How to Get Motorsport Sponsorship: A UK Driver's Guide

So here's the thing. I've been in and around motorsport for over 30 years. I've sat in boardrooms with sponsors, I've stood in paddocks with drivers who couldn't string two sentences together about why anyone should give them money, and I've watched genuinely talented people miss out on funding because their pitch was, to put it politely, absolute shite.

The leadership team at SuperHub has raised north of £30 million in sponsorship and funding deals over the years. Not because we're particularly charming (we're not) but because we understand what sponsors actually want versus what drivers think they want. And those two things are almost never the same.

Let me be blunt with you. The reason most drivers struggle to get sponsorship isn't because they're not fast enough. It's because they approach the whole thing arse-backwards. They think about what they need - tyres, entry fees, engine rebuilds - and then go cap in hand asking companies to pay for it. That's not a sponsorship proposal. That's begging.

A sponsor isn't a charity. They're a business making a calculated marketing decision. If you can't explain in one sentence why giving you money will help them sell more product, you've already lost. You know what most pitch decks I've seen look like? "I'm fast, I need £50k, here's my Instagram follower count." Brilliant. So is every other driver in your championship.

The drivers who actually get funded? They flip the whole thing around. They work out what a sponsor's marketing problem is, then position themselves as the solution. That takes research, strategic thinking, and the ability to speak like a business person, not just a petrolhead.

I'll tell you what sponsors don't care about. They don't care about your lap times. They don't care about your karting career. They don't care that you've dreamed of racing since you were five and your nan bought you a Scalextric. Touching as that is, it's irrelevant.

What they do care about:

Access to an audience they can't reach otherwise. If your followers are the exact demographic they're trying to sell to, you become valuable. But you need to prove that with data, not just "I've got 10k followers on Instagram." Ten thousand followers who are other drivers aren't worth anything to a sponsor selling financial services to 40-year-old professionals.

Content they can use. This is the bit most drivers completely miss. A modern sponsor wants assets. Video for their social channels. Photos for their marketing. Stories they can tell their customers. If all you're offering is a logo on the car and a handshake in the hospitality suite, you're leaving money on the table.

Experiences for their clients. B2B sponsors especially - they want to bring their best customers trackside, put them in the garage, let them meet the driver. That "money can't buy" stuff is often worth more to them than the logo placement itself.

Proof it works. They need to justify this spend to their board. If you can't help them measure what they got out of it, the renewal conversation becomes very short indeed.

You're going to get told no. A lot. I mean, a lot a lot. If you're sending out ten proposals and getting upset that none of them came back positive, you're not in the game yet. Try a hundred. Then we'll talk.

Do you know what the worst part is? Most of the time it's not even about you. Budgets got cut. Strategy changed. The marketing director left. Someone's nephew is racing in a different series and politics took over. You'll rarely get told the real reason. You'll just get a polite email about how your proposal didn't fit their current priorities.

The thing is, rejection in sponsorship is like rejection everywhere else - it only hurts if you take it personally. This is a numbers game played over years, not months. The driver who keeps showing up, keeps improving their proposition, keeps building relationships even when there's no immediate payoff - that's the one who eventually breaks through.

I've seen drivers land deals with companies that said no three years running. What changed? Sometimes nothing on the sponsor's side. Sometimes everything on the driver's side. Usually a bit of both.

Right, let's get practical. Before you approach anyone, you need to know exactly what you're selling. And I don't mean "logo on car, mentions on social media, hospitality passes." That's the bare minimum. That's table stakes. Everyone offers that.

Start by mapping out every single asset you control:

Physical stuff: Where can logos go? Not just the obvious places - think transporter, pit equipment, team kit, driver suit. How much visibility does each spot get on broadcast? What's the camera angle situation at your championship?

Digital reach: Your social media numbers, yes, but more importantly your engagement rates. A thousand people who actually interact with your content are worth more than ten thousand who scroll past. Get your analytics together properly.

Content capability: Can you produce professional video? Do you have a photographer? What kind of behind-the-scenes access can you offer? If you can create broadcast-quality content that a sponsor can use on their own channels, that's genuinely valuable.

Experiences: Track days, garage access, simulator sessions, driver appearances at corporate events. Work out what you could realistically offer and what it would cost you to deliver.

Then - and this is the bit people skip - put a price on each item. Not what you hope someone will pay. What it's actually worth in marketing terms. A logo that gets thirty seconds of TV time during a race has calculable media value. Work it out.

Spraying out generic proposals to every company with a marketing budget is a waste of everyone's time, including yours. The smart approach is to identify businesses whose target customers overlap with your audience.

Think about who follows motorsport. In the UK, you're typically looking at ABC1 males, 25-55, higher than average household income, interested in automotive, technology, premium products. That's a valuable demographic. But your specific audience might be different depending on your championship and how you've built your following.

