It won’t have escaped your notice: Formula 1 erupts at Zandvoort this weekend. What does that have to do with Crypto? Our specialist Robert Kroes will gladly explain it to you!
Formula 1 is in Zandvoort this week for the Dutch GP. With the drivers, there are also many sponsors driving in the Formula 1 race. For us a great opportunity to map out which crypto initiatives Max Verstappen and colleagues are sponsoring. Did you know that 8 out of 10 F1 teams have crypto sponsors?
Crypto and Red Bull: (Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez)
As we know, Max Verstappen is at the top of the F1 standings. His team Red Bull has several crypto sponsors. For example, the team has signed a three-year deal with crypto exchange Bybit. It also has a partnership with Tezos (XTZ) to develop NFTs. In addition, there is a deal with Cash App, where Max Verstappen teaches crypto lessons. You can see one of the lessons below.
Ferrari: Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr.
Behind Red Bull’s drivers, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz jr. occupy the 3rd and 4th spots in the F1 ranking so far. They obviously drive for Ferrari’s team and that means they are backed by blockchain company Velas.com
This is the crypto sponsor of George Russell and Louis Hamilton (Mercedes)
Another crypto player is team partner at Mercedes. By bringing in crypto exchange FTX, Mercedes joined the crypto hype in F1.
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The Race Collection x #SpanishGP
Our newest NFT Ticket Stub with @FTX_Official is ready for you to collect!
– Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) May 20, 2022
Meanwhile, the team is also a co-founder of the Aura Blockchain consortium. With other partners such as Prada Group and Cartier, it focuses on bringing digital art and NFTs of luxury brands into the market.
McLaren (Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo) also racing with crypto
In addition to Max Verstappen’s Red Bull team, McLaren’s racing stable has also partnered with Tezos (XTZ). Furthermore, crypto exchange OKX has been a partner of this Formula 1 team since March 2022.
Alpine (Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso) has crypto sponsor and own fan token
The racing team of Alpine is also participating in the crypto hype. In February of this year, they announced that they entered into a sponsorship deal with the largest crypto exchange in the world, Binance. Through the partnership they also developed a Fan Token, the $ALPINE and a collection of NFTs.
Alfa Romeo (Valtteri Bottas and Guanyu Zhou) has crypto currency as sponsor
Alfa Romeo chooses another party as its crypto sponsor. At this racing stable, meme-coin Floki has been getting on board since this year.
Aston Martin (Sebastian Vettel, Nico Hülkenberg and Lance Stroll) races with crypto exchange
In addition to the many sponsors who joined this year, there are of course crypto initiatives that have been associated with the premier class of motor racing for some time. For example, crypto exchange crypto.com has been a Global Partner of Aston Martin since last season.
AlphaTauri (Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda) are haunted
Finally of the F1 racing teams with cryptosponsors, we see AlphaTauri performing fairly hauntingly this season. This ties in nicely with the name of their cryptosponsor, DeFi platform Fantom, but does not seem to be the intention.
Incidentally, despite the accretion of many crypto companies as F1 stable sponsors, there are still possibilities as the teams Haas (Kevin Magnussen + Mick Schumacher) and Williams (Alexander Albon and Nicholas Latifi) have not yet announced a crypto sponsor.
It has also recently become possible to partner with the Formula 1 organization itself for your crypto initiatives. For now, we hope for a nice race during the DutchGP at Zandvoort and of course a victory for Max Verstappen!
Have fun!