Revolut named official title partner of Audi F1 team
The fast-growing London-based fintech company was valued at $45bn (R804,836,250,000) last year through a secondary share sale to new and existing investors.
Swiss-based Sauber are becoming the factory Audi team in 2026, when Formula One starts a new engine era with major rule changes and an 11th team on the grid with the arrival of Cadillac.
Jonathan Wheatley, principal of the Audi team, said the deal had been put together in less than four months and had obvious benefits for the two sides.
"If you imagine we need to engage with our fans, we need a partner that's going to help us do that," Wheatley told Reuters in a video call.
"We need to expand hugely into the incredible global space Formula One is in at the moment, and we need to become the most attractive team in Formula One."
Wheatley said the deal reflected Audi's brand strength and was a "good news story for Formula One".
"It's the Audi magnet that's drawing a lot of people here right now," he said, speaking from the team headquarters in Hinwil, Switzerland.
Revolut has more than 55-million customers but no physical branches. It gained a banking licence in Britain in 2024, after a three-year wait, and has global expansion plans.
Antoine Le Nel, Revolut's chief marketing officer, gave no financial details of the F1 partnership but said the company was in for the long run with Audi and aiming for 100-million customers by 2027.
He said Revolut had been looking for a platform to help the company build on its expansion.
"I think we have a true opportunity to bring F1 to a huge audience," he told Reuters.
"From a retail perspective and a business perspective I think there's going to be a lot of opportunities for us to connect the fan base to the sport through the Revolut platform."
Le Nel said Audi taking on established teams in Formula One was like Revolut competing against traditional banks.
"If you look at Audi, a very premium German brand dominating its market, it's where we want to be," he said.
"It's a way for Revolut to elevate and get to where Audi has been for a long time."
Audi said Revolut Business would be extensively integrated into the team's financial operations.
Sauber are sixth in the 10 team championship ahead of this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix and have scored in their past five races.
German driver Nico Hulkenberg celebrated his first F1 podium at Silverstone this month, finishing third in the British Grand Prix in a major boost for the team.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The South African
21 minutes ago
- The South African
When will Springboks name team to face Wallabies?
After a couple of days off, the Springboks regrouped on Sunday to begin preparing for the back-to-back Test matches against the Wallabies in Johannesburg on Saturday 16 August and Cape Town on 23 August to start the Rugby Championship. There will be great excitement and anticipation for the first team announcement considering that it will provide some genuine insight into the thinking of Rassie Erasmus after plenty of experimenting with selection during the July internationals. Especially after seeing the Wallabies' competitive performances against the British & Irish Lions, Erasmus will surely be planning to bring a number of first-choice players and combinations into the mix for the first Test against Australia. It's expected that the first Springbok team of the Rugby Championship will be named on Tuesday, 12 August, with the exact time still to be confirmed. A recent training camp featured a series of gym and field training sessions, as well as boardroom sessions, and Erasmus said they will delve deeper into the opposition from this week. 'We have laid a good foundation, and next week we will zone more into what we expect from Australia and start developing plans to counter what we expect from them,' he said. 'They showed against the British & Irish Lions what they are capable of, so we need to be ready mentally and physically for what they will throw at us in South Africa.' The matches against Australia will be followed by successive Tests against the All Blacks in Auckland and Wellington (on 6 and 13 September) and Los Pumas in Durban and London (on 27 September and 4 October). 'We had an intense week of conditioning to get the players ready for what will undoubtedly be a challenging Rugby Championship campaign against some of the top teams in the world,' Erasmus added. 'So we are pleased with the strides made and the mind-shift the players made for what will be a completely different contest against Australia, New Zealand, and Argentina. 'We identified a few key areas of our game that we felt we needed to improve on after the Incoming Series, and we incorporated those areas into our training and conditioning blocks this week. 'The teams we will face in the next few months will ask different questions and pose different challenges, so it was important for the group to align on what to expect in the next few weeks, so this camp was vital in ensuring that we prepare adequately for what lies ahead.' Let us know by leaving a comment below, or send a WhatsApp to 060 011 0211. Subscribe to The South African website's newsletters and follow us on WhatsApp, Facebook, X and Bluesky for the latest news.
The Herald
40 minutes ago
- The Herald
Hamilton says he's 'useless' and Ferrari should replace him
A despondent Lewis Hamilton said he was 'useless' and suggested Ferrari needed another driver after qualifying 12th for the Hungarian Grand Prix with teammate Charles Leclerc on pole position. The seven-time Formula One world champion, who is 40 and the second oldest driver on the grid, has an unrivalled record in Hungary with eight wins and nine poles but Saturday's performance was far from those heights. 'It's me every time. I'm useless, absolutely useless,' he told Sky Sports television when explaining why he had said 'every time, every time' over the radio after failing to make the cut by 15 thousandths of a second. 'The team have no problem. You've seen the car's on pole. 'So we probably need to change driver.' Hamilton joined Ferrari from Mercedes in January and has yet to stand on the podium for Formula One's oldest, most glamorous and successful team though he did win the Shanghai sprint from pole in March. Leclerc has had five top three finishes in 13 races so far this season. Questioned later by F1 TV about his bleak assessment, Hamilton doubled down: 'I drove terribly. It is what it is,' he said. The Briton has not won a grand prix for more than a year now and his podium drought — a run of 15 races — is the longest of a record-breaking career that started spectacularly in 2007. He is 30 points behind Leclerc in the standings and has beaten the Monegasque only twice in 13 grand prix starts. In qualifying, Hamilton's big weak spot of late despite 104 career poles, Leclerc leads 10-4. Hamilton had recognised earlier in the week the challenge he has faced at Maranello and said he needed to get away and recharge during the August break and there were sure to be 'some tears at some point'. 'The last god knows how many seasons have been hard in their own way,' added the winner of a record 105 races from 369 starts. 'This one has definitely been the most intense one, I would say, just from a work perspective,' he told reporters. 'Integrating into a new culture and into a new team. It's not gone smoothly in all areas, and it's been a real battle.'
TimesLIVE
an hour ago
- TimesLIVE
Norris cuts into Piastri's lead with victory in Hungary
Lando Norris held off McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri to win the Hungarian Grand Prix and slash the Australian's Formula One lead to nine points after completing more than half the race on a single set of hard tyres. Australian Piastri made two stops to Norris's one and finished a mere 0.6 of a second behind the Briton while George Russell took a distant third to complete the podium for Mercedes. The race at the Hungaroring outside Budapest was the last before Formula One's August break.
