KitKat is not on a car and records the highest placement score in the sport
KitKat records 84.6% on the placement question, the highest of any brand tested in 2026, with 95.7% recognition and 85.2% attribution.
KitKat has no car branding at all. It records the highest placement score of the eleven brands measured this season, ahead of every partner whose logo runs on a livery.
The reading comes from the BoxBoxd Brand Recall Index, a test the motorsport audience takes on the platform through the 2026 season.
A sponsor logo appears blurred with no name attached and the audience answers three questions in order: name the brand, name the team it belongs to, then say where the branding appears on the car. KitKat was tested 904 times. 95.7% named the brand, 85.2% attributed it to the right team and 84.6% said where it appears.
A partnership without a livery
KitKat became the official chocolate bar of the sport at the 2025 Mexico weekend, the largest global brand partnership in the Nestlé portfolio, expanding across more Grands Prix through 2026. The branding appears in fanzone and paddock club activations and on the product itself rather than on a car.
Recognition of 95.7% is expected for a consumer brand of that size. The finding is the third question. 84.6% of the audience answered the placement question correctly, against a grid average of 46.1% and against 27.9% for a title partner on a sidepod.
What does the placement score measure here?
The question asks where the branding appears. A partner with no car presence can only score well if the audience knows the partnership exists in a form other than a livery, which is a harder thing to know than the position of a wordmark.
Attribution of 85.2% is above the grid average of 82.2% and above Oracle, Honda and Tommy Hilfiger. A sport wide partnership has no single team to be attributed to, so the audience is answering the association question about the sport itself.
Read together the two numbers say the activation is being experienced rather than passed. A logo on a sidepod is seen by everyone watching and read by three in ten. A brand at the circuit is met by fewer people and placed correctly by eight in ten.
Does the answer change with allegiance?
Sorted by the team each respondent supports, KitKat attribution runs from 92.1% among McLaren fans to 76.1% among Red Bull Racing fans, a spread of 16.0 points. The spread across team audiences is narrow, which follows a sport wide partnership rather than a team deal.
McLaren
Williams
Mercedes
Ferrari
Red Bull RacingWhat this reading changes for a consumer brand
The trade in motorsport sponsorship is usually framed as reach against depth. Car branding buys the broadcast, activation buys the weekend. Measured on the audience, the second one is producing the stronger memory per person reached.
Gatorade shows the same pattern from a different category. It records 72.9% on placement in its first season as an official partner, again without a title livery.
Frequently asked questions
Is KitKat an official F1 sponsor?
KitKat became the official chocolate bar of the sport at the 2025 Mexico weekend, the largest global brand partnership in the Nestlé portfolio and expanded across more Grands Prix through 2026.
Does KitKat appear on an F1 car?
No. The branding appears in fanzone and paddock club activations and on the product rather than on a livery.
How well is the KitKat partnership remembered?
95.7% of the motorsport audience named the brand, 85.2% attributed the partnership correctly and 84.6% answered the placement question correctly, the highest placement score of the 2026 season.
Where does the KitKat branding appear and do fans know?
84.6% of the motorsport audience answered the placement question correctly for KitKat on the BoxBoxd Brand Recall Index in 2026, against a grid average of 46.1% across the eleven brands tested.
Is KitKat recall above or below the motorsport average?
KitKat records 95.7% recognition against a grid average of 94.3% and 85.2% attribution against a grid average of 82.2%, measured across 904 tests in the 2026 season.
Which fans attribute KitKat correctly most often?
McLaren fans, at 92.1% attribution for KitKat on the BoxBoxd Brand Recall Index in the 2026 season.
Want this reading on your own brand?
The full report behind this article, with the split by team audience, market composition and the change across the season, is available to teams, brands and agencies.
Source: BoxBoxd, the motorsport social network. The Brand Recall Index is measured on the BoxBoxd audience through the 2026 season, where a blurred sponsor logo is shown with no name attached and three questions follow: name the brand, name the team, place the branding on the car. The one number version of this reading, for citation, is at boxboxd.fun/brand-index/kitkat-sponsor-attribution.