Can Sting turn F1 speed into brand momentum with Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS?

Sting Energy has kicked off its latest Formula 1 push with a high-impact collaboration with the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team, marking a significant step in the brand’s evolution from motorsport experimenter to embedded cultural player.

The move builds on PepsiCo’s multi-year global partnership with Formula 1, signed in 2025, which positioned Sting Energy as the sport’s official energy drink. Now, the brand is embedding itself within one of F1’s most high-performance teams under a broader multi-brand agreement that will also bring Gatorade and Doritos into the paddock from 2026.

The partnership was introduced through a first-of-its-kind digital film where the F1 car itself announced the collaboration. No celebrity. No spokesperson. Just the engine building into a clear “STINGGG” moment.

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The Saigon Marina IFC Tower, Vietnam.

“F1 already has its most powerful icon — the car,” said Vandita Pandey, vice president, marketing, international beverages – hydration and energy, PepsiCo. “Letting the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 car announce the partnership was a deliberate choice to respect the sport’s hierarchy and speak in its own language.”

By removing people from the frame, Sting allowed the car and its sonic signature to carry the message, reinforcing the creative idea: “Fast just got faster.”

Built for the blink

The campaign rolled out across India, Pakistan, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam through a multi-phased approach designed around speed and spectacle.

A disruptive two-second ad mirrored the pace of F1 itself, leaning into what Pandey described as the reality of fast scrolling and shrinking attention spans. Viewers replayed it. Some admitted they missed it the first time.

“Format was the strategy,” Pandey said. “People give brands seconds — sometimes less. The two-second creative didn’t just talk about speed, it behaved like it.”

The reveal was amplified through landmark projections across Asia, including Bandra-Worli Sea Link in India, Saigon Marina IFC Tower in Vietnam and Lahore’s Shahi Qilla in Pakistan. The spectacles drew crowds and fuelled organic sharing, turning cityscapes into cultural canvases.

The deeper team integration builds on Sting’s earlier “Sound of Sting” campaign, which flipped the script on traditional F1 marketing by turning the roar of an engine into a recognisable brand cue.

Launched as part of PepsiCo’s multi-year global partnership with Formula 1 in 2025, the sonic-led activation encouraged fans to hunt for the brand’s “stinggg” audio across reels and influencer content.

“From the start, our relationship with Formula 1 was intentional and designed as a long-term play,” shared Pandey. “What gave us confidence to scale that relationship was how strongly and consistently the brand connected with fans, particularly younger audiences.”

She added that relevance showed up not only in views but in organic conversation and repeat engagement across APAC markets, reinforcing that Sting’s entry into F1 culture was not fleeting.

Performance meets precision

According to Pandey, working with a team such as Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS also influenced the creative process itself.

“Every execution had to earn its place, just like every component on the car,” she said, adding that:

Speed isn’t about excess — it’s about clarity and control.

The move also sits within PepsiCo’s broader team-level ambitions unveiled last December, when the company unveiled a first-of-its-kind multi-brand partnership bringing Sting, Gatorade and Doritos into the Mercedes F1 fold from 2026.

With F1’s global audience now exceeding 1.6 billion, Sting’s bet is clear: in a sport measured in milliseconds, brand relevance also has to move fast, or risk being lapped.

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