What Does the $500 Million Deal Made by the Rebranded Oracle Red Bull Racing Mean for F1?

On Wednesday, Red Bull Racing became only the second team after Haas to unveil their 2022 F1 challenger, the RB18. Of course, quite unsurprisingly, the fans were looking forward to a few major surprises in terms of the car’s body design. But, in the end, that is not what shocked the entire racing fraternity.

Instead, the surprise had everything to do with sponsorship. During the launch, Red Bull revealed that American tech giant Oracle would be their title sponsor for the 2022 season and beyond.

Why Red Bull and Oracle could be a great partnership

Oracle initially made its way into the Milton Keynes outfit in 2021 after signing a multi-year deal. And turns out, the Austin-based software company managed to play a crucial role in Max Verstappen‘s title victory.

According to Christian Horner, the Oracle Cloud Structure helped Red Bull strategize the Dutchman’s races in 2021 after having run 1000 different strategy simulations. “Oracle Cloud enabled us to make race day decisions that helped Max Verstappen win the 2021 drivers’ championship,” Horner said.

“Discovering and reacting to opportunities quickly is crucial to our success on and off the track, and Oracle is integral in that effort. Every element of our performance is driven by data analysis. Having Oracle as our title partner shows the confidence we have in their expertise and their ability to deliver a true competitive advantage.”

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Red Bull’s Oracle partnership terrific news for F1

Oracle’s participation in Formula One is a sign of more good news to come, according to Vincenzo Landino. He admitted that the sport will only grow bigger in the United States in the coming years and the fact that their partnership is worth almost $500 million bolsters the opinion.

“The Oracle sponsorship is huge. American tech firm as a title sponsor of a Formula 1 team shows how much the expansion into the America’s is working. If the deal is indeed $500million, 5-year deal ($100m annually) this puts it up there with the biggest football kit sponsors,” he wrote on Twitter.

Overall, in recent years, Oracle has managed to explore a vast area of cloud computing and their expertise could well play a much bigger role in Red Bull’s potentially glorious 2022 campaign. So, could this leave Mercedes in a spot of bother?

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