New F1 team name illegal in some countries

Alfa Romeo" becomes "Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber" - at least on most race weekends. This is because the new name of the long-established Sauber racing team contravenes gambling advertising laws in some countries. A temporary change of name is therefore already being prepared.

The Sauber team has been competing in Formula 1 since 1993, and in the 2024 season, the racing team based in Hinwil, Switzerland, will contest its 500th race in motorsport's premier class. Once again under a new name, as the previous title sponsor Alfa Romeo has withdrawn after five years. Instead, the traditional racing team will compete as "Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber". At least on most Grand Prix weekends. Various media reports suggest that the new name could otherwise cause trouble at some of the stops on the world tour.

Behind "Stake" is a provider of crypto gambling. This means that people gamble with cryptocurrency instead of real money - and such advertising is not permitted everywhere. The "PlanetF1.com" portal names eight host countries with various restrictions on gambling advertising in which the renaming has consequences: Bahrain, Brazil, China, Japan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates, in whose metropolis Abu Dhabi the season finale is scheduled. According to the report, Stake is even subject to a complete advertising ban in his home country of Australia.

And Stake has already had to get creative in the past. In the 2023 season, the crypto casino's logo was prominently displayed on the black Alfa Romeo rear wing, but on several weekends Stake suddenly became Kick. This is the name of the in-house streaming service that was then allowed to occupy the large space. The "Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger" reported that the racing team could compete in individual Grand Prix races as the "Kick F1 Team". Stake has already confirmed that it may compete under an adapted name. This is also likely to affect the official Formula 1 video game, as gambling advertising is also prohibited there.

Audi prepares for new vehicle generation in 2026

Incidentally, such adjustments are not new in Formula 1. McLaren, for example, advertises for a manufacturer of vaping products, which is prohibited in some countries. The ban on tobacco advertising in particular has led to creative solutions from the racing teams in recent years; Ferrari, for example, regularly put a kind of white barcode on the red car for this reason.

According to the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger newspaper, Stake has also been criticized for primarily offering digital slot machines with unclear probabilities of winning. Playing with cryptocurrency would also obscure the link to real amounts of money. Sauber wrote in the official announcement that the partnership "breaks with the conventional concepts of sports and entertainment sponsorship". Meanwhile, the driver pairing remains unchanged: Valtteri Bottas from Finland and Chinese driver Zhou Guanyu will be in the cars when the season kicks off in Jeddah on March 9.

Audi will take over the majority of the Sauber team by 2026 and will then compete as a works team in Formula 1. The engine will be built in Neuburg an der Donau, while the chassis will come from the Sauber team in Hinwil. Audi has long since acquired shares in the Swiss racing team, but is not planning the big change under Andreas Seidl, who was poached from McLaren, until the introduction of the next generation of vehicles in the 2026 season.