Scuderia Ferrari Ends Sponsorship Deals with Crypto Partners

The racing unit of Ferrari, Scuderia Ferrari, is the latest one to be joining the growing number of Formula One teams that have ringed down the curtain on any partnerships or ties with its cryptocurrency sponsors. 

A $55 million loss was incurred by Ferrari prior to the 2023 season as a result of the termination of its multi-year cooperation agreements with 2019 founded company, Velas Blockchain, which is currently the world’s fastest EVM Blockchain and Ecosystem for smart contracts and dApps, and the world’s largest chip manufacturer, Snapdragon. 

The Ferrari-Velas agreement, which was slated to start in 2021 and was planned to cost $30 million annually, aimed to boost fan involvement through nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and other joint projects. According to RacingNews365, the team violated the provisions allowing Velas to produce NFT data.

F1 Teams Ditching Crypto Partnerships

As FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November 2022, another carmaker company, Mercedes also suffered a loss of $15 million and ended its cooperation with the cryptocurrency exchange. 

Nonetheless, Mercedes stood by its sponsor and pledged to keep the FTX mark on its cars when the F1 team initially identified issues in November. In addition with Mercedes, The relationship between Red Bull Racing and Tezos Foundation also failed after the blockchain startup apparently opted not to renew the contract due to a lack of strategic alignment.

Meanwhile, as per the Toto Wolff, team principal and CEO of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team, the FTX demise will impact every F1 team out there. 

Due to the fact that all Formula 1 teams are somehow connected to the cryptocurrency industry, therefore, teams would be impacted. The Chief executive and Austrian tycoon remarked in an interview in December of last year that “every team has sponsors like that, and so does the Formula 1 organization as such. So everyone would be affected.”