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What can F1 teach corporate partnerships?

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October 16, 2025

With the new season of Formula One starting this weekend, we have been reflecting on the ways that the world of corporate-charity partnerships is similar to the world of the race-track. We’ve come together to share the five key lessons Formula One can teach us about corporate partnerships.

The power of testing

The ethos of Formula One is continuous improvement. Teams are always looking for ways to improve performance. Engineers work on upgrades for months before they make it onto the car on race day. And they are always testing. In wind tunnels, running race simulations and pre-season testing. It’s not until you actually see the latest improvement out on the track that you know it’s making a difference.

Corporate partnerships professionals can learn a lot from this approach. We can practice our pitches in front of our colleagues and test new products with a focus group of business experts. Both of these audiences will provide us with incredible feedback to improve our performance.

The importance of your team

As corporate partnerships professionals, like formula one drivers, we have a tendency to carry the weight of the world on our shoulders. We can easily fall into the trap of believing that the success or failure of the partnership totally depends on us. When actually, we are just the face of the partnership. We are completely reliant on the team around us to build and deliver the success we need.

Formula One drivers continually emphasise the importance of the team. The pit crew and engineers back at the factory. Whenever a driver wins a race you immediately here them acknowledge the team.

Corporate partnerships professionals should do the same. You need to ensure that your internal partnerships are as tight as possible. Involve your colleagues from the start and show them the vital role they have to play. By doing this you will transform your ability to win.

Return on investment

For the most part, the Formula One teams that invest the most in their car, drivers and team are the ones who win the most races. This enables them to secure the best engines, drivers and lead the way on innovation.

Corporate partnerships are the same. The charities that invest the most are the most successful. This means investing in vital areas such as training your current team, developing powerful propositions and recruiting new team members. It is unrealistic to expect continuous growth if you don't grow your team.

Purpose-driven brands will surprise you

Formula One is made up of ten teams, including some of the biggest car manufacturers in the world - such as Ferrari and Mercedes – and Red Bull, the energy drink brand. You might expect Red Bull to be at the back of the grid, but they have actually won eight world championships (four drivers and four constructors).

Taking part in Formula One makes sense for the team at Red Bull. Their mission statement is “giving wings to people and ideas”, and their brand values are all about excitement and energy. The pace of the sport, the exposure to their target market and the opportunity to stand out from their competitors all come together in a way that make Formula One too good an opportunity to miss.

How can you package your partnership opportunities in a similar way? What extraordinary partnership opportunity can you offer to a company so they can demonstrate their purpose?

Bouncebackability

We love this quote from Lewis Hamilton, “What people tend to forget is the journey that I had getting to Formula One. There were plenty of years where I had to learn about losing and having bad races.” So even though he is the most successful driver in the history of F1 he has experienced plenty of failures.

So much can go wrong in F1. Brakes, engine, tyres fail. Not to mention collisions with opponents and other forms of driver error. Even if you’re the best in the business, success isn’t guaranteed. This means that F1 drivers and teams need to develop incredible bouncebackability. So you didn’t finish the Italian Grand Prix? You need to suck up the loss and dust yourself down, because the Dutch Grand Prix is in a week’s time.

Success isn’t guaranteed for corporate partnerships professionals either. In fact failure is ineveitable. But it isn’t really failure, it’s just a company that isn’t ready to partner with your charity right now. So, dust yourself down and focus on the next opportunity.

If you’ve enjoyed this blog and want to get yourself race-track ready, consider booking yourself onto our Corporate Partnerships Masterclass this April: https://www.remarkablepartnerships.com/event/corporate-partnerships-masterclass-april2021/

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1. Your Relationship: People Buy From People

The first key is trust and rapport. People buy from people they know, like and trust, which is why relationship-building is such an important part of corporate partnerships.

The strongest partnerships are rarely built in a single meeting. They are built over time through conversations, consistency and genuine interest in the other person.

Sometimes the simplest moments have the biggest impact.

Taking a few minutes to ask about someone’s weekend, holiday plans or family life helps people feel comfortable and valued. It also helps you learn more about your prospect as a person, not just as a company representative.

Remembering those details matters, questions like: “How was your holiday to Greece?” or “How’s your child settling into school?” show genuine care and help build trust over time.

Authenticity is everything. People quickly sense when relationship-building is forced or transactional and the best partnerships are built on genuine human connection.

