McLaren to sell esports and F1 NFTs through Tezos partnership

British motor racing team McLaren have partnered with open-source blockchain platform Tezos to launch their own non-fungible token (NFT) platform for their fans.

Described as the “world’s most advanced blockchain” in the announcement, Tezos has been named the company’s technical partner in a deal spanning multiple years.

McLaren will build their own platform to celebrate their legacy in racing as part of the deal, aiming to provide an “unrivaled NFT fan experience” across their teams in Formula 1, INDYCAR, and esports.

Their exact NFT offerings — which involves tokenized ownership of digital assets — have not been disclosed at the time of publication, but a tweet specifies that all of their teams will receive their own.

While some people on Twitter have responded to the partnership with negativity due to concern surrounding the environmental impact of NFTs, McLaren have gone out of their way to explain their stance.

They acknowledge that adding NFTs to blockchains, as well as transitions, can require a “huge amount of computing power” but that their new partner Tezos “doesn’t rely” on this. “It’s far more energy efficient” than alternatives, according to the racing giants.

Lando Norris, a Formula 1 driver for McLaren that owns his own esports team called Quadrant, will be featured in at least one of the upcoming NFTs.

“Tezos and McLaren Racing uniting to create a unique fan-focused NFT platform is an innovative step in an exciting and rapidly developing industry,” said Lindsey Eckhouse, McLaren Racing’s director of licensing, ecommerce, and esports about the deal.