ‘Fueling the Future’ – a business reception hosted by The Race in conjunction with Axios Live in downtown Miami ahead of this year’s Miami GP.
Talking about how the United States has become the commercial lifeblood of F1 in recent years, Vowles told guests at the packed event: “The US is our most important – by a long way – business contributor.
“In terms of partners, sponsors on the cars, 83% of them are US-based.
“If I roll back five years ago, our presence in the USA was fairly small. We had Austin [for the US GP], that was about it. Miami in year one [2022] wasn’t the pinnacle it is now.”
And even for the minority of partners that are not US-based, Vowles added that “there’s not a single partner that we have that doesn’t want to be here in Miami. It’s just one of the crown jewels”.
He added: “It’s a very unique layout, in the centre of the [Hard Rock] stadium. You have this sort of hub with all the teams together at the same time. You have to walk through tens of thousands of fans to get to the pit wall.
“But it’s very enjoyable. And for me, it’s good positioning in the US. It’s such a unique way to invite your partners to be part of the race. All three US races [Miami, Austin, Las Vegas] are different in their own right.”
Quality over quantity
While some teams on the grid have chosen to capitalise on the growing commercial interest in F1 by landing as many sponsorship deals as they can, Williams has a different approach, with Vowles saying the team sets a cap of 24 partners.
“We don’t want any more than that,” he added. “That’s it. It’s exclusive.
“Our feeling is, once you go above that, we can’t provide you the quality of service that you deserve and you should be a part of.
“It has to be authentic. It has to be something that has meaning. Otherwise, it will fail, and it will fall away as a result.
“Every deal we have done is different. There’s no two deals we’ve done that are anywhere near the same.
“It’s customised to the requirements of those individuals at that point in time.
“And it is not based on the short-term. It is based on, you are joining us on the journey, this is what the journey looks like. This is how you can contribute towards it.”
Williams’s approach is clearly working commercially, with Vowles saying the team has gone from barely making any money commercially when he joined in early 2023, to now being one of the top four or five teams on the grid for commercial success in his view.
