Sephora and LEGO signed multi-year partnerships with F1 Academy while all ten Formula 1 teams reaffirmed their commitments to the all-female racing series, marking the first time the championship has secured both endemic and non-endemic sponsors at scale. Sephora enters as a title partner; LEGO signed as an official team partner. Financial terms were not disclosed. The deals run through at least 2027.
F1 Academy launched in 2023 as a feeder series for women drivers, backed initially by Formula 1 Management and the ten F1 teams on short-cycle agreements. This announcement extends those team commitments beyond the pilot phase and adds consumer brand capital that historically flowed to men's motorsport. Sephora, owned by LVMH, operates 2,600 stores globally and has no prior motorsport sponsorship at this level. LEGO's entry follows its McLaren and Ferrari licensed product lines but marks its first direct racing series investment. The Academy runs a 15-race calendar in 2025, up from 7 races in year one, with events supporting F1 grands prix and separate standalone weekends.
The simultaneous team and sponsor recommitment solves the cold-start problem that killed previous women's series. Without team funding, no grid; without sponsor interest, no media buys or broadcast windows; without broadcast, no sponsor ROI. F1 Academy now has all three, plus distribution through F1's existing broadcast deals in 200 territories. Teams pay approximately $250,000 per season to field a car, down from earlier estimates near $500,000, a subsidy F1 Management covers through central funds and now, title sponsorship revenue. Sephora's demo—women 18-34, disposable income—maps cleanly to F1's fastest-growing audience segment, which added 4.9 million female viewers in the U.S. alone between 2022 and 2024, per Nielsen. LEGO's play is broader: brand access to parents of the next generation of F1 consumers, plus leverage for its Speed Champions toy line, which has included F1 cars since 2015.
For team operators, the commitment signals budget stability. Academy teams are run by the F1 outfits themselves—not customer programs—meaning Mercedes, Ferrari, and Red Bull Racing are fielding young drivers under their own banners. The model creates a low-cost R&D environment for teams to test logistics, sim work, and data pipelines without the seven-figure consequences of an F1 weekend. It also gives teams a diversity story to show sponsors who now require inclusion metrics in activation decks. Alpine's Academy driver Abbi Pulling, who won the 2024 championship, is already in the team's simulator program. That pathway—Academy to reserve role to race seat—has not yet produced an F1 driver, but the financial architecture is now in place to support a multi-year timeline.
Watch for further sponsor stacking in non-endemic categories: financial services, telco, and wellness brands that avoided motorsport's traditional oil-and-automotive complex. Sephora's parent LVMH has not historically sponsored racing series; its presence suggests CEO Antoine Arnault's sports investment thesis—previously visible in Formula E and Paris Saint-Germain—is expanding. Team partnership renewals will be announced individually through Q1 2025, with McLaren and Williams expected first. The next commercial test is whether Academy's standalone races can sell tickets independently of F1 weekends; the series runs its first non-F1-support event in April 2025 in Miami.
The takeaway
Sephora and LEGO money, plus ten-team recommitment, gives F1 Academy the sponsor-team-broadcast triangle previous women's series lacked.
f1 academysephoralegosponsorshipdiversitymotorsport
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