CrowdStrike
Mercedes F1 Sponsor
What Does CrowdStrike Pay Mercedes?
CrowdStrike’s Mercedes deal is worth about $10m a year by our reckoning, since no fee has ever been reported. The number prices a principal partner’s rights against comparable technology deals, and there’s no public split between cash and the Falcon security software the team runs.
That’s the smallest of the three principal deals at Mercedes and $2m below team partner Snapdragon. It’s level with IBM at Ferrari. George Kurtz’s personal stake in the team is a separate investment and isn’t counted.
The $10m deal equals about a day of CrowdStrike's $4.81bn revenue.
Mercedes' 2026 launch lists CrowdStrike among three principal partners, the tier behind the $10m figure.
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Insider · Issue 23
01 · The Last Race
Singapore by Salary
Pos
Driver
Pts
Salary
1
Max Verstappen
Red Bull
25
$70m
2
Charles Leclerc
Ferrari
18
$34m
3
Kimi Antonelli
Mercedes
15
$3.4m
4
Lando Norris
McLaren
12
$30m
5
Oscar Piastri
McLaren
10
$13m
6
Insider+
7
Insider+
Our Take · Insider+
What Each Point Now Costs Red Bull
Principal Partner
How the CrowdStrike Mercedes Partnership Works
CrowdStrike is a cybersecurity company in Austin, Texas, and its Falcon platform protects businesses’ computers and cloud systems from attacks. Founder George Kurtz runs it as CEO. Revenue for the fiscal year to January 31, 2026 was $4.81bn, though it still posted a GAAP net loss of $162.5m.
Mercedes runs Falcon on its computers at the Brackley factory and at races and tests, and CrowdStrike branding appears on the car. It sits in the principal tier just below PETRONAS, with no term or end date made public.
Fiscal 2026 results with revenue of $4.81bn and a GAAP net loss of $162.5m for the year to January 31.
February 7, 2019 release on Falcon at Brackley and at race and test events, with the team's data volumes.
Mercedes' partner page for CrowdStrike, covering cyber protection for its intellectual property and operations.
Market data page showing CrowdStrike's market cap at $258.2bn in September 2026.
Why Is CrowdStrike a Mercedes F1 Sponsor?
Mercedes moves car designs and race data between Brackley and circuits all over the world, so it’s exactly the kind of target CrowdStrike’s customers fear. In 2019 the team said each car produced 500GB of data over a Grand Prix weekend, and CrowdStrike gets to tell enterprise buyers that it guards information like that.
George Kurtz explains the rest. He races sports cars himself, CrowdStrike already hosts executives at SRO’s GT events and the Spa 24 Hours, and entertaining clients at an F1 team that runs its software is a step up from both.
March 2025 piece on CrowdStrike's longest-running motorsport tie, its Spa 24 Hours title role and executive events.
July 19, 2024 report on the outage hitting Mercedes in Hungary and the team working with CrowdStrike on it.
November 2025 report of Kurtz buying 15% of Wolff's holding and becoming Mercedes' technology adviser.
January 2026 report of the LMP2 class win at Daytona for Kurtz's CrowdStrike entry.
CrowdStrike Racing Sponsorship History
CrowdStrike started in GT racing before joining Mercedes, and founder George Kurtz has since added a personal stake in the team that’s separate from the company’s deal.
CrowdStrike Mercedes F1 Questions
CrowdStrike is an F1 sponsor through Mercedes, one of three principal partners on the team’s 2026 list with INEOS and Microsoft. It signed in February 2019, and Mercedes has run its Falcon software to protect computers at the Brackley factory and at races ever since.
No, CrowdStrike the company doesn’t hold shares in Mercedes F1. Its founder George Kurtz does, personally, after buying 15% of Toto Wolff‘s third in November 2025, which works out at about 5% of the team. The company’s link is the sponsorship that began in 2019.
F1 Salaries puts CrowdStrike’s Mercedes deal at about $10m a year, because neither side has reported a fee. The figure reflects its principal partner rights, and it’s the smallest of the three principal deals at the team, well behind Microsoft at around $60m.
The July 19, 2024 CrowdStrike outage did hit Mercedes, with staff repairing computers before practice at the Hungarian Grand Prix. Mercedes said it was working with CrowdStrike to limit the impact, and the sponsorship carried on afterward. CrowdStrike is still a principal partner in 2026.
George Kurtz’s stake is his own money in the team, while CrowdStrike’s sponsorship is a commercial deal between two companies. Kurtz bought into Toto Wolff’s holding in November 2025 and advises Mercedes on technology, but his investment isn’t part of CrowdStrike’s $10m figure.