The Abu Dhabi F1 Grand Prix was a festival of corporate sponsorship—and FTX's absence stood out

Mercedes' British driver Lewis Hamilton is pictured ahead of the the Abu Dhabi Formula One Grand Prix at the Yas Marina Circuit in the Emirati city of Abu Dhabi on November 20, 2022. (Credit: KARIM SAHIB—AFP/Getty Images)

Good morning.

I spent the weekend in Abu Dhabi attending my first F1 Grand Prix, which was a multi-sensory experience that I will not soon forget. It was also the only sporting event I’ve been to where the winner was roundly booed by the audience. (To understand why requires a deeper dive into F1 trivia than I have room to make here, but try this story for starters.)

The sport is particularly notable for its crazed commitment to branding. Every part of the car, and every corner of the driver’s corpus, was covered with corporate touts. The weekend’s big winner, Team Red Bull, was promoting, in addition to the eponymous super caffeinated drink: Oracle, Honda, Mobil, Esso, Citrix, Siemens, HPE, Tag Heuer, Zoom, Pirelli and Walmart—and that’s only a partial list! Also along for the ride: Bybit, the crypto trading platform, and Tezos, which is the team’s “blockchain partner.”