Formula One (F1) is one of the most popular sports on earth and its early involvement in Web3 caught many off guard. F1 Delta Time by REVV Motorsport, owned by Animoca Brands, shot to relevance in 2019 in which it had the most expensive NFT sold that year at 415.9 $ETH ($113,000) at that time. Then in March 2022, the licensing deal with F1 was pulled. Now, trademark filings suggest F1 is returning to Web3 in its own capacity.
The unusual situation of F1 Delta Time losing the license it relied almost exclusively upon, is similar to that of EA losing the FIFA license. However, there were some key differences: FIFA has such a staggering playerbase it can build without the FIFA license, and people weren’t “investing” in FIFA. As a result, F1 Delta Time shuttered its doors and attempted to compensate the players with items in the rest of the growing REVV Motorsport ecosystem. (To read more on this, I recommend The Bizzare Situation of F1 Delta Time, written for Token Gamer in March.)
The reason for F1 pulling this license is unclear, though the project wasn’t entirely of the standard I expect F1 was comfortable with; that was quality of the product was par for the course in 2019 Web3. Perhaps we now have a deeper insight into the motivation behind removing the license from REVV: their own project(s).
There has been a Tweet doing the rounds for the past week in which Mike Kondoudis, a trademark attorney, highlighted some trademark filings by Formula One Licensing B.V:
Formula One has filed 2 trademarks for LAS VEGAS STRIP CIRCUIT claiming plans for:
▶️NFTs
▶️Cryptocurrency
▶️Insurance + financial services
▶️Virtual clothing + sports gear
▶️Currency trading + Virtual currency services
…and more!#NFTs #Metaverse #Crypto #Web3 #F1 #LasVegas pic.twitter.com/AfMj6R19TW— Mike Kondoudis (@KondoudisLaw) August 29, 2022
F1 has seen a number of its teams partnering with crypto entities left and right; Mercedes with FTX, McLaren with Tezos, Alpine with Binance — the list goes on. Now, it looks as if F1 themselves are ready to step back into the future. Although the trademarks do not look indicative of a game necessarily, they are broad enough that they could be laying the groundwork for one or more (and “computer games” is directly covered).
So, those stung by F1 Delta Time’s untimely demise may have their dreams of screaming around the metaverse in an F1 car returned to the pipeline (albeit a long way down said pipe.)
