The Santander and Openbank brands will be seen in at least eight circuits in the group’s main markets
SANTANDER, 4 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Banco Santander announced on Wednesday that it will be the official sponsor and bank of Formula 1 in a five-year agreement that will begin in 2025, in a global alliance with the competition that will come after leaving the Ferrari team with the aim of strengthening its visibility in its main markets.
The president of Banco Santander, Ana Botín, and the president of Formula 1, Stefano Domenicali, signed this agreement, which starts in 2025, at an event attended by the mayor of Santander, Gema Igual, and the president of Cantabria, María José Sáenz de Buruaga, at one of the bank’s headquarters in the Cantabrian city, in the historic Hernán Cortés building, under the watchful eyes of workers and several dozen media outlets.
This alliance between Banco Santander and the ‘Gran Circo’ aims to strengthen the bank’s visibility in its main markets, where the Santander and Openbank brands will be seen, the largest 100% digital bank in Europe by deposits and which will be launched in the United States this year. And ‘conquering’ this North American market is one of the company’s objectives with this agreement.
Banco Santander is taking another step into a competition to which it was already strongly linked, after Scuderia Ferrari and the Spanish bank announced a week ago that they will end their alliance as of December 31, 2024, when the three years that appeared in their sponsorship contract for the Italian team in the Formula 1 World Championship expire.
Sources from Banco Santander itself confirmed this news to Europa Press and, in addition, the ‘Cavallino Rampante’ team recalled in a press release that the Ferrari company and the Spanish financial institution had already had “a previous collaboration from 2010 to 2017.”
Now, as an ‘official partner’ – the second level of sponsorship – and official bank of F1, the logos of Santander and Openbank will be seen on the circuit boards at Grand Prix in Santander’s main markets.
Thus, Santander will sponsor two GPs in the United States (Austin and Las Vegas), one in Brazil, one in Mexico, two in Spain as long as Catalonia shares the calendar with Madrid, one in the United Kingdom and two others in Europe, with preference for the return of Germany, since it is a solid and strong market for the bank.
The bank, which has been involved in F1 for 15 years since 2006 through sponsorship of races and teams such as Ferrari and McLaren, will also provide Formula 1 fans with exclusive content and other activations through sponsorship, given that F1 is one of the most watched sports in the world, with a cumulative global audience of 1.35 billion by 2023, according to Nielsen.
60% of this audience is in Santander’s core markets, with growing reach in the United States and among young audiences around the world. F1 has 24 Grands Prix in 20 countries, many of them in Santander’s core markets in Europe and America.
Domenicali recalled that the relationship with Santander began “a long time ago”. “We feel the responsibility to give back to you, making the most of our relationship. Thank you for the trust, we are fully committed,” he said during his speech, in which he left the door “open” for Santander to host a GP in the future.
Botín stressed that Formula 1 is a “tradition in Santander.” “But the most important thing about F1 is the great transformation it is undergoing as a sport. One of the things that has attracted me the most is a different public: younger, with women. And the commitment of the races to sustainability, and we believe a lot in that,” he said.
“In the United States, it will be the Openbank brand, it is a great fit, plus half of the F1 audience is in the bank’s markets, where we want to grow, it is a perfect fit,” Botín said during the event.