How SharkNinja went from the big screen to real life in Formula 1

SharkNinja is well known for an array of different products, depending on who you ask. Home cooks (and people with protein goals) covet the product design company’s Ninja Creami. Its blow-dry brushes can be a go-to for anyone interested in styling their hair. And pet owners are likely familiar with its robot vacuums.

But if none of that rings a bell, perhaps the name APXGP sounds familiar. It’s the fictional Formula 1 team that Brad Pitt’s character drives for in F1: The Movie, for which SharkNinja served as an on-screen sponsor.

A year after the film’s release, SharkNinja is taking that fictional deal to the real-life F1 grid by becoming an official partner of McLaren Racing spanning F1, F1 Academy, IndyCar, and the World Endurance Championship.

The five-year partnership is rooted in long-term storytelling efforts, Laura Dyer, SharkNinja’s SVP of global marketing, told Marketing Brew. It’s representative of a strategy that’s become fairly popular among F1 sponsors—including several of McLaren’s—given the difficulty of achieving success in the sport and its reputation for big personalities.

“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.”

Content engine

The team at SharkNinja wanted to get involved with F1 since the movie, which Dyer described as a “big success.” (SharkNinja CEO Mark Barrocas has also said as much on an earnings call.) Dyer said she spoke with several teams and the F1 organization itself before landing on McLaren, in part because of McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown’s marketing know-how, as well as McLaren’s emphasis on content creation.

It also likely didn’t hurt that the team had a banner 2025 season, securing its second consecutive constructors’ championship, while driver Lando Norris won the world drivers’ championship. While the team has been less successful this season under new regulations, it’s still near the top of the grid.

For many F1 fans, “it’s as much about the season narrative as it is the results,” Dyer said, especially in a Drive to Survive era that gives audiences a closer look at the lives of F1 drivers.

“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 told us. “And as a brand, that’s what I want to buy into.”

It’s a sentiment that other brand marketers have voiced: Nick Drake, global VP of marketing at McLaren sponsor Google, expressed a similar point of view in a conversation with Marketing Brew last year.

SharkNinja intends to find many ways to be part of season-long storytelling, working not only with Norris and his teammate Oscar Piastri, but also by featuring Brown and McLaren employees like engineers, who already regularly appear in the team’s social content. Social engagement is one of Dyer’s KPIs, she said, as well as brand lift.

Full circuit

One McLaren storyline that sparked Dyer’s interest was the organization’s quest to win another triple crown of motorsport, which requires victories at the Indy 500, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and the F1 Monaco Grand Prix. McLaren has teams that race in all three events, and SharkNinja will have a presence across all of them.

SharkNinja’s partnership with McLaren also encompasses F1 Academy, F1’s women-only racing championship. Since the deal is still new, Dyer said F1 Academy activation plans haven’t been ironed out yet; still, she said, she intends for the women’s series to feel like “an integrated part” of the overall sponsorship.

“Otherwise, it feels performative,” she said.

The SharkNinja team is already planning how the brand will show up alongside McLaren before the end of the season in December, potentially at the upcoming United States and Mexico Grands Prix (F1 Academy also races at the US Grand Prix). The activations will likely incorporate influencer partnerships and tie-ins that “local consumers will really know and recognize,” Dyer said.

“We don’t want everything to feel like an ad,” she said. “We want it to feel like entertainment.”