McLaren Racing, the incumbent Constructors Championship holders from motor racing’s elite Formula 1 (F1), has struck a new trading card partnership with Topps, the collectable brand of global merchandising giant Fanatics.
Through the multi-year deal, Topps will serve as the official trading card licensee of McLaren Racing, spanning F1 (McLaren Mastercard F1 team), IndyCar (Arrow McLaren), the World Endurance Championship (McLaren United AS), and Sim Racing.
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This partnership has launched today with a new collection featuring autograph cards from F1 World Drivers Champion Lando Norris, as well as components from 2020 and 2021 McLaren race cars.
Fanatics will retain the rights to utilize McLaren imagery, including driver and team assets, for collectables, including special items related to the double 2025 triumph.
This deepens Topps’ relationship with the motorsports industry, having also served as the official licensee of trading card and sticker collections for F1 since 2020, a deal that was renewed in March 2024.
It goes hand in hand with Fanatics’ strategy to dominate the sports collectables market, which has seen it look to crowd out rival Panini by adding top-tier sports properties to its portfolio.
Recently, it was reported that Topps is poised to snap up future trading card and sticker book licensing rights for four high-profile national soccer teams that had previously been partnered with Panini.
The Athletic publication reported that Topps will acquire rights for the men's and women's teams of Brazil in 2027, of England and Germany in 2031, and of Italy in 2035.
Fanatics and Panini are currently locked in a legal wrangle, which began after Fanatics secured licensing rights deals with both the NBA and NFL (in both cases, Panini was the ousted party). Panini then submitted claims of anticompetitive behavior and monopolization against its rival, in a case which continues to rumble on.
