Mercedes F1 team evaluating FTX sponsorship, branding stays for now

SAO PAULO (Reuters) – The Mercedes Formula One team said on Thursday they were keeping the branding of troubled cryptocurrency exchange FTX on their cars at this weekend’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix in Brazil while watching developments.

FTX, one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges, has been buffeted by a rush of customer withdrawals and is scrambling to raise about $9.4 billion from investors and rivals, a source said on Thursday.

Mercedes, then the reigning Formula One champions, signed a sponsorship deal with FTX in September, 2021.

A team spokesman said they were evaluating the situation and branding would be staying on the race cars of seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton and fellow-Briton George Russell for the time being.

The weekend’s race at Interlagos is the penultimate round of the season, which finishes in Abu Dhabi on Nov. 20.

(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Ed Osmond)