Sponsor recall in motorsport, brand by brand
Every brand tested on the audience with the same three questions, from the mark nobody can place to the one that left the sport twenty years ago and still wins.
A sponsorship is sold on surface and reported on impressions. Neither says whether anyone can put the brand with its team. This index asks the audience to do exactly that, brand by brand, on the same three questions. The spread between the best and the worst answer is wider than any price difference in the market.
What does the index measure?
A sponsor logo is shown blurred, with the name removed. Three questions follow in order: name the brand, name the team it belongs to, say where the branding appears on the car.
A fourth asks the era of the presence. Nothing is prompted with a list, so a right answer is a memory rather than a recognition test.
Across the grid, 94.3% of answers name the brand, 82.2% name the right team and 46.1% place it correctly. Those three averages are the spine of every page in this index. The method is set out in how sponsorship recall is measured.
Which brands are attributed best?
Attribution is what a contract buys. Marlboro leads at 97.5%, ahead of Santander at 97% and Vodafone at 92.4%.
The table closes on Oracle at 65.5% and Tommy Hilfiger at 54.6%.
The full ranking, with what separates the top from the bottom, is in the 2026 sponsor recall report. The single number version lives on the best attributed sponsor page.
Marlboro
Santander
Vodafone
Allwyn
KitKat
TeamViewer
Gatorade
Honda
Jim Beam
Oracle
Tommy HilfigerWhich brands can the audience place on the car?
Placement is the hard question and the one that separates a presence that was met from a presence that was broadcast. KitKat at 84.6%, Gatorade at 72.9% and Honda at 54% lead, while Oracle at 27.9%, Jim Beam at 21.3% and Tommy Hilfiger at 15.4% close it.
The widest recognition to attribution gap belongs to Tommy Hilfiger, 44.5 points, kept permanently on the recall gap page. The best placed brand of the season has its own page too.
KitKatGatoradeHondaAllwynVodafoneTeamViewerSantanderMarlboroOracleJim BeamTommy HilfigerWhat does each brand page hold?
Marlboro is named by 98% of the audience from its blurred mark, attributed to the right team by 97.5% and placed on the car by 31.4%, with the full analysis in the Marlboro case.
Santander is named by 99% of the audience from its blurred mark, attributed to the right team by 97% and placed on the car by 38.3%, the deal itself is broken down in what Santander does in motorsport, with the full analysis in the Santander case.
Vodafone is named by 96.9% of the audience from its blurred mark, attributed to the right team by 92.4% and placed on the car by 44%, with the full analysis in the Vodafone memory.
Allwyn is named by 86.8% of the audience from its blurred mark, attributed to the right team by 90.8% and placed on the car by 46.7%, with the full analysis in the Allwyn entry.
KitKat is named by 95.7% of the audience from its blurred mark, attributed to the right team by 85.2% and placed on the car by 84.6%, the deal itself is broken down in what KitKat does in motorsport, with the full analysis in the KitKat case.
TeamViewer is named by 89.4% of the audience from its blurred mark, attributed to the right team by 85% and placed on the car by 42.2%, the deal itself is broken down in what TeamViewer does for Mercedes, with the full analysis in the TeamViewer reading.
Gatorade is named by 92.5% of the audience from its blurred mark, attributed to the right team by 83.1% and placed on the car by 72.9%, with the full analysis in the Gatorade entry.
Honda is named by 98.4% of the audience from its blurred mark, attributed to the right team by 79.4% and placed on the car by 54%, the deal itself is broken down in what Honda does for Aston Martin, with the full analysis in the Honda engine reading.
Jim Beam is named by 71.9% of the audience from its blurred mark, attributed to the right team by 71.9% and placed on the car by 21.3%, with the full analysis in the Jim Beam entry.
Oracle is named by 90.5% of the audience from its blurred mark, attributed to the right team by 65.5% and placed on the car by 27.9%, the deal itself is broken down in what Oracle does for Red Bull Racing, with the full analysis in the Oracle reading in full.
Tommy Hilfiger is named by 99.1% of the audience from its blurred mark, attributed to the right team by 54.6% and placed on the car by 15.4%, with the full analysis in the Tommy Hilfiger reading.
