Mercedes suspend deal with crisis-hit sponsor

Mercedes has suspended its partnership with FTX due to the crypto-exchange company facing bankruptcy.

The decision has resulted in FTX branding being removed from the cars of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell ahead of FP1 at the São Paulo Grand Prix.

Despite FTX being one of the world's largest crypto exchanges, it is scrambling to raise billions of dollars in funds to stave off collapse while regulators have stepped in.

An investigation has been launched over the alleged misuse of customer deposits by the USA's Securities and Exchange Commission [SEC].

The company, which joined forces with Mercedes in 2021, was recently valued at $32billion but filed for bankruptcy on Friday morning in a federal court in Delaware.

FTX founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has resigned as a result of the crisis.

A Mercedes spokesperson said: "As a first step, we have suspended our partnership agreement with FTX.

"This means the company will no longer appear on our race car and other branded assets from this weekend. We will continue to monitor closely the situation as it evolves."

FTX logos appeared on the rear wing endplates and the nose of Mercedes' W13.

It had been hoped that rival company and Alpine sponsor Binance would succeed with a rescue bid, but this collapsed earlier this week.

On top of its Mercedes contract, FTX has agreed a $135million deal for the Miami Heat NBA stadium to be renamed the FTX Arena until 2040. The brand is also the official cryptocurrency of the National Baseball League.

All F1 teams currently have links to cryptocurrency companies, with Haas announcing MoneyGram as its new title sponsor during the United States Grand Prix weekend.

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