What does the LVMH partnership mean for the future of Formula 1?
The billion-dollar, ten-year deal will see two of the world’s biggest cultural powerhouses come together. Could it solidify F1’s ascension from motorsport to bona fide luxury brand?
IT WAS NEVER going to be easy for Formula 1 to not only maintain, but grow the hype it experienced when Drive to Survive became the documentary du jour of the Covid era. Race attendances and viewing figures are still hitting record numbers, but we live in a world where evolution is key to relevancy and success. The millions of new followers who flocked to the sport after that historic 2021 season are hungry for new reasons to get excited about the world’s most glamorous motorsport.
It’s unlikely any of this is lost on F1’s owners. Even in the great social constant that is sport, trends come and go. Many of those who once rose at all hours to catch a race are now content to catch the highlights the next morning. This was probably inevitable. Yet with a more socially conscious generation of permanent viewers on board for the ride, fostering a sense of cultural relevance that outlives the hype is arguably the greater challenge facing the sport of Formula 1.
This, presumably, is the goal of a new ten-year, reportedly $1 billion partnership inked and announced by F1 and luxury mega-conglomerate LVMH today – possibly the biggest of its kind ever signed, and certainly the biggest since Bernard Arnault’s monolith inked a similar deal with the NBA back in 2020.
The conclusion Formula 1’s longtime partnership with Rolex (the watchmaker became the Official Timekeeper and Official Timepiece of the sport in 2013) has been rumoured for some time. In practice, we can almost certainly say that the Swiss marque’s extensive branding will be replaced with one of LVMH’s own watch brands – almost certainly TAG Heuer. Elsewhere, Moët champagne and Louis Vuitton trophy cases will return to the podium. F1 will doubtless go to untold lengths to get its logo on as many pieces of Louis Vuitton and Dior-branded collections as humanly possible. As an exercise in mutual brand-building, the possibilities are almost limitless.
In theory, however, the partnership represents both an opportunity and a challenge for the sport. Not only does it mark an attempt to add cultural cachet. Partnering with the world’s biggest luxury company suggests F1 is conscious of reclaiming the aura of glamour and near-hedonistic luxury it boasted back in the decades of Hunt, Senna, and Schumacher – to bring back the feeling of a time when the sport was more synonymous with superyachts than social media.
The challenge is how it does so in a time when the definition of, and attitudes towards, luxury have shifted and diversified almost beyond recognition.
None of this is to say that there aren’t exciting things on the way for fans, especially if LVMH taps into the diversity of brands in its stable.
Fashion will no doubt play a fundamental role in this, given how accustomed we’ve become to paddocks and entrance tunnels acting as unofficial runways for the rich, famous, and most sartorially daring of athletes. Fans may decry rising ticket prices and the way some races have become the exclusive domain of the rich and famous, but there’s plenty out there who have no qualms fawning over Lewis Hamilton (who is himself now a Dior ambassador) arriving at the paddock in a new season fit and limited edition watch.
Yet for this partnership to truly cut through the noise, Formula 1’s socially savvy, extremely vocal fans will want more than a procession of fashion collabs. Link-ups like this don’t get fans excited like they used to. Something more unexpected, like Lando Norris fronting a luxury campaign, however? That’ll get people talking.
Linking up with the oldest, wealthiest, most “establishment” name in luxury is one thing, but sport and fashion fans are becoming accustomed to these worlds colliding, and their expectations are high. But if there was ever a time for F1 to capitalise on the sport-as-entertainment momentum, and become a luxury brand in its own right, that time is now.
At the very least, the merch is going to be great.
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