Components 1 has two new group names this season, which observe a pattern within the sport to concentrate on advertising: Visa Money App RB Components One Workforce and Stake F1 Workforce Kick Sauber.
Sauber Motorsport has been racing since 1993 underneath numerous names, most just lately as Alfa Romeo. For this season and subsequent it can take the Stake title, with Audi taking on in 2026.
“Earlier than Audi’s arrival, we felt it was essential to current ourselves with this new identification and to have a business partnership in place,” stated Alessandro Alunni Bravi, the Stake group consultant. “The Sauber Group has been in Components 1 for 32 years, however this doesn’t imply we’ve got forgotten what Sauber is. It signifies that for the following two seasons we needed to current ourselves as one thing new, recent, completely different to assist us appeal to a brand new viewers.”
AlphaTauri, which entered Components 1 in 2006 as Toro Rosso, is getting the Visa Money App title.
“The top of sponsorship at Visa, Andrea Fairchild, stated that it’s a little bit of a mouthful,” Peter Bayer, the group’s chief government, stated. “The truth is that we stated from the outset final yr that we might transfer nearer to the Crimson Bull household.”
The RB stands for Racing Bulls, a reference to the aircraft assortment, generally known as Flying Bulls, that belonged to the group’s founder, Dietrich Mateschitz.
“It suits properly,” Bayer stated. “However then we had an awesome downside as a result of we had Visa, one of many largest manufacturers on the planet, and Money App, some of the spectacular manufacturers within the monetary world, particularly within the U.S., each desirous to companion with us.
“We have been like, ‘Properly, we might be Visa Money App RB Components One Workforce.’ I don’t hear lots of people calling Aston Martin, Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Components 1 group, and I don’t hear folks speaking about MoneyGram Haas Components 1 group, so we simply need to be sensible and concentrate on the content material, and that could be a actually lovely and quick automotive.”
Drake, a Canadian rap artist, did the voice-over on the social media video saying the Sauber title change.
For 20 of the record-breaking 24 Grands Prix this yr, will probably be generally known as Stake F1 Workforce. For the opposite 4, in Australia, Spain, Belgium and Qatar, it can revert to Kick Sauber.
The change is to adjust to the legal guidelines on playing promoting in these 4 nations as a result of Stake is a web-based cryptocurrency on line casino. Its house owners are additionally answerable for Kick, a livestreaming platform.
“We might be absolutely compliant with all of the native relevant legal guidelines the place Stake is permitted,” Alunni Bravi stated. “So the place playing promoting is prohibited, we’ll use a distinct title.
“Our automotive launch was streamed reside on Kick.com, our chassis title is Kick Sauber, so the place we is not going to be racing as Stake, we’ll use the second group title.”
The names of each groups have been criticized, with some followers taking to social media. “Stake F1 Workforce Kick Sauber is likely to be the worst title for a group in F1 historical past,” a fan wrote on X, previously generally known as Twitter.
“While you strive one thing new, and when you’ve gotten a group title that’s completely different from different group names, it’s at all times straightforward to be important,” Alunni Bravi stated. “After all, there was criticism from these near the Sauber title, and perhaps they anticipated one thing completely different.
“Perhaps we went too excessive, however we needed to do one thing new and enticing for our fan base. When Drake introduced our title, we had 22 million impressions, a quantity we by no means achieved with a single publish on our social media platforms. It was enormous.”
For Bayer, touchdown Visa was as massive a coup. “You see the expansion price of F1 in the USA, a rustic that could be a enormous marketplace for sports activities advertising, and Visa is an incredible model,” he stated.
“They do Tremendous Bowl, Olympic Video games, FIFA World Cup and now a Components 1 group, which is an honor for us and an enormous alternative. They’ll convey so many recent concepts.”
Kendrick Lamar, the American rapper, carried out on the group’s introduction in Las Vegas earlier this month. “We’re mixing sport with leisure, bringing in new followers, activating new fan teams with a brand new means of speaking,” Bayer stated. “It’s an incredible alternative for Components 1.”
