McLaren Racing & Iron Mountain: Why forward-looking brands are re-examining the role of partnership

Blogs and Articles

Learn how Iron Mountain and the McLaren Formula 1 Team are using heritage, innovation, and strategic partnerships to engage audiences, drive growth, and future-proof their brands.

December 2, 20257 mins

McLaren F1 racer with Iron Mountain branding on the halo

Today’s most resilient brands are rethinking how they grow, not by adding more channels or chasing the next trend, but by strengthening the relationships that help them evolve. As expectations shift and technology reshapes every corner of business, partnership is becoming less about visibility and more about capability. It’s a strategic advantage for organizations navigating transformation and accelerated change.

On the heels of Iron Mountain’s announcement that it was named an Official Partner of the McLaren Formula 1 Team, Karen Feldman, CMO at Iron Mountain, sat down with Lou McEwen, CMO at McLaren Racing, for a candid look at what it really takes to build a brand prepared for the next era.

Both leaders operate at the intersection of legacy and reinvention. Iron Mountain is approaching 75 years helping organizations protect, connect, and activate the data that defines them. McLaren has been racing for 62 years and is the second-longest-running team in Formula 1.

Yet neither organization thrives by looking backward.

Both succeed because they treat legacy as fuel for transformation.

Legacy as a strategic asset

When McEwen arrived at McLaren Racing eight years ago, the brand was “right at the back of the grid.” Reinvention was necessary. But instead of distancing the brand from its past, McEwen and her team leaned into it.

They discovered something powerful. Fans, especially new ones, cared deeply about heritage and provenance. “We suddenly had this treasure trove… amazing stories that people were fascinated in, young fans and old fans.” Heritage was not nostalgia; it was a differentiator. It helped democratize a brand that had once felt closed off and gave new fans something deeper to connect to.

Feldman added that Iron Mountain sees the same opportunity for B2B brands. Decades of knowledge, content, product history, and institutional memory often sit unused or inaccessible. The challenge—and the opportunity—is finding what has value, surfacing it, and giving it new relevance. Doing so can spark engagement and create strategic advantage in ways that marketing alone cannot.

Partnerships help unlock this advantage, not as a way to borrow attention but as a way to access expertise, technology, and storytelling capabilities that would be difficult to build alone.

The journey of reinvention:

Consistency matters more when performance fluctuates

McEwen spoke candidly about the volatility of sport. “Performance will come and go… someone else will win.” The only way to maintain relevance through those cycles is to build a brand sturdy enough to withstand them.

B2B leaders know this well. Economic cycles shift. Markets evolve. Customer expectations change. What carries a company through is not one moment of performance. It is clarity of purpose, consistency in experience, and the discipline to keep building through the ups and downs.

That mindset directly influences how McLaren Racing selects its partners. They look for organizations that share their appetite for reinvention and their focus on long-term value. The modern partnership is not “just a logo on a car.” It is deeper storytelling, applied technology, and shared ambition.

Performance will come and go… someone else will win. The brand has to be strong enough to maintain relevance through those cycles.

Lou McEwenCMO, McLaren Racing

Partnerships as an engine for reinvention

Both CMOs emphasized that partnerships today must do more than amplify awareness. They must accelerate capability. They must help brands move faster, experiment with confidence, and unlock new ways to tell stories that resonate.

For McLaren Racing, that increasingly means activating decades of heritage content, including blueprints, film, interviews, and photography, to fuel new fan experiences. As Feldman put it, “The challenge is… which of those assets actually have value for you? How do we find that hidden value?” It is a question nearly every enterprise faces.

The broader takeaway is clear. Strategic partnerships can surface parts of your organization that you have not been able to access, helping you compete at the speed the market now demands.

Uncovering hidden heritage:

Related: Iron Mountain fuels a legacy

Meeting audiences where they are, not where they used to be

One of the most universal themes was the complexity of today’s audiences. McLaren Racing’s fan base spans individuals who have followed the team for sixty years and those who have discovered the sport through streaming content in the past few months. They consume differently. They expect different levels of access and different paces of engagement.

This is the new normal for every brand. Customers and stakeholders are fragmented across platforms, generations, and behaviors. They will not all come to you, and they will not all want the same thing.

McEwen’s focus is on serving both ends of that spectrum. “We are having to put more content out than ever before… but doing it in a way that will resonate with those fans.” The team uses data thoughtfully, experiments continuously, and looks for ways to bring experiences to people who may never visit a track.

For B2B brands, the mandate is similar. Stay close to your audience. Understand what resonates. Be willing to show up in new ways, often with partners who help you stretch into those spaces.

Understanding diverse audiences, creating immersive experiences, and surfacing relevant content is critical. The brands that succeed are the ones that can meet people where they are, not where they used to be.

Karen FeldmanCMO, Iron Mountain

The takeaway: Competitive brands don’t stand still

For leaders navigating cycles of growth, reinvention, and uncertainty, the message is clear. You do not stay competitive by holding tight to what you have always done. And you do not transform by starting from zero. You do it by understanding where you have come from, staying close to your audience, investing in consistency, and building partnerships that expand what you are capable of.

As McEwen said, “We will never be standing still.” In a world where speed and resilience matter more than ever, neither should any brand intent on staying ahead.

Visit our partnership page to learn more about how—together—we’re elevating the value of McLaren Racing’s rich heritage like never before.