blockworks.co
Another crypto company is moving into the Formula 1 arena.
Web3 infrastructure firm Mysten Labs is linking up with Oracle Red Bull Racing — a team featuring drivers Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez that has had six wins in six 2023 races.
The company declined to disclose the terms of the deal.
Led by former Facebook employees, Mysten Labs introduced layer-1 platform Sui last year. The blockchain’s mainnet went live on May 3, 2023.
There will be Sui branding on the Red Bull cars, as well as placement on driver and pit crew jackets, during the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona on June 4.
The Formula 1 team is also set to participate directly in the network via a Red Bull Racing-branded validator that will allow fans to delegate staked tokens to support their favorite team.
Adeniyi Abiodun, Mysten Labs’ co-founder and chief product officer, told Blockworks that working with the racing organization allows the company to introduce Web3 technology capabilities to an entirely new audience.
“Oracle Red Bull Racing, with its global fanbase, offers an excellent use case for the kind of community engagement that our decentralized technology allows,” he added.
More initiatives stemming from the partnership are set to be announced in the coming weeks.
“The Sui Network and the team behind it are the best possible partners to help Red Bull use the latest peer-to-peer technologies to build a deeper, more fulfilling connection with the supporters of our racing team,” Red Bull Racing Team Chief Christian Horner said in a statement.
The new partnership comes after a new NFT ticketing system debuted around last weekend’s Monaco Formula One Grand Prix — the latest example of the crypto and racing worlds colliding.
Crypto.com became the first crypto sponsor of Formula One in 2021 as part of a reported $100 million deal and became a title partner of Formula One’s Miami Grand Prix race in February 2022.
Crypto exchange OKX revealed a partnership with McLaren Racing in May 2022 as part of a multi-year deal worth “hundreds of millions,” a spokesperson told Blockworks at the time.