There’s a world championship on the line at this weekend’s Formula One season finale in Abu Dhabi, but McLaren’s title contenders Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, who are locked in a three-way battle for the ultimate prize with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, still made time for the fans at a special car unveiling at Hilton Yas Island on Wednesday.
A fan-first approach has been at the heart of McLaren’s commercial transformation over the past seven years, and Wednesday’s event was just one example of the lengths the Woking-based outfit go to give their Papaya loyalists unique experiences and unparalleled access to the team.
As part of the ‘Live Your Fandom’ campaign, McLaren and one of the team’s sponsors, Velo, a company that sells nicotine pouches and tobacco-free products, allowed nine superfans to collaborate and inspire artwork for the livery design of the McLaren MCL39 Norris and Piastri will drive at Yas Marina Circuit this weekend.
The artwork, which celebrates some of McLaren’s biggest milestones of the season, will also be featured on the drivers’ race suits, paddock screens and garage walls, in what the team’s co-chief commercial officer Matt Dennington describes as “a full weekend takeover”.
Besides being present for the unveiling in the UAE capital and meeting both drivers, the superfans, hailing from different parts of the globe, got to spend a full day at the McLaren Technology Centre (MTC) earlier this season, where they enjoyed a behind-the-scenes tour, spoke to McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown, and had a surprise Q&A session with Norris.
“Everything that we do is really around our fans. We went back to our iconic papaya colours seven, eight years ago now, because that's what our fans wanted,” Brown said at Wednesday’s unveiling.
“So we listen to our fans. We work with our fans. In today's digital age, it's great because you can have a real intimate relationship with hundreds of millions of fans.
“But our most special fans are here tonight and being able to work with Velo on such a cool project. The drivers love it. It looks fantastic. And hopefully they'll give us a little bit of extra speed this weekend.”
It’s no secret that Brown has been the mastermind behind McLaren’s renaissance since he joined them in 2016 and became CEO in 2018.
That year, the team had a substantial operating loss of $137 million on $166 million in revenue.
In 2024, the team’s revenues soared to $614 million. Forbes estimated McLaren’s value at $4.4 billion, up from an estimated value of $620 million in 2019.
In August 2025, McLaren announced Mastercard would be the team’s title sponsor starting in 2026, handing over the naming rights to a partner for the first time since 2013 in a long-term deal reportedly worth $100 million per season, meant to run through the mid-2030s, according to The Athletic.
It is believed to be the most lucrative title sponsorship of any team on the grid.
This is all a remarkable turnaround from where they were when Brown took over the reins. That commercial success has recently been translated to on-track achievements, with McLaren clinching back-to-back constructors’ championships (2024 and 2025) and shooting up to the front of the grid.
On Sunday, they could crown their first world champion since Lewis Hamilton won the drivers’ title in McLaren colours in 2008.
“We've got, I'd like to think, one of the most envied ecosystem of partners within world sport. And we're very proud of that. And we've grown that over the last seven or eight years,” co-CCO Dennington told The National on Wednesday.
“And we're constantly looking for opportunities to deliver more access points to our fans. Only one per cent of fans in their lifetime ever get to go to a race. So for us, we've got to find ways that are innovative to engage our fan base and continue to meaningfully build that engagement.”
Dennington credits Brown for his great leadership and “getting the right people in place, getting the right culture in place, and the right partners in place”.
McLaren’s commercial success has allowed the team to reinvest its revenue into other parts of the business, most importantly working on the design and development of their car.
Now that they’re back vying for silverware at the pinnacle of the sport, Dennington says the results on the track can drive the commercial side even more.
“Performance always helps. But we operate in sport. And sport is never a given. And you're going to have moments within your history that ebb and flow. And you have dips in performance,” he explained.
“We came out of one around 2015, 16. It took a lot of work to come out of that. And we've had some great partners support us in the journey to getting back to the top of the grid. But yeah, performance is absolutely critical. All of your metrics go up. More exposure, more engagement from the fans.
“But there will be times where the brand and the team need to stand on its own two feet because of the ecosystem of value that we built. We'll always be pushing to get to the top and stay at the top. But it's important that everyone realises there will be some ups and downs because of this sport.
“But yes, the performance on track is fundamentally important to the commercial success as well.”
McLaren isn’t flourishing in a vacuum. The team has benefited greatly from the overall rise in popularity of F1, aided by the Netflix docu-series Drive to Survive, as well as the cost cap implemented in 2021 to limit team spending on car research and construction to create a more level playing field.
“I think it's a golden era for the sport at the moment. Ever since Liberty Media took over some years ago [in 2017], the sport's been on an upward trajectory,” said Dennington.
“We've gone from 16 races not too long ago to 24 races now. The media platforms that Liberty have put in place around Drive to Survive and the F1 movie continue to bring in new audiences into the sport. And that's been great for McLaren and other teams.”
As the F1 fanbase continues to grow, the demographic structure of the sport’s following has been changing.
The Netflix series has helped popularise F1 in the United States. It has also helped attract more Gen Z fans, and more women, with a survey conducted by F1 and Motorsport Network this year showing that females now account for three in four new fans.
More than 40 per cent of all F1 fans today are women.
Dennington says it’s essential to adjust the commercial strategy to cater to these new audiences.
“I think since 2018, there's been a 14 per cent year-on-year rise of female fans coming into the sport. And that equates to over 300 million new female fans in the sport, which has been tremendous,” he added.
“And it certainly pushes us as teams and marketers to think a little bit differently about how we activate with our fans and how we market both the sport and our partners. And we’ve done some great work with the likes of Reiss, Abercrombie & Fitch, Lego, Tumi, in being able to better speak to that audience.
“We've put out the first women's range with both Reiss and Abercrombie & Fitch. So again, it's that access point for our fans to connect with racing culture.”
Five of the nine superfans invited by McLaren and Velo for their weekend takeover activation are women.
Speaking at the event on Wednesday, one of them said: “This is definitely the most insane moment of my life, I am very, very grateful to Velo and McLaren for all three of the opportunities that we've had to visit MTC, to see the car and play a part in designing something that I'm constantly staring at on a Sunday normally at home, it's just surreal.”
