SharkNinja has signed a five-year official partnership with McLaren Racing, converting an on-screen sponsorship of Brad Pitt's fictional F1 team into a real place on the grid across F1, F1 Academy, IndyCar, and the World Endurance Championship.

The deal lands a year after the release of F1: The Movie, in which SharkNinja sponsored APXGP, the team Pitt's character drives for. Laura Dyer, SharkNinja's SVP of global marketing, said the partnership is rooted in long-term storytelling rather than corporate entertaining.

"A lot of these partnerships, in the olden days, were more about hospitality and corporate hospitality," Dyer said. "That's not what we're in this for. We're in this to ignite our fans and make some really cool content that people are going to be excited about."

Why McLaren?

Dyer said she spoke with several teams and with the F1 organization itself before choosing McLaren. Two factors tipped the decision: McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown's marketing know-how and the team's emphasis on content creation.

The team's results didn't hurt. McLaren secured its second consecutive constructors' championship in 2025, and driver Lando Norris won the world drivers' championship. Under new regulations this season, the team has been less successful, but it still sits near the top of the grid.

The movie itself, Dyer said, was a "big success" — a point CEO Mark Barrocas has also made on an earnings call.

What does the brand actually buy into?

For Dyer, the answer is the season-long narrative, not just results. "Obviously, you want your team or your driver to win, but from a fan perspective, I think that journey and that narrative that you go on throughout the year is really what we're all buying into," she said. "And as a brand, that's what I want to buy into."

That view echoes other McLaren sponsors. Nick Drake, global VP of marketing at Google, expressed a similar stance last year. The Drive to Survive era gives audiences a closer look at drivers' lives, and Dyer said fans now follow "the season narrative as much as it is the results."

SharkNinja plans to build content around:

• Drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri
• CEO Zak Brown
• McLaren engineers and other employees who already appear in the team's social content

Dyer named social engagement and brand lift as her KPIs for the deal.

How wide does the deal stretch?

Very. One McLaren storyline that caught Dyer's attention is the quest for another triple crown of motorsport — wins at the Indy 500, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and the F1 Monaco Grand Prix. McLaren fields teams in all three events, and SharkNinja will have a presence across them.

The partnership also covers F1 Academy, the women-only racing championship. Activation plans there aren't ironed out yet, but Dyer wants the women's series to feel like "an integrated part" of the sponsorship. Her reasoning is blunt: "Otherwise, it feels performative."

SharkNinja is already planning activations before the season ends in December, potentially at the upcoming United States and Mexico Grands Prix — F1 Academy also races at the US Grand Prix. Expect influencer partnerships and tie-ins with things that "local consumers will really know and recognize," Dyer said.

Her closing brief sets the bar for how the brand will show up: "We don't want everything to feel like an ad. We want it to feel like entertainment."

By James Calloway

The five-year commitment signals that SharkNinja sees F1 as a content engine, not a logo placement — and it's betting fans will follow the story long past the credits.