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**2. Emotional Engagement: Make Them Feel Something**

The second key is empathy and passion about the need. People make decisions emotionally before they justify them logically. If you want a company to truly engage with your charity, they need to feel connected to the cause.

‍That’s why storytelling is so powerful.

Sharing a real story about someone your charity has supported creates emotional connection in a way statistics and presentations rarely can. Videos, service visits and first-hand experiences can be equally impactful.

When people emotionally connect with your mission, the conversation changes. It moves from: “This sounds interesting…” to: “We need to help.”

Emotion creates urgency, deepens commitment, and it often unlocks far greater value in partnerships.

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3. The Business Case: Solve Their Problem

The third key is commercial value, clearly showing what the company will gain from partnering with you.

The reality is that even if a prospect loves your cause and enjoys working with you, they still need to justify the partnership internally. Decision-makers need to see how the partnership supports their business goals, priorities or challenges.

That’s why understanding your prospect’s needs is so important. Every company is trying to achieve something. They may want to:

Increase brand awareness
Improve employee engagement
Build customer loyalty
Generate PR opportunities
Reach new audiences

Your role is to understand what matters most to them and position your partnership as part of the solution. The best way to uncover this is by asking great questions:

“What are your biggest priorities this year?”
“What challenges is your team currently facing?”
“What would success look like for you?”

The more clearly you understand their objectives, the stronger your partnership proposition becomes. That’s what great partnerships do, they create mutual value.

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Unlocking The Door

One of the simplest ways to understand how close you are to securing a new partnership is to score your prospect out of 10 across all three areas:

Relationship
Emotional engagement
Commercial value

For example:

Relationship = 9/10
Emotional engagement = 8/10
Commercial value = 2/10

Even though two areas are strong, the partnership is still unlikely to unlock because one key is missing, and this is where many partnership opportunities stall.

Scoring prospects helps you quickly identify what needs more attention:

Do you need to build more trust?
Create stronger emotional connections?
Strengthen the commercial case?

The goal is to get all three keys as close to 10 as possible. When all three keys turn together, that’s when remarkable partnerships happen.

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If you’d like to learn more about unlocking higher-value partnerships, contact Jonathan: jonathan@remarkablepartnerships.com

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What unlocks truly high-value corporate partnerships? It’s not just a great pitch. Discover the 3 essential keys every fundraiser needs to build stronger relationships, create emotional connection, and demonstrate real commercial value that companies can’t ignore.

Learn More

The Four Ways Charities Create Value For Businesses

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Charities help companies achieve the following goals:

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Employee Engagement and Retention

Corporate partnerships provide employees with opportunities to support causes that matter, strengthening morale and workplace culture.

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Competitive Differentiation

Working with charities helps businesses stand out and demonstrate purpose in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

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Sales Opportunities

Purpose-driven partnerships can strengthen customer relationships and attract new customers.

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Brand Trust and Credibility

Authentic partnerships help companies build stronger, more trusted brands.

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Right now, all four of these areas are top priorities for companies.

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Why Understanding Partnership Value Matters

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When charities understand how to measure and communicate their partnership value, something powerful happens.

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They gain the confidence to pitch bigger opportunities, create stronger proposals and negotiate partnerships based on the real value rather than guesswork.

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This shift allows charities to move beyond undervalued collaborations and instead build high-impact corporate partnerships that benefit both sides.

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Learn How To Calculate Your Partnership Value

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To help charities develop this confidence, Remarkable Partnerships have created a new service: Unlock Corporate Partnerships Value Workshop.

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This practical session is designed to help charities understand the value they can offer companies and apply a simple framework to calculate it.

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During the workshop, you will learn:

About the four types of partnership value.
Explore why understanding value helps secure higher-value corporate partnerships.
See examples from successful corporate charity partnerships.
Work through an interactive exercise calculating the value of a current partner or prospect.

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The session lasts 2 hours and 30 minutes and provides a practical method charities can continue using when developing future partnerships.

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If you’d like to learn more about the workshop, contact: jonathan@remarkablepartnerships.com

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Many charities undervalue their corporate partnerships, limiting both impact and opportunity. This article explores why, the real value charities bring to businesses, and how understanding it can unlock stronger partnerships, with a workshop for those looking to take it further.