SharkNinja's Five-Year McLaren Deal Bets F1 Fans Are the Asset

SharkNinja signed a five-year sponsorship of McLaren and started it in mid-September, months before the usual February car-launch window, because it asked the team whether anything could go live before the season ended. McLaren said yes. That hands the appliance maker a few months of practice before the deal's full weight arrives in 2027, and it marks the brand's first sports property of this scale after short-term plays around the Women's Rugby World Cup and Euro 2024.

Why the early start?

The deal follows a surprise. SharkNinja products appeared in Brad Pitt's racing film last year, fans warmed to the brand, and many viewers finally realized Shark and Ninja were one company. Then the attention vanished. "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."

The continuation is substantial. McLaren gives SharkNinja four racing series for five years, lab time with McLaren engineers, and a direct line to drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. Previous deals were built around single moments: an official appliance role at the 2025 Women's Rugby World Cup, with stands at match venues, a fan zone at Battersea Power Station and a matchday-prep social series; plus a faux video call with Thierry Henry, Peter Crouch and Bastian Schweinsteiger ahead of Euro 2024. Both wrapped within weeks.

What changes for the drivers?

Dyer wants Norris and Piastri shaping ideas rather than reading lines. "Getting them to do the things that they're comfortable with is way better than handing someone a script and saying 'there you go,'" she said. Most content will run on McLaren's and SharkNinja's channels, with both sides signing off before anything goes live. Nothing lands automatically on the drivers' own accounts. "Their channels are theirs to own and theirs to editorialize," Dyer said.

How will SharkNinja measure it?

The yardstick is still rough — Dyer warned her engagement answer would be "really wooly." Comments, shares and dwell time carry the most weight; reach sits a step behind. Success, as she framed it, is a fan seeing a post and thinking it fits, rather than feeling advertised at. Further out, the brand will track recognition and sales: "When we go hard at a product line with McLaren, we want to see whether or not that changes the trajectory of sales."

The engineering link runs deeper than marketing. McLaren engineers will spend a set number of hours a year with SharkNinja's team in Needham, Massachusetts, to "literally pen to paper solve problems together," with battery life one target. Dyer cited the team's obsession with marginal gains: "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."

F1's global audience tops 900 million, but SharkNinja is not slicing it yet. "We're here for everyone, truthfully, and we want to stay for everyone," Dyer said. Fenway Sports Management president Ryan Fischer described the wider shift on an Advertising Week New York panel: "We operate more like an agency than a lot of traditional rights holders in that we insight on entering every conversation talking about the brand first."

Also this week

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Whether a five-year bet on F1 fandom can shift product sales remains the open question Dyer's own metrics will have to answer.