Toto Wolff admits that the collapse of crypto currency exchange FTX has left Mercedes in "disbelief".

The company, founded by Sam Bankman-Fried in 2019, and a partner of the German team, collapsed last week and despite initial hesitation all branding was subsequently removed from the cars.

The Mercedes partnership is one of several that FTX entered into, the Bahamas based company having naming rights to Miami Heat’s basketball stadium, title sponsorships of the first season of MLB Home Run Derby X, title sponsorship of the tournaments FTX Road to Miami and FTX Crypto Cup as part of the Champions Chess Tour 2022 and a partnership with Major League Baseball to place the FTX logo on the uniforms of umpires.

While Bankman-Fried is under investigation for allegedly investing depositors' funds in ventures without their approval, Wolff insists that he still believes in crypto currency.

"This situation is very unfortunate," he said. "We considered FTX because they were one of the most credible and solid, financially sound partners that were out there.

"Then, out of nowhere we can see that a crypto company can basically be on its knees and gone in one week. That shows how vulnerable the sector still is.

"It's unregulated and I believe it needs to find its way into regulations because there's so many customers, investors and partners like us that have been left in utter disbelief at what has happened," he admitted.

While fellow crypto currency exchange Binance is a partner of Alpine, Singapore-based Crypto.com is a sponsor of Aston Martin and also title sponsor of the Miami Grand Prix.

Of course, some of us were sceptical from the outset.

Check out our Thursday gallery from Yas Marina here.

LATEST NEWS

more news >

LATEST IMAGES

galleries >

Click to go to the main galleries section

READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Max Noble, 18/11/2022 9:22

"New meaning of “Disbelief” required here… Oh hang on. This is from the team that “knew” RB was cheating and had 100% faith they were clean… I guess they worked on the mis-belief their sponsor had the same business capability, and quality of accountants that MB command.

Quite why Toto then goes on to say “Crypto has a great future” is currently beyond me - but I’m guessing he must be personally invested in it at some level.

Giant Ponzi scheme if ever there was one.

… If any PitPass reader wants a limited edition of my email signature as a NFT please let me know… I’m happy to release “limited edition” numbers for only $500US each - sure to be collectable… Each one guaranteed unique… no, really, honest… No electron will be reused in the generation of each signature…
"

Rating: Positive (4) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

2. Posted by Mad Matt, 17/11/2022 17:07

"Hardly 'out of nowhere', it was always obvious that things could go wrong very quickly."

Rating: Positive (3) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

3. Posted by hussainahm, 17/11/2022 15:38

"You forgot to add OKX sponsors McLaren."

Rating: Positive (3) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

4. Posted by elsiebc, 17/11/2022 15:19

"Calling for crypto regulations, Toto? Then you're just another pawn in the FTX debacle. Do the research, follow the money. But be careful. Once you see all the facts you'll be called a "conspiracy theorist", and even the Domenicali Police won't protect you from that!"

Rating: Positive (2) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

5. Posted by BrightonCorgi, 17/11/2022 13:50

"F1 is so crypto sponsor crazy. Like tobacco sponsors of decades ago."

Rating: Positive (5) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

FTX collapse left Mercedes in disbelief

LATEST NEWS

RELATED ARTICLES

LATEST IMAGES

POST A COMMENT

Post your comment

READERS COMMENTS

Share this page