F1 News: AlphaTauri Loses Crypto Sponsors As Market Plummets

AlphaTauri removes Fantom and ICM.com from list of partners.

AlphaTauri has removed Fantom and ICM.com from its list of partners according to Decal Spotters on Twitter.

AlphaTauri have not made a formal statement at the moment, however, Decal Spotters posted to Twitter, writing:

"#SponsorWatch: @AlphaTauriF1 have removed Fantom and ICM.com from their list of partners heading into 2023."

#SponsorWatch: @AlphaTauriF1 have removed Fantom and https://t.co/thMIS7US5V from their list of partners heading into 2023.#F1 #AlphaTauri pic.twitter.com/uix1fvUfgj

— Decalspotters (@decalspotters) January 4, 2023

Fantom is a "highly scalable blockchain platform for DeFi, crypto dApps, and enterprise applications" according to its website, and ICM.com is an international online Foreign Exchange (FOREX) and CFD trading firm that operates globally. The latter initially joined AlphaTauri as a sponsor in 2021 and Fantom was a sponsor from just before the 2022 season, with both promising long relationships with the team. 

This comes after Ferrari removed Velas as a sponsor and Mercedes' official crypto partner, FTX, went bankrupt at the end of 2022. Cryptocurrency and blockchains have been substantially losing their value over the last twelve months. 

Although there are still a large amount of cryptocurrency sponsorships on the grid, the number is starting to fall dramatically. 

One Twitter user commented on Decal Spotters post pointing out that Fantom and ICM.com have the same founder and that they joined with Pierre Gasly as they were his personal sponsors beforehand. AlphaTauri dropping the two as sponsors coincides with Gasly leaving the team and moving to Alpine. The Twitter user wrote:

"This one is because Gasly is leaving and they were his personal sponsors, at least at first. In the beginning they were only on Gasly's helmet, after some time they were also on the car. Keep in mind, Fandom and ICM have the same founder."

This one is because Gasly is leaving and they were his personal sponsors, at least at first. In the beginning they were only on Gasly's helmet, after some time they were also on the car. Keep in mind, Fandom and ICM have the same founder.

— bettersebo¹⁰🏎 (@BetterSebo) January 4, 2023

This then raises further questions over whether they will become sponsors of Alpine. Another Twitter user wrote:

"They were partners related to Gasly. I expect them to be in his Alpine helmet comes 2023 testing."

Responding to this, someone else commented:

"Not sure they will, actually. Even if Alpine is fine with crypto, they already have Binance as a sponsor/ partner. Not sure if those two companies partner closely enough to both be team sponsors."

There do not seem to be any statements from Alpine at the moment as well as AlphaTauri.