One of the viral content highlights of 2025, Red Bull’s film for Ford featuring Max Verstappen and Chris Harris, has taken home the prestigious Brand Partnership Award at the 38th Autosport Awards.
The 38-minute edit, which has so far garnered almost eight million views on YouTube and attracted over 9000 comments, came out on top in a packed field of entries, the largest so far submitted for the award.
The film features Harris and Verstappen on location driving a range of Ford Performance cars past and present. Harris gets Verstappen to open up about his approach to driving and the Dutchman reveals many interesting character details and techniques in a natural and engaging way.
The panel of independent expert judges was unanimous in its view that the film was a flawless example of excellence in brand partnership storytelling. They liked the authenticity and warmth of the rapport between the four-time world champion and the motoring presenter, the way it achieved Ford’s objectives and hit the target audience.
They noted that it was impressive how Red Bull managed to establish a link between Verstappen and Ford even though the official on track partnership will only begin this season. The award was collected by Ben Harris, senior manager for creative projects at Red Bull.
The judges also highly commended the Santander UK Open Academy project, with F1, featuring former world champion Jenson Button, which achieved strong engagement results.
Other shortlisted nominees were the Jack Whitehall film series by Marriott Bonvoy with Mercedes F1 team, the Elemis campaign with Aston Martin F1 team and an unusual Shell and IBM collaboration on an AI fan activation with Ferrari.
The judging panel included Channel 4 F1 commentator Alex Jacques, Financial Times writer Sam Agini, sponsorship expert Matthew Marsh and Kate Beavan, former F1 Director of Hospitality and Experiences.
Other awards decided by expert judging panels include the Pioneering and Innovation Award and Promoter of the Year.
Categories decided by fan voting include Driver of the Year, Rookie of the Year, Moment of the Year presented by Bahrain International Circuit, Competition Car of the Year, Rally Driver of the Year and British Competition Driver of the Year. Two new awards for 2025 are Team of the Year and Creator of the Year.
To find out who our other award winners are, go to autosport.com/awards
