"The Sting Within Me" Goes Live: Alan Walker and STING Energy® Launch F1-Inspired Track at Barcelona-Catalunya GP
The high-energy collaborative track debuted live during the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix weekend.
STING Energy and Alan Walker have officially joined forces alongside Formula 1® to launch their new collaborative track, “The Sting Within Me.”
The global anthem inspired by the sounds of Formula 1® made its official live debut in front of thousands of fans during the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix weekend. The high-energy anthem directly translates the adrenaline, speed, and raw emotion of a motorsport race weekend into a contemporary electronic release for a new generation of global fans.
The track’s origin stems from a viral internet discovery popularized by legendary DJ Armin van Buuren, who noted that the roar of a Formula 1® engine explicitly mimics the sound of “stinggg.” For Alan Walker, a lifelong fan of racing and racing games, the phenomenon presented an ideal opportunity to fuse his personal passions for motorsport and energy drinks. To bring the concept to life, Walker worked closely with Sting Energy® and Formula 1® to gain access to a rich audio archive of real engine sounds and track recordings from circuits across the globe.
He then blended these visceral racing frequencies with his signature cinematic production style, integrating further creative insights gathered during an exchange with Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One team driver George Russell. “Formula 1® already sounds electronic to me,” said Alan Walker. “The engines have rhythm, the build-up, the atmosphere, the tension, everything has a rhythm. Once I heard the ‘STING’ connection, it was impossible to ignore. I wanted the track to hit with the same pressure as a race start. Going live with it in Barcelona made it even more surreal because you could feel that emotion among fans in real time.”
“Last year, fans realized that Formula 1® sounds like STINGGG, and the response showed us just how naturally racing, sound and culture could collide.” said Eugene Willemsen, Chief Executive Officer of International Beverages, PepsiCo. What started as a viral moment quickly evolved into something much bigger — Sting becoming the sound of Formula 1® for fans around the world. With “The Sting Within Me,” we pushed that idea further, turning the raw energy of Formula 1® into something fans can stream, share and experience beyond the circuit. This is about bringing Formula 1® into culture in a way that feels immediate, social and built for a new generation of fans.
Sting’s rise is one of PepsiCo’s most compelling growth stories – built not by chasing the energy drink category’s traditional playbook, but by rewriting it. Where competitors anchored themselves to elite performance and extreme moments, Sting went the other way, making energy accessible through strong taste, functional benefits and a price point that brought entirely new consumers into the category across high-growth markets. That democratization of energy is what drove scale, and what continues to drive relevance with younger consumers today.
This partnership with Formula 1® positions Sting Energy®, the Official Energy Drink of Formula 1® , at the center of youth culture by turning raw racing energy into a shareable digital experience. The project reflects the sport’s growing footprint across music, gaming, and lifestyle sectors as it expands to engage a broader Gen Z audience.
“The Sting Within Me” debuted live on June 13, 2026 and is available across all major digital streaming platforms.
