McLaren Racing has formally joined the Hedera Council, taking a seat among the enterprise blockchain network’s governance members as the storied F1 and IndyCar team pushes deeper into Web3.
The Surrey, UK-based outfit — which the announcement says has won the last two F1 team championships and “last year’s driver title with Lando Norris” — will help shape Hedera’s software and services governance, participate actively in the network and hold equal voting power alongside other council members.
“McLaren Racing is built on performance and innovation, and that extends to how we engage our fans,” McLaren Racing Co‑Chief Commercial Officer Nick Martin said. “Joining Hedera Council enables us to help shape the Hedera network’s evolution, while delivering a seamless, secure, and scalable fan experience worldwide.”
Web3 fan engagement already underway
McLaren has begun experimenting with fan-facing blockchain products on Hedera, launching free-to-mint digital collectibles featuring race- and location-specific creative elements. Drops have coincided with the Australian and Chinese Grands Prix, with a third scheduled during the upcoming Japanese GP weekend. The collectibles support both native Hedera wallets and Web2 social sign‑on wallets, a design intended to onboard motorsport fans who are new to Web3 while also offering fresh content to existing Hedera community members.
Beyond collectibles, McLaren’s leadership is slated to appear at HederaCon on May 4 in Miami Beach — an event timed to sit alongside the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix — signaling a broader, ongoing partnership between the racing team and the network.
What joining Hedera’s Council means
Hedera is governed by a rotating council of 39 organizations spanning finance, energy, legal, technology and academia; no single member holds more voting power than another. McLaren joins a roster that has recently grown to include shipping giant FedEx and long-standing enterprise names such as Google, IBM, Dell Technologies, LG, Deutsche Telekom and video-game publisher Ubisoft.
Market note
Hedera’s native token HBAR has ticked up in response to the news, trading around $0.094 on CoinGecko — roughly a 2% intraday rise — though it remains about 83% below its 2021 peak of $0.569.
Why it matters
For Hedera, adding a high-profile sports brand like McLaren broadens mainstream visibility and gives the network a consumer-facing use case tied to real-world events. For McLaren, council membership provides a governance role and technical foothold to scale secure, user-friendly blockchain experiences for a global fan base.
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