Qualcomm ditches Ferrari F1 team for Mercedes after a disappointing 2022

Qualcomm is arguably the biggest name in the chipmaking world, so to see it making the crossover to Formula 1 was a big deal. Last year, the company struck a collaboration with Ferrari, which among other things—such as the adoption of the Snapdragon Digital Chassis in future road cars—also included a Premium Partner deal with the Scuderia Ferrari team.

This collapsed just one year in, however, with Qualcomm announcing a new collaboration with Mercedes-AMG Petronas for the upcoming 2023 season. The multi-year agreement will “leverage the power of the Snapdragon platform to create unique fan experiences, both in-person and digitally,” which probably means the utilisation of VR headsets powered by Snapdragon XR chips.

The company said the team will also adopt Snapdragon chips and its other products to “accelerate its digital transformation” and create a “world-leading smart space” at its campus in Brackley in the UK. As on last year’s Ferrari F1-75 race car, the Snapdragon brand will be featured prominently on the Mercedes-AMG F1 W14 E Performance—revealed at the Silverstone Circuit yesterday—along with the drivers’ race suits, senior personnel clothing and within the garage and trackside.

It’s unclear why Qualcomm switched camps after only a year, but Ferrari endured a challenging season in 2022. In isolation, the team did pretty well—after two years being sidelined in the midfield, it finally had a fast car that won it several races and even put it in serious title contention early in the year.

But the team also suffered a series of reliability issues and made some bewildering strategic errors in key races that, together with a few errors on driver Charles Leclerc’s part, ensured that Red Bull’s Max Verstappen could bulldoze his way to a second straight drivers’ championship. No doubt there were other factors at play here, but this—and the negative media and public attention that followed—surely didn’t help.

It should be noted that Mercedes had an even worse season last year. The eight-time world champion team, hitherto the dominant force in the sport’s current turbo hybrid era, hit a busted flush with last year’s W13, which was highly innovative but delivered extremely inconsistent performance. The outfit languished in third place, with seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton failing to score a win for the first time in his career, although teammate George Russell did at least claim his first victory in Brazil.

Qualcomm is not the only technology company working with Mercedes-AMG Petronas. The team continues to have a partnership with AMD—which helped them win championships in 2020 and 2021—and it has created special-edition phones and even electric scooters with Xiaomi in China.