After the new title sponsor Oracle was announced at the presentation of the RB18, the announcement of another major sponsor in crypto platform Bybit followed a week later. Both deals involve tens of millions per year. Who are these companies?

Red Bull gets 650 million dollars in sponsorship

Max Verstappen 's team has its affairs in good financial shape for the coming years. The deal with Oracle is said to bring in 500 million dollars over five years, the sponsorship by Bybit would involve 150 million dollars over three years. The deals will thus collectively provide Red Bull Racing with some 570 million euros.

Biggest crypto-sponsorship deal ever

The sponsorship deal between Red Bull and Bybit is the largest ever sponsorship deal by a crypto platform to date. The company was only founded in March 2018, but has since grown into one of the largest trading platforms for cryptocurrencies. The company aims to be the most trusted exchange for digital assets.

Formula One is not the first sport in which Bybit can be found as a sponsor. The Singapore-based company previously struck a sponsorship deal with German soccer club Borussia Dortmund. Red Bull Racing itself is no stranger to crypto platforms. The team already had a deal with FuturoCoin in 2019. At the time, Red Bull was the first Formula 1 team to partner with a crypto platform. Meanwhile, Formula 1 is very familiar with such companies and Crypto.com is even one of the official sponsors of Formula 1.

Oracle as title sponsor Red Bull

American software company Oracle entered Formula 1 as a sponsor of Red Bull Racing in 2021. The company was founded in 1977 under the name Software Development Laboratories (SDL) and has been operating as Oracle Corporation since 1995. Last year Red Bull entered into a partnership with Oracle in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) in order to arrive at the best racing strategies, for example.

How this all worked out exactly, Red Bull would not disclose at the time, but the team was clearly happy with the collaboration. At the presentation of the RB18, in which Max Verstappen will try to prolong his title, Oracle was announced as the title sponsor.

Sponsorship not only in cash

The mega sums of money that are now flying around our ears when sponsorship deals are announced do not necessarily mean that these sums will also end up in Red Bull's bank account and that the budget ceiling of $140 million is already covered by these two deals from Red Bull, as analyzes The Race. Indeed, the sponsorship deals will largely consist of services provided by the companies in question.

The deal with Oracle in particular will be largely about services and not necessarily a cash injection for the team. In this way, teams like Red Bull can save a lot of costs that can be spent on other things within the budget ceiling. In this way, teams already seem to be creatively dealing with the budget ceiling that will continue to drop in the coming years.