Red Bull’s Formula One team Red Bull Racing Honda has partnered with Tezos to develop a non-fungible tokens (NFTs) experience. Tezos became the Official Blockchain Partner and has its logo on the driver helmets and cars as part of the deal. Separately, the Aston Martin Cognizant F1 team also announced a blockchain deal.
Tezos has been gaining ground and recognition as an energy-efficient blockchain. Because it uses Proof of Stake rather than intense calculations to support Proof of Work, it uses less energy and hence has a negligible carbon footprint compared to other competitors such as the current version of Ethereum. These features, which are in line with Red Bull Racing Honda’s sustainable rhetoric and F1’s carbon neutrality objective, are why the Team chose to partner with Tezos.
“Designed to self-upgrade, Tezos’ ability to remain at the cutting edge of blockchain technology makes it a natural fit for Red Bull Racing Honda,” said Christian Horner, Red Bull Racing Honda Team Principal and CEO. “Crucially, its energy-efficient design also matches our own long-term future environmental ambitions.”
Formula 1 and Animoca have a blockchain game called F1 Delta Time. Last year, the game developer started auctioning NFTs for official team cars as collectibles. Like Dapper Labs’ NBA Top Shot, F1 Delta Time is licensed by Formula 1 instead of individual teams.
It is still unclear how Red Bulls’ deal with Tezos will interact with Animoca’s existing offerings. It seems that Red Bull’s aim is to build a fan engagement platform on blockchain around NFTs.
Aston Martin blockchain deal
Other F1 teams are signing fan token deals. Unlike NFTs, which are designed to be collectibles, fan tokens usually are more rewards-oriented, allowing access to votes and merchandise. They also are not unique or limited edition in the way that NFTs are, so they’re fungible. McLaren Racing led the way by signing with Turkish cryptocurrency exchange Bitci.com over two months ago, and today, Teams Aston Martin Cognizant and Romeo Racing Orlen announced a partnership with Chiliz to launch fan tokens on Socios.com
The teams join over 34 sporting properties that are on the network, including the current Premier League Winners Manchester City. Socios.com also recently welcomed NASCAR’s Roush Fenway Racing.
Last year, the Socios.com platform generated revenues of $150 million from fan tokens. Chiliz has a $50 million investment plan to make inroads into America’s top five sports leagues and increase its global outreach. Considering F1’s broadcast reach of almost two billion, the partnerships with Cognizant and Orlen could be a tremendous boost to Chiliz’s popularity and may assist the group in achieving its goal.
F1 teams are not all using the same platform for fan tokens since McLaren has signed the deal with Bitci. Socios.com might push to become more associated with F1 and sign more deals with teams. Additionally, Red Bull’s NFT deal with Tezos brings a whole new set of opportunities. Meanwhile, Animoca recently raised over $88 million at a billion-dollar evaluation.
