Mercedes removes sponsor FTX from car

Mercedes has severed its sponsorship deal with crypto exchange FTX as the trading platform faces major financial problems. A Mercedes spokesperson announced this to Motorsport.com. The team will race in Brazil for the first time without the sponsor's stickers.

FTX is currently in big trouble. The crypto-currency trading exchange is facing an eight-billion-euro deficit. As a fallback, the company was supposed to be taken over by rival Binance, also sponsor of Alpine, but it was announced on Wednesday night that this will not happen. The crisis at the trading platform has caused the entire crypto market to collapse and almost all crypto-currencies to plummet in value. FTX's chief executive is also under investigation by the US market watchdog SEC for illegal practices.

FTX became sponsor of Mercedes at the end of 2021

Mercedes entered into a multi-year sponsorship agreement with FTX last year. The platform's logo has adorned the rear wing of Mercedes cars all season and it was planned that the partnership would only expand further in coming seasons. "As a first step, we have suspended our partnership agreement with FTX," explains a Mercedes spokesperson. "This means the company will no longer appear on our race car and other branded assets from this weekend. We will continue to monitor closely the situation as it evolves."

In recent years, many crypto brands have started sponsorship deals with Formula 1. In the past week, for instance, Haas and Aston Martin both announced they had found a new sponsor in crypto-related companies. Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff previously defended the choice with: "You cannot close yourself down to modern technology."