Alfa Romeo, the Italian manufacturer, has been in and out of Formula 1 multiple times. The team and name have a very rich history. The company’s two drivers went on to win the first and second Drivers’ World Championships back in 1951.
The team was previously called the Sauber F1 team. But in 2019, they rebranded as Alfa Romeo. The team is all set to be powered and turned into the Audi F1 team in 2026. The team is currently Ferrari-powered. Ferrari’s current driver, Charles Leclerc, made his debut with this team back when it was called Sauber. Recently, reports and leaks have been circulated in the media about a very huge livery change for the Belgian GP.
Alfa Romeo’s Kick-sponsored vehicle for the Belgian Grand Prix to feature streamers on the car
The Alfa Romeo F1 team unveiled their new livery for the upcoming Belgian Grand Prix on April 24. The car for the Swiss-based team will have a Kick-themed color scheme and the names of several well-known content creators engraved on the halo. These include WestCOL, Deepak, Hikaru “GMHikaru,” Felix “xQc,” and WestCOL. The news went viral in the streamer community.
A lot of streamers shared their thoughts on the topic and the inclusion of the names on the new livery. Most notably, the reaction was that of streamer xQc when he got to know that he was in the car. The team seemingly didn’t inform the streamers about this change. So an xQc fan sent him a Reddit post mentioning all the details about the livery change and his name is included. His reaction to this was hilarious, as he had no idea about the team or the pecking order in the sport of Formula 1. He said, “No shot! Nah! That’s insane! Wait, real?! I didn’t know. I had no idea! Dude, that’s insane, though! Wait, chat, is there a camera on the driver? You’ll see on the camera? That is crazy!”.
He went to react about the placement of his name replacing Stake on the halo, he said: “Holy! Wait, no way! Wait… it is Stake (the streamer starts laughing). Wait, it’ll be right there! I’ll be in the middle! We made it! That is crazy, though. Chat, do they sometimes win? No?”.
Kick replaced Stake as car sponsor for F1 team Alfa Romeo
Alfa Romeo’s was one of the most amazing-looking and loved liveries in the sport when it was revealed this season. The team is usually sponsored by a stake, but in Australia, that changed. Twitch competitor Kick sponsored the team and had its logo replacing the Stakes in purple.
Kick is again returning to sponsor Alfa Romeo at Spa. Things will be a little different this time, though. The 95-5 revenue split for streamers, which has been a major selling point of the platform when contrasted to Twitch, is mentioned in addition to the Kick logo. And the kick logo