Sephora is gearing up for another sports partnership. On Wednesday, the LVMH-owned beauty giant announced a multi-year partnership with F1 Academy, the women’s racing championship founded by Formula One Group.
As the official beauty retail partner of the series, the beauty giant will appear on a dedicated Sephora-branded car driven by teenage Spanish driver Natàlia Granada and host consumer-facing beauty bars at all of the F1 Academy races.
The F1 Academy allows Sephora entry into a developing league and fanbase. F1 Academy was launched in 2023 and in 2025 was the subject of a Netflix docuseries produced by Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine production company. Sephora’s parent company, LVMH, is a Global Partner of Formula 1.
“We are always surveying the space of where individuals are consuming or might be consuming beauty, or where there’s an intersection between beauty and a sports brand,” said Celessa Baker, vp of marketing partnerships at Sephora. “[We heard] that young women are fans of F1, and there’s a growing female [audience]. The excitement around [Netflix’s] ‘Drive to Survive’ and the F1 Academy content series and being at one of the races is continuing to uptick. So how do we get into the space?”
The Sephora car will debut at the 2026 season’s first-round race in Shanghai, which kicks off March 13, with Sephora launching global and localized social content to promote the partnership. F1 Academy’s international reach — the 2026 series will visit six countries, including Saudi Arabia, the U.K. and U.S. — gives Sephora access to a global audience that is roughly 45% female, with a growing Gen-Z audience base.
Formula 1’s 2025 season overview reported that the 2025 F1 Academy season was broadcast in over 160 territories and streamed live on YouTube, where viewership grew 67% year over year. According to Formula 1, three out of every four new Formula 1 fans in 2025 were female.
While F1 has traditionally drawn luxury sponsors like Louis Vuitton and Tag Heuer, a growing number of prestige and mass brands have partnered with F1 and F1 Academy, including Charlotte Tilbury, Hello Kitty and Wella Professionals.
“We know it’s an expensive sport,” said Baker. “But when we think about our partnerships, we think beyond who is at the track watching the race, [including] all the people who can engage in the sport through social content and digital reach.”
The F1 Academy partnership joins a growing list of investments from Sephora into sports leagues. In 2025, the retailer was named a partner of the WNBA’s Golden State Valkyries and the offseason Unrivaled league, in addition to a partnership with the Athletes Unlimited Softball League, the national women’s professional softball league that launched in 2024. In November, Sephora was named the official fragrance partner of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors, reflecting the growing male fragrance consumer base.
While established leagues like the NBA offer access to a broad and established audience, getting into a league from the ground up allows sponsors like Sephora more control over the narrative.
“The established leagues have a traditional sense of what assets are monetizable, how you can engage with talent, how you use content, etcetera,” said Baker. “When it is a new league, the world is your oyster. You get to pick and choose and curate the elements that make sense for the partnership to come to life.”
But that control comes with risks, Baker noted.
“Most emerging leagues fail within their first three to seven years,” she said. “So when you engage in an emerging league, you’re like, ‘This is a big bet that I’m placing.’”
