- Velas dropped after just one year with Ferrari
- Qualcomm and Snapdragon also appear to have parted ways with the Italian team
The Ferrari Formula One team appear to have ended their partnership with blockchain technology Velas after the company was removed from the list of partners on the Italian team's website.
The partnership was only signed at the start of last season, with the apparent decision to drop the Swiss company representative of a broader shift in Formula One.
Red Bull and Tezos parted ways less than a year after they began their partnership, while Mercedes dropped FTX following the collapse of the crypto exchange.
While partnerships are ending, this doesn't quite appear to be the end of cypto sponsorship in Formula One, with Red Bull still partnered with Bybit in a US$150 million deal and Crypto.com backing the Miami Grand Prix on a nine-year naming rights deal.
The McLaren Racing and OKX partnership also appears to be solid, with the company's chief marketing officer Haider Rafique telling The BlackBook that “naturally [the crypto struggles] impacts the category reputation”, but that the blockchain technology is looking to consolidate its position in Formula One.
The first signs of trouble for Ferrari, however, appeared when it became apparent that the value of Velas' VLX token had plummeted in less than a year. The token was worth US$0.38 on the day the contract with Ferrari was signed, and is currently hovering at around US$0.018 to start 2023.
Multiple reports are also indicating that the team's partnership with Qualcomm has been terminated after just one year, with the software firm's Snapdragon solution also absent from Ferrari's list of partners.
Ferrari have also undergone significant managerial changes ahead of next season, with Frederic Vasseur replacing Mattia Binotto as team principal for 2023.