Bahrain International Circuit, Al Sakhir: Mahmood Rafique, Editor: Airwallex, a leading global payments and financial platform for modern businesses, which announced a multi-year partnership with the McLaren Formula one team, are celebrating McLaren’s first victory at the Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix 2025.
McLaren driver Oscar Piastri secured a huge victory in the Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix, marking his 50th career race in the championship and moving up to second in the Drivers’ Championship, three points behind teammate Lando Norris.
As an Official Partner, Airwallex supports McLaren’s global financial operations through its treasury management and cross-border pay-outs and settlement product suite. This partnership between Airwallex and McLaren will help ignite the fintech giant’s growth trajectory as it continues to scale globally.
Specifically, McLaren uses Airwallex to optimise its supply chain payments for all Grands Prix. McLaren’s existing payments infrastructure limits payment to suppliers, such as hotel and event space providers, to a singular currency account based in the UK, resulting in high foreign exchange (FX) charges, slow transfer time and additional SWIFT fees.
Airwallex’s financial technology will unlock multi-currency payment options for McLaren, providing the company with the ability to hold core currencies and exchange them with speed and ease at any point while reducing the amount of SWIFT fees that may be payable by leveraging Airwallex’s extensive global proprietary payment network.
“Prior to this partnership, McLaren’s international payments run consisted of 30 payments made one at a time, which was inefficient and time-consuming. With Airwallex, McLaren can now push payments through a custom approval process and execute a batch payout using a template, taking a little under an hour per run. Over the course of a month, this new process is saving the McLaren Racing Finance team half a day of work,” Airwallex, in a statement said while explaining how its global financial technology has improved McLaren Racing’s financial operations throughout the 2024 Formula 1 season.
“In addition, previously, the McLaren Racing finance team experienced slow transfer speeds – two to five business days – and high transfer fees when paying their international suppliers in US dollars (USD).”
“As a result of leveraging Airwallex’s end-to-end payment system, McLaren Racing today receives competitively priced foreign exchange (FX) rates and moves money through an extensive local payout network. McLaren Racing now has the flexibility to pay each global vendor in their local currency while reducing transfer times. For payout transactions, 90 percent arrive within hours, and 65 percent arrive instantly.”
“In the competitive world of Formula 1, efficiency and performance are crucial both on and off the track. We are delighted to have Airwallex on board and use their innovative and trusted payment solutions to support our team’s financial operations,” Zak Brown, CEO, McLaren Racing, quoted saying after the agreement signing last year.
“There are very few brands that match McLaren’s heritage and global appeal. Like McLaren, Airwallex is constantly innovating to move faster and with greater precision – with a product that unites people around the world. Our partnership will play a key role in supporting our global expansion, and we look forward to working with the McLaren team in 2024 and beyond to support our mutual growth,” Jack Zhang, CEO and Co-Founder of Airwallex, said.
Alongside the product integration, Airwallex will become a partner of the McLaren Formula 1 team, with the Airwallex logo prominently displayed on the halo of the McLaren MCL38, on driver Lando Norris’ and Oscar Piastri’s overalls including the pit crew, as well as across other McLaren official branded material.
A truly global sporting event with races held in 24 cities, Formula 1’s multi-market reach and impact are unrivalled. It has a global viewership of 1.5 billion annually1. Airwallex’s partnership with the McLaren Formula 1 team, a prominent and much-loved brand, aligns with its global ambitions to be the financial platform of choice for innovative businesses across the world.
