Aston Martin, Alfa Romeo to launch cryptocurrency F1 fan token
Aston Martin and Alfa Romeo have become the first Formula 1 teams to launch cryptocurrency fan tokens on the popular Socios platform.
The two F1 teams will join football clubs like FC Barcelona, Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain, Juventus and AC Milan in offering fan tokens through the Chiliz blockchain.
The fan tokens can be brought by fans, and offer their owners the chance to take part in voting decisions, earn VIP rewards or get involved in exclusive promotions. The tokens can also be traded on the crypto markets.
Aston Martin's commercial director Jefferson Slack said: "We're proud to be joining an exclusive roster of global sporting properties all working in partnership with Socios.com. This really gives us the best possible opportunity to give our fans a seat at the table and help us to tell our story in a new and exciting way."
Alfa Romeo team principal Fred Vasseur added: "The world of fan engagement in F1 is evolving and Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN is at the forefront of this exciting new realm.
"Launching a fan token is going to provide our growing legion of fans with a new way to interact with the team, which is a key aspect in our quest to bring our followers closer to the team with everything we do."
As well as offering fans a chance to integrate more with their favourite teams, the tokens offer a good revenue streams for those squads that sign up.
Teams get a percentage commission of each token sold, plus a share of trading fees that are generated from the buying and selling of the tokens on either big exchanges like Binance or with the Chiliz crypto platform.
Lance Stroll, Aston Martin AMR21
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
Socios and Chilz CEO Alexandre Dreyfus told Autosport earlier this year: "In 2020, as a company, we sold more than $30 million of tokens for all of our partners. And because more or less we were on a 50/50 basis, it means that the clubs generated more than $15 million in total.
"There are some clubs that got more than $5 million each, which, in the COVID-19 world, is very good fresh money, and very much welcome for them."
In total, fan tokens have generated more than $150 million in revenues for those teams and organisations involved.
Last week, Socios.com announced its first motor racing tie-up with NASCAR's Roush Fenway Racing.
Dreyfus believed the arrival of F1 fan tokens on the back of their growth in other sports, heralded a new digital era.
"In the next few years a generation of passive fans will shift into active fans," he said.
"That transition will take place through transactional fan engagement on our platform.
"The biggest global sporting organisations are joining us en masse. Socios.com and Fan Tokens are here to stay and will become essential tools in the digital transformation of the sports industry."
Wolff: F1 risks protests with "half-baked" flexi-wing tweak
Alpine already in talks with Ocon over new F1 contract
Top 10 Brabham drivers ranked: Piquet, Lauda, Gurney and more
Its 30 years since the Brabham team started its last world championship grand prix. Time to pick out the best drivers of the once-great Formula 1 squad.
Why F1 2022 tech isn’t all about porpoising and sidepods
Once fears over identikit Formula 1 cars were allayed by visibly different approaches to sidepods and floors, other novel design features have cropped up around the rest of the car.
Bottas feels greater "human effect" on F1 car performance at Alfa Romeo
Valtteri Bottas feels he is able to have a greater "human effect" on the performance of his Alfa Romeo Formula 1 car compared to what he found at Mercedes.
Norris: Long-term McLaren F1 deal allows for better work-life balance
Lando Norris believes his long-term Formula 1 deal with McLaren has allowed him to strike a better work-life balance and relax more away from racing.
The 10 stories to watch out for across the rest of the 2022 F1 season
It’s 13 down, nine to go as the Formula 1 teams pause for breath in the summer break. But what can we expect to happen over the next three months from Belgium to Abu Dhabi? Here's the key storylines to keep an eye out for the rest of the 2022 season
The inconvenient truth about F1’s ‘American driver’ dream
OPINION: The Formula 1 grid's wait for a new American driver looks set to continue into 2023 as the few remaining places up for grabs - most notably at McLaren - look set to go elsewhere. This is despite the Woking outfit giving tests to IndyCar aces recently, showing that the Stateside single-seater series still has some way to go to being seen as a viable feeder option for F1
How a bad car creates the ultimate engineering challenge
While creating a car that is woefully off the pace is a nightmare scenario for any team, it inadvertently generates the test any engineering department would relish: to turn it into a winner. As Mercedes takes on that challenge in Formula 1 this season, McLaren’s former head of vehicle engineering reveals how the team pulled of the feat in 2009 with Lewis Hamilton
The under-fire F1 driver fighting for his future
Personable, articulate and devoid of the usual racing driver airs and graces, Nicholas Latifi is the last Formula 1 driver you’d expect to receive death threats, but such was the toxic legacy of his part in last year’s explosive season finale. And now, as ALEX KALINAUCKAS explains, he faces a battle to keep his place on the F1 grid…
The strange tyre travails faced by F1’s past heroes
Modern grand prix drivers like to think the tyres they work with are unusually difficult and temperamental. But, says MAURICE HAMILTON, their predecessors faced many of the same challenges – and some even stranger…
The returning fan car revolution that could suit F1
Gordon Murray's Brabham BT46B 'fan car' was Formula 1 engineering at perhaps its most outlandish. Now fan technology has been successfully utilised on the McMurtry Speirling at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, could it be adopted by grand prix racing once again?
Hamilton's first experience of turning silver into gold
The seven-time Formula 1 world champion has been lumbered with a duff car before the 2022 Mercedes. Back in 2009, McLaren’s alchemists transformed the disastrous MP4-24 into a winning car with Lewis Hamilton at the wheel. And now it’s happening again at his current team, but can the rate of progress be matched this year?
Why few could blame Leclerc for following the example of Hamilton’s exit bombshell
OPINION: Ferrari's numerous strategy blunders, as well as some of his own mistakes, have cost Charles Leclerc dearly in the 2022 Formula 1 title battle in the first half of the season. Though he is locked into a deal with Ferrari, few could blame Leclerc if he ultimately wanted to look elsewhere - just as Lewis Hamilton did with McLaren 10 years prior