McLaren is about to follow in Ferrari’s footsteps after their recent sponsorship deal. The McLaren Formula 1 team has undergone a significant transformation and resurgence in recent years. They have evolved from a chaotic state in the mid-2010s to become one of the leading teams that continue to improve.
This progress has attracted several sponsors to McLaren in recent years. According to SportBusiness, there is a substantial rumor circulating that McLaren is currently in discussions with a Fintech giant worth $431 billion before the Miami Grand Prix. The Woking-based team is facing strong competition from other top teams such as Aston Martin, Mercedes, and Ferrari. With Ferrari’s recent partnership announcement with Hewlett Packard, McLaren is in a strong position to secure their own multi-million dollar sponsorship deal.
If the Papaya team can close the sponsorship deal with Mastercard, they will likely be known as ‘McLaren Mercedes Mastercard’. Furthermore, considering the current trend in the sport where many teams are securing payment services sponsors, such as RB’s deal with Visa and Cash App, it seems only a matter of time before Zak Brown’s team secures a sponsorship that will undoubtedly benefit them in various ways in the future.
The 2023 Formula 1 season witnessed one of the most remarkable turnarounds by a Formula 1 team in recent memory. With the introduction of upgrade packages throughout the previous season, McLaren went from being at the back of the pack to becoming a consistent podium contender. However, their impressive performance during the second half of the 2023 season did not translate into success in the 2024 season.
Currently, the team based in Woking is the third best team, behind the dominant Red Bull and Ferrari. However, the McLaren team boss recently revealed that the team has not fallen behind the team led by Christian Horner, despite a somewhat mediocre start to the current season. The team boss also expressed his belief that if McLaren continues to develop as they did last season, they will eventually catch up to the Red Bulls.
McLaren is preparing to introduce upgrade packages for the upcoming races in Miami and Imola. It will be intriguing to see how these upgrades will perform. The Miami Grand Prix weekend is scheduled to begin on May 3rd.