Red Bull title sponsor Oracle had no influence on the team’s decision to turn down a deal with an AI firm ahead of the F1 2025 season, PlanetF1.com understands.

Red Bull secured one of the most lucrative sponsorship deals in F1 history when technology giants Oracle came on board in a five-year deal, reported to be worth $100million per season, ahead of the 2022 campaign.

PF1 sources: Oracle had no influence on Red Bull sponsor decision

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

The deal saw the Milton Keynes-based outfit rebranded, with the team competing as Oracle Red Bull Racing over recent years.

A media report on Tuesday claimed that Red Bull agreed terms on a $5million-per-year sponsorship with AI-powered search engine Perplexity ahead of the F1 2025 season before Oracle moved to “block” the deal.

PlanetF1.com understands that the claims are wide of the mark, with Oracle having no say on the team’s choice of sponsors and the decision purely a Red Bull one.

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It is believed that Oracle expressed concerns to Red Bull over a potential deal with Perplexity given the firm’s own future plans with AI, with the proposed arrival of Perplexity running the risk of a conflict of interest.

Suggestions that Oracle’s opposition to a link up between Red Bull and Perplexity was driven by their status as rival bidders for video-sharing platform TikTok, as well as Oracle’s support of Perplexity competitor Stargate, are understood to be completely false.

Red Bull recently welcomed two new sponsors ahead of the new season, with the team confirming a multi-year partnership with cybersecurity company 1Password on Wednesday.

PlanetF1.com understands that Red Bull saw off competition from a number of rival teams to land a deal with 1Password, whose branding will appear on the steering wheel screen of the new RB21 car in F1 2025.

The arrival of 1Password came after Red Bull announced the arrival of Gate.io as the team’s new crytocurrency partner following the departure of previous sponsor Bybit at the end of 2024.

Red Bull described the deal with Gate.io as ‘major milestone in uniting two industry leaders, both recognised for their relentless pursuit of performance, innovation, and cutting-edge technology—on the racetrack and in the digital economy.’

Gate.io branding will feature prominently on the front wing, rear wing and headrest of the RB21, as well as the overalls and team kit of drivers Max Verstappen and Liam Lawson.

In an unusual development, Gate.io logos will feature only on the crash helmet of Verstappen and not new team-mate Lawson, who was confirmed as Sergio Perez’s replacement in December.

It is believed that this is because the deal between Red Bull and Gate.io was concluded before the team had revealed the identity of Verstappen’s team-mate for F1 2025, with the helmet of the second driver not included in the arrangement.

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As reported by PlanetF1.com last month, Red Bull’s three-year deal with Bybit reached a natural conclusion at the end of 2024.

The two parties had been in talks over an extension for F1 2025 and beyond, having originally linked up at the start of 2022.

However, faced with an uncertain cryptocurrency market in light of the 2024 United States presidential election, Bybit decided against continuing its involvement with F1 at such a high level.

PlanetF1.com revealed on January 29 that the RB21 will make its on-track debut in a brief shakedown test in Bahrain on February 25, 24 hours before the start of F1’s official pre-season test in Sakhir.

Red bull have traditionally staged a shakedown at Silverstone, the home of F1’s British Grand Prix, before the start of formal pre-season running.

However, the unique winter schedule for F1 2025, including the sport’s first-ever season-launch event, set to be held at London’s O2 Arena on February 18, has forced Red Bull to move the shakedown run to the Bahrain Grand Prix venue.

Three days of testing will be held in Bahrain across February 26-28 ahead of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on March 16.

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