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Swapping flair for efficiency, AMD ditches Ferrari for Mercedes

See ya Ferrari! AMD's partnered with the Mercedes-AMG F1 team now

AMD Mercedes sponsorship

AMD will be stamping its logo on Mercedes-AMG Petronas’ Silver Arrow F1 cars and kit starting in the 2020 F1 season, and will provide the team with AMD EPYC processors and Ryzen Pro laptops as a part of a multi-year partnership. Poor ol’ Ferrari…

AMD has been involved in Formula One for decades. To those with a keen-eye for cars whizzing about some of the world’s greatest race tracks at over 200mph, its logo has become synonymous up against Scuderia Ferrari’s Rossa corsa, or racing red livery. AMD was a prominent sponsor of the famed super car manufacturer back at the turn of the 21st century, and was still seen occupying a space on the front wing of Ferrari’s SF90 in 2019. Ferrari even helped save AMD from financial collapse once upon a time…

But AMD’s making bank off the back of Ryzen (the best CPUs for gaming) and EPYC nowadays, and has decided to switch to the winning team, Mercedes-AMD Petronas. Okay, the AMD-Mercedes partnership probably runs a little deeper than that, but it does feel a little like AMD telling the world that it’s not content with second place anymore.

The partnership was announced simultaneously by both Mercedes and AMD on Twitter – there’s that corporate synergy coming out to play.

“Innovation is at the heart of Formula One, we always try and push the technological boundaries in our hunt for performance,” Toto Wolff, team principal and CEO of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team, says. “We are delighted to have AMD join our team as a partner and we look forward to the journey ahead of us as we explore sophisticated solutions to unlock untapped performance potential.”

Mercedes will reveal its 2020 F1 car and livery on February 14, 2020. AMD’s logo will take pride of place on both sides of the cockpit, the driver’s race suits and team closing, and on the engineering station.

Ferrari no longer lists AMD as a partner on its website. Ouch.

The team will also “pilot” the use of AMD’s technologies, including Ryzen and EPYC CPUs.

Mercedes-AMD Petronas won the 2019 Constructors’ championship, and its two drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas, came in first and second place respectively in the Drivers’ championship. Ferrari will be hoping to chase it down in 2020, hoping to improve on its second place constructors standing. Wouldn’t that be a season to watch, and we all love an underdog story… right AMD?