Look at who's already in motorsport. Companies currently sponsoring in your series or adjacent series have already made the decision that this kind of marketing works for them. That's a much easier conversation than trying to convince someone motorsport sponsorship is a thing they should even consider.

But don't just copy what everyone else is doing. Some of the best deals I've seen came from sponsors who'd never been in motorsport before. They came in because someone showed them an audience match they hadn't considered. Fresh money is out there if you can make the case.

Cold emails are a nightmare. The response rate is brutal. But sometimes that's all you've got, so let's make them work as hard as they can.

First: find the actual human who makes decisions. Generic "marketing@company.com" addresses are where proposals go to die. Dig into LinkedIn. Find the marketing director, the sponsorship manager, the brand partnerships lead. If they have a PA, sometimes that's even better - PAs are gatekeepers, but they're also the people who actually read emails properly.

Second: make it about them immediately. Your subject line and opening sentence need to show you've done your homework. Reference something specific about their business. A recent campaign. A new product launch. Anything that proves you're not just blasting out copy-paste proposals to everyone.

Third: keep it short. Your first email should not be your full proposal. It should be enough to get a conversation. Here's who I am, here's what I think might be valuable for your business specifically, can we talk? That's it. Save the detail for when you've actually got their attention.

Fourth: follow up without being annoying. Once after a week. Maybe once more after another fortnight. If you've heard nothing after three attempts, move on. You can always circle back next season.

So someone's actually agreed to talk to you. Don't blow it by launching straight into your rehearsed pitch. Start by asking questions. What are their marketing priorities right now? What's worked for them before? What hasn't? What does success look like from their perspective?

Listen properly to the answers. The best sponsorship conversations I've been part of felt more like collaborative problem-solving than sales pitches. You're trying to work out together whether there's a genuine fit, not trying to convince them to write a cheque.

Be honest about what you can and can't deliver. Over-promising is the fastest way to destroy a relationship. If they want something you can't do, say so. Then suggest what you can do instead. Sponsors respect candour. They deal with bullshitters all day long.

And for god's sake, dress appropriately. I've seen drivers turn up to sponsorship meetings in team polo shirts because they think it's "on brand." It's not. It's unprofessional. You're asking for someone's marketing budget. Look like you deserve it.

The ask is always awkward. But if you've done the work properly, the price shouldn't come as a surprise. You've valued your assets. You've presented packages at different tiers. The conversation should be about which level makes sense for them, not whether your numbers are plucked from thin air.

Be prepared to negotiate, but know your floor. There's a point below which the deal isn't worth doing. Better to walk away respectfully than to lock yourself into something that makes you resentful. Bad deals create bad relationships.

Once you've agreed terms, get it in writing immediately. A proper contract, not just an email confirmation. Cover the deliverables in detail, the payment schedule, the duration, the exclusivity (if any), and what happens if either party wants out. This protects both of you.

I've seen handshake deals fall apart. I've seen "we'll sort out the paperwork later" turn into "we never actually agreed to that." Don't let it happen to you.

Signing the contract is not the end. It's the start. And how you deliver over the next twelve months determines whether you get renewed.

Over-deliver wherever you can. Promised ten social posts? Do fifteen. Said you'd provide quarterly reports? Make them monthly. Send them content they didn't ask for. Make them look good internally. Be the easiest sponsorship they manage.

Keep them informed. Race results, obviously. But also the behind-the-scenes stuff. Problems you're dealing with. Opportunities coming up. They're invested in you now - treat them like partners, not just cheque-writers.

At the end of the season, put together a proper report. Not just "thanks for the money, here's what happened." Show them the numbers. Media exposure. Social reach. Content delivered. Experiences provided. Make it easy for whoever has to justify the spend to their boss.

Then have the renewal conversation early. Don't wait until the last minute. If you've done your job properly, they should be thinking about next year before you even ask.

Look, I could write another five thousand words on this. Actually, I have. If you want the full deep-dive - every template, every script, every lesson learned from three decades of doing this - go to Amazon and grab a copy of my book Race Funded . It's 60,000-odd words covering everything from building your personal brand to closing deals to keeping sponsors happy year after year. This article is the highlights reel. That's the full playbook.

There's nuance and context and specific situations that require specific solutions. But the fundamentals are always the same: understand what sponsors actually want, build a proposition that delivers it, approach the right people in the right way, and then absolutely nail the delivery.

If you're doing all of that and still not getting anywhere, sometimes you need outside help. That's literally what we do at SuperHub - connect motorsport talent with the right sponsors and help them build the commercial side of their racing operation properly. We've been doing it for years. We know what works.

But whether you buy the book, work with us, or figure it out yourself - stop making the mistakes everyone else makes. Stop thinking like a driver asking for money. Start thinking like a marketing partner offering value. That shift in mindset is worth more than any pitch deck.