By Alan Baldwin
LONDON (Reuters) – The Sauber-run Stake Formula One team will race under two names this season to comply with gambling restrictions in some countries.
‘Unleashing’ their new livery at the historic Guildhall in London’s financial district, team representative Alessandro Alunni Bravi said the identity would be changed for certain races.
The Swiss-based team competed as Alfa Romeo last season but the departure of the Stellantis brand has led to a renaming as F1 Team Stake for 2024 and 2025 before they become the Audi factory team in 2026.
“Already last year we had two different team names — Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake in certain countries and Alfa Romeo F1 Team Kick,” said Alunni Bravi.
“We will have also this year two different team names according to the different countries where we are going to race in order to comply with applicable local laws.
“Where Stake is prohibited because there are restrictions on gambling advertising, we will use Kick within in our team name,” he added.
The team’s formal chassis name is Kick Sauber but Alunni Bravi said the formal second name would be presented soon.
Crypto casino operator Stake is an online betting, entertainment and lifestyle brand.
Australian online live streaming platform Kick.com, a subsidiary of Easygo Entertainment Pty Ltd that also owns Stake.com, has acquired the chassis naming rights.
The renamed team have an unchanged lineup of China’s Guanyu Zhou and experienced Finn Valtteri Bottas as they seek to do better than ninth place last season.
The new C44 will have a black and Fluo Racing Green livery, with technical director James Key declaring it more refined and aggressive than last year’s.
“It’s a more advanced and ambitious car and its got more potential in it,” he told reporters.
The car will have its shakedown in Barcelona on Friday before testing in Bahrain.
“The new C44 definitely feels different, both in terms of looks and of what we can expect from the car. We need to perform as a team and extract the most out of this package, which has some impressive potential. Nothing else matters,” said Bottas.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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