Preliminary data analysis reveals that, when holding constant team performance and driver quality (operationalized by constructors points and past driver championships), sponsors at the title level pay a premium of $9.47 million (z = 2.86, p = .004), while sponsors with a high level of brand equity pay a premium of $4.61 million (z = 2.10, p = .036). Results indicate that sponsors in the oil/fuel category pay a premium of $7.01 million (z = 2.94, p = .003). Among other reasons, these results are particularly interesting in consideration of past F1 research that has indicated sponsors investing at high levels are most likely to realize ROI in the form of televised brand exposure (Jensen & Cobbs, 2014), but also more likely to incur negative reactions in stock returns upon announcements of the F1 sponsorship (Cobbs et al., 2012).