Online trading platform Pepperstone has recorded a 76 percent increase in trading volume since announcing its partnership with the Aston Martin Aramco Formula 1 team in January 2025, according to Group CEO Tamas Szabo.
Szabo, who joined Pepperstone in 2017 and subsequently acquired the business, shared the figure as part of an official feature published by Aston Martin F1, marking 18 months since the two organizations formalized their commercial relationship. While Szabo acknowledged the growth is not entirely attributable to the F1 partnership, he described the sponsorship’s overall impact as transformative.
“Since announcing our partnership in January 2025, we’ve seen a 76 per cent increase in volume,” Szabo said. “It’s not all attributed to F1, of course, but there are a lot of things that are going right. Beyond the numbers, I think it levels-up the business.”
The Pepperstone chief executive said the value of an F1 sponsorship extends well beyond logo placement on the car, estimating that branding accounts for only 20 to 30 percent of the partnership’s total worth. “Partnering with Aston Martin Aramco is a bigger, deeper proposition than you necessarily realise up front,” Szabo said. “The rest is all about the activation. There are so many facets to this that I didn’t appreciate 18 months ago. Without exaggeration, I’d say it’s transformative.”
Szabo explained that Pepperstone chose Formula 1 after conducting an in-depth analysis of which sports aligned with the company’s target demographic. After attending several grands prix, he concluded that the F1 audience’s appetite for risk and excitement closely matched Pepperstone’s customer base. “F1 is one of the fastest growing sports in the world and there’s only a handful of brands that can get onto an F1 car,” he said.
Beyond commercial metrics, Szabo pointed to the partnership’s effect on internal culture and external credibility. “We’re partnered with an F1 team, and that resonates internally. We don’t compromise on the way we operate, we’re not tolerant of mediocrity, and it is easier to understand what that means when you have a partnership like this,” he said. He added that the association builds trust with clients and communicates the scale and seriousness of the business to a wider audience.
Szabo also drew parallels between F1’s data-driven, performance-focused environment and the rapidly evolving financial services industry. He identified artificial intelligence and the convergence of traditional finance with decentralized finance as the two most significant forces reshaping his sector. “We’re at a crossroads in the financial world - and AI is the way forward,” Szabo said. “It is fundamentally going to change the way all businesses operate and I suspect the change is going to be more profound than many people expect.”