How does the answer change by category?
Finance is the most crowded category on the grid and the best attributed. Santander reads 97% on attribution years after leaving its most famous car, while the newest arrival in the category is read in the Stripe deal at Mercedes and the shared title case in what Visa and Cash App do for VCARB.
Technology splits hard between the name that is read as information and the name that is read as advertising. Oracle carries the most expensive position in the sport and the weakest placement of the top deals, HP at Ferrari takes the team name itself, while TeamViewer at Mercedes clears the title partner by twenty points on attribution.
Energy and engines behave differently again, since the audience reads them as part of how the car runs rather than as a sponsor.
That is the argument in what Aramco does for Aston Martin and in the Honda attribution page.
Consumer brands close the set and produce the sharpest contrast of the index. KitKat is placed correctly by 84.6% of the audience without appearing on a car, Tommy Hilfiger is recognised by almost everyone and placed by almost nobody.
The whole question of whether any of it is worth the cheque is taken apart in is motorsport sponsorship worth it.
How does a brand use this?
A rate card prices surface and duration. This index prices memory, which is the half a valuation never carries.
The practical route through it starts with what a sponsorship costs and what the money buys, continues with how the assets work and ends with how to measure the return.
Choosing the partner is a separate question, answered by audience rather than by championship position in the team by team audience reading, with the concentration risk set out in one driver carrying an entire team audience and the transfer risk in the driver market data.
What happens after signature is measured too, in what makes an activation stick, in the category the audience rejects and in the brand that left twenty years ago and still wins on attribution.
Which brands come up without being asked?
Recall is a prompted measurement. The unprompted one runs in the comments written after each race, where no question mentions any brand. The tyre supplier appears in 0.75% of them, the fuel partner in 0.43%, the most exposed title partner in 0.33% and a beer brand in 0.24%.
The mood says more than the count. Comments naming the beer brand score the race 3.99 out of five, the tyre supplier 3.65 and the title technology partner 2.95, against a reference of 3.41. A brand can be named often and be attached to the evenings that disappointed, which is the reading in how sponsorship works on this grid.
What does the audience reject?
Asked in an open question which brand feels out of place in the sport, the audience names the artificial intelligence category in 8.9% of answers, four times the next single brand, with nothing in the question pointing at it.
The full reading is in the category the audience rejects.
The mirror case is a brand banned from the sport two decades ago that still leads the attribution table, taken apart in the tobacco memory and on the Marlboro page. Between the two lies the practical question of which categories can be activated at all.
What runs next to the index?
Sponsor memory is one layer. The ratings underneath it are on the race ratings index, where every round of both seasons keeps its own page.
The commercial questions that use both live in the articles, including the Stripe deal at Mercedes, the Gucci arrival at Alpine, the Audi entry and the Cadillac audience.
Driver level readings complete the picture with the most captive audience on the grid, the driver the audience credits with the strongest portfolio, the most portable following, the happiest audience of the grid, what a transfer does to an audience and a national audience arriving with one name.
Venue and promoter work uses the same base, from partner recall around the Madrid round and the Madrid venue reading to Spa Francorchamps and Sepang. The Madrid set runs deeper for the brands already there, with the Heineken position, the Santander position, the hospitality reading, the arrival of the round itself and la lectura en español.
Two entries close the shelf, the Toyota return through Haas and what a Verstappen exit would take with it.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Brand Recall Index?
A measurement on the motorsport audience where a blurred sponsor logo is shown with the name removed and three questions follow: name the brand, name the team, place the branding. Grid averages read 94.3%, 82.2% and 46.1%.
Which motorsport sponsor is remembered best?
Marlboro leads on attribution at 97.5%, with the full ranking on the pages in this index.
What is sponsor attribution?
The share of the audience that names the correct team for a brand it has just recognised. It is the part a sponsorship contract buys.
What is placement recall?
The share that can say where the branding appears on the car. The grid average is 46.1%. It separates a presence that was met from one that was only broadcast.
How can a brand get its own reading?
Any brand present in the sport can be tested with the same questions, including competitors on rival cars.
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 shows a blurred sponsor logo with no name attached and asks three questions in order: name the brand, name the team, place the branding on the car.