SEGA announces Sonic the Hedgehog and McLaren Racing partnership

Following the recent SpongeBob crossover, SEGA announced another new Sonic the Hedgehog collab, this time with McLaren Racing.

This is not the first time that SEGA has teamed up with F1. After all, Sonic himself has appeared on the grid before, or more accurately, on the podium. For those unfamiliar, the 1993 European Grand Prix featured a trophy with Sonic and the SEGA logo on it. While this isn’t the actual European GP trophy (as it was made for a photo-op essentially), it has still become an iconic picture, given that it featured legendary F1 driver, Ayrton Senna.

Now, Sonic is making an F1 comeback. Fittingly, his comeback is with Mclaren Racing. This partnership sees the iconic blue hedgehog become an official gaming partner of McLaren Racing Limited.

The partnership is part of the Sonic “Racing Around the World” campaign, which includes various events around the world, all culminating in the launch of Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds later this year.

As part of the partnership, SEGA will host an event called McLaren Racing Live, a fan event at London’s Trafalgar Square on July 2-3, 2025. While this is the only confirmed event of the partnership, we expect more activities and cross-promotion to come in the next few months.

We predict that McLaren will sport a Sonic the Hedgehog decal on its current championship-leading F1 car, possibly near the launch of Sonic Racing. If you ask us though, what we definitely want to see is the addition of McLaren’s F1 cars into Sonic Racing, complete with its two drivers. After all, it would be crazy to see Lando Norris and Ocsar Piastri race against Ichiban Kasuga, Hatsune Miku, and SpongeBob Squarepants. Fingers crossed that actually happens.