Haas, the only American-owned Formula One team racing in the FIA World Championship, confirmed the alliance on Thursday. In a news statement published on its platform, Haas F1 stated: “As the ‘Official NFT Marketplace Partner’ of Haas F1 Team, Opensea will produce a series of branded NFTs in collaboration with the group and other partners.”
The program attempts to increase fan involvement, according to the racing team. “NFTs have the tremendous ability to unlock amazing adventures and provide us with a fabric to bring people together in novel methods around the objects they love,” said Shiva Rajaraman, vice president of products at Opensea.
The CEO noted that the cryptocurrency firm is looking forward to delivering creative collections with Haas F1 and offering their community of devoted fans with additional options to get near the action. As per the terms of the agreement, the Opensea emblem will also feature on the Haas F1 Team-designed and -built VF-22 vehicles that will participate in the 2022 Formula One World Championship.
Team Principal of Haas F1 Guenther Steiner commented, “We’ve sought to discover the ideal collaborator in the NFT area, and with Opensea we’ve got it.”
“To be steered by Opensea on our libraries and fan interaction prospects, we know we’ll be in excellent hands because they’re not only attached to all the prominent stakeholders, but they’re also a market leader with advancement at the top of the agenda of everything they do,” Steiner said, commenting on Haas F1’s first steps into the NFT space.
In recent years, partnership between the cryptocurrency business and the renowned racing sport has gained momentum. Formula One inked a multimillion-dollar cryptocurrency sponsorship contract with Crypto.com in the summer of last year, while Red Bull Racing teamed with cryptocurrency exchanges Bybit in early 2022. F1 submitted eight trademark applications encompassing a variety of cryptocurrency, NFT, and metaverse goods and services in the United States around the middle of October.