Ferrari To Race Under New Name After Signing Potentially Biggest Sponsor Deal In F1 History

Thursday, 25 April 2024 at 18:45

The team that we have known as Scuderia Ferrari during the first five races of the season will change its name starting from the 2024 Miami Grand Prix.

Scuderia Ferrari announced a new partnership with American technology giant Hewlett Packard (HP) this week. It has been revealed this is a "multi-year" deal, but details were not revealed.

As a result of this deal, we will see HP logos on both Ferrari uniforms and cars, but most importantly, the Italian team will now officially be called Scuderia Ferrari HP.

In fact, if you search for the Scuderia Ferrari team on any social media, their accounts should already be renamed to include the name of their new biggest sponsor.

How big is the deal between Ferrari and HP? As mentioned above, no details have been shared, but F1 journalist Will Buxton says the deal is worth around 2/3 (66%) of the budget cap per annum. He wrote on X:

"A huge deal for Ferrari, with my understanding that its financial value will cover 2/3 (66%) of the budget cap per annum, a massive partnership."

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The budget cap for the 2023 season was set at 135 million dollars. 2/3 of 135 is $90 million. Such a huge deal puts Ferrari and HP alongside and maybe even ahead of the biggest collaborations in the sport, like Red Bull-Oracle, McLaren-Google, Mercedes-Petronas, or Aston Martin-Aramco.

The exact amounts of all the deals are rarely disclosed, so it is generally challenging to estimate, but what is clear is that Ferrari signed one of the most valuable contracts in the sport.

Alongside the branding deal, Ferrari should also be supplied with HP's services, from computers to printers to other technology.

You might have heard Hewlett Packard in F1 before. The Mercedes F1 team is partnered with Hewlett Packard Enterprise, but this is a different company from Hewlett Packard-HP, which is consumer-oriented.

The two used to be together under one company but split to form two separate entities in 2015. Mercedes' Hewlett Packard Enterprise focuses on cloud and networking solutions. Ferrari's CEO Benedetto Vigna wrote in an official statement:

"Our founder passed on to us his continuous will to progress. From this stems our drive to innovate on the road and on the track, as well as our commitment to a sustainable future, from carbon neutrality to the education of the younger generation," said Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna."

"In HP we have found the same values, which make it an ideal partner. We look forward to starting our collaboration and facing new opportunities and challenges together."