A name change at the top of the sport
On 24 April 2024 Ferrari and the technology company HP announce a multi-year title partnership that changes the formal name of the Formula 1 team. From the Miami Grand Prix in early May, the team competes as Scuderia Ferrari HP, and the HP logo appears on the cars, the drivers' suits and the wider team identity. The agreement also extends across the Scuderia Ferrari Esports team, the Ferrari Esports series and the Ferrari entry in the F1 Academy series.
The move is significant because of what the team name has, and has not, carried for more than a decade. A title partner sits at the very front of a team's identity, ahead of the manufacturer's own name in commercial terms, and Ferrari has historically guarded that position carefully. Bringing an outside brand into the name is a deliberate decision about how much of its most valuable asset Ferrari is prepared to share.
The first title name since the tobacco era
For most of the 2010s and early 2020s the team raced simply as Scuderia Ferrari. The last partner to occupy the title position in a comparable way was Marlboro, whose decades-long backing produced the name Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro before tobacco branding was pushed off the cars. A short-lived arrangement around the Mission Winnow platform followed at the end of the 2010s, but it did not establish a lasting consumer brand in the name. The HP deal therefore represents the first time in years that a mainstream, freely advertisable brand takes the title slot in the team's name.
That distinction matters for brand architecture. Ferrari is one of the few names in motorsport strong enough to stand alone, and for years it did exactly that. Choosing to append HP signals a calculated judgement that the right partner adds value rather than diluting the marque, and that the technology category fits the image Ferrari wants to project.
Why HP, and why now
The partnership is framed around technology and innovation rather than simple logo placement. HP positions the deal as a way to bring its hardware and services, from computing devices to conferencing and printing technology, into the team's operations, supporting the data-intensive work of running a modern Formula 1 effort. Both companies emphasise a shared interest in sustainable innovation and high performance, language designed to make the pairing read as a strategic fit rather than a transaction.
For Ferrari, the logic is partly commercial and partly about positioning. A title partner brings substantial funding to an expensive sport, but it also associates the team with a category, technology, that aligns with how Ferrari increasingly describes itself. For HP, the appeal is reach. Few brand vehicles offer the global, repeated, high-engagement exposure of the most recognised name in Formula 1, and entering that name puts HP in front of audiences across every race weekend of the season.
Managing the value of the name
The central tension in any title partnership is the balance between revenue and brand control. The Ferrari name carries enormous equity, and any addition to it risks reshaping how the team is perceived. By choosing a single, established technology brand, and by integrating the partner into the team's identity rather than scattering logos across available surfaces, Ferrari attempts to keep the arrangement coherent. The new identity is presented as a unified Scuderia Ferrari HP brand, with a refreshed look introduced at Miami, rather than as a Ferrari livery with a sponsor attached.
The debut at the Miami Grand Prix gives the change a clear public starting point. Launching a new team name and visual identity at a high-profile event, in a key commercial market for both companies, frames the partnership as a fresh chapter rather than a quiet contract renewal. The choice of venue is itself a branding decision, placing the rollout where attention is highest.
The Scuderia Ferrari HP partnership shows how a heritage brand manages the modern economics of elite sport. Ferrari protects the scarcity and prestige of its name across its road cars and its wider business, yet in Formula 1 it accepts that a title partner is part of how the sport is funded and presented. The decision is less a departure than a careful negotiation, allowing a major technology brand into the most visible part of the team's identity while keeping the Ferrari name, and the prancing horse, firmly at the centre of everything the team stands for.
