AlphaTauri F1 remove streaming service DAZN from sponsor list

AlphaTauri F1 has removed streaming service DAZN from their list of official sponsors ahead of the 2022 season. The news comes from Decal Spotters on Twitter, a page focused primarily on brand and sponsorship deals within motorsport.

DAZN is an Over-The-Top (OTT) video streaming service founded in London. The service, which carries live and on-demand streaming of events from various properties as well as original programming, is available in more than 200 countries worldwide.

In 2021, the Japanese subsidiary of DAZN signed a deal with AlphaTauri and driver Yuki Tsunoda to stream exclusive content in the driver's home country of Japan. The driver's cap had the DAZN logo on it all season. The service is, however, no longer part of the AlphaTauri unit, ending their exclusive deal after just one season.

One Japanese fan on Twitter wrote:

“I am Japanese. We can watch his documentary and interviews every race exclusively. I am basically satisfied with the contents but I don't know if Dazn has been able to gather more subscribers than sponsoring costs with Alphatauri.”

The official reason for this development has not yet been confirmed by the F1 team themselves. This fan, however, speculated that the revenue the service earned from streaming may not have been sufficient in comparison to the money they provided to the team.

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Pierre Gasly defended Yuki Tsunoda's poor F1 debut performances

Despite excellent performances by Pierre Gasly, AlphaTauri was unable to pip Alpine in the constructors' standings, losing fifth place by just 13 points. Gasly proved himself to be the king of qualifying, placing himself within the top six on multiple occasions, often beating Ferrari and McLaren along the way.

What didn't work for the team, however, was Yuki Tsunoda's lack of consistency. The Japanese rookie failed to bring his F2 form into F1 and couldn't match his teammates pace by a longshot on multiple occasions.

Pierre Gasly was sympathetic towards his rookie teammate, claiming that the Japanese driver did not expect the midfield to be as strong as it was. With drivers such as Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz occupying the midfield in 2021, it was no wonder young Tsunoda struggled in his debut F1 year. Gasly said:

“I think he probably didn’t expect to struggle that much, from what he says, coming into F1. A four-time World Champion driving for Aston Martin (Vettel) with a double World Champion driving for Alpine [Alonso], very strong line-up at Ferrari, a very strong line-up at McLaren, and even Kimi, a champion at Alfa Romeo.”

Tsunoda, however, did show an improvement in the second half of the season, finishing in P4 in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Fans of Tsunoda can hope the young driver matures in his abilities in the coming seasons and maintains his place in the highly cut-throat sport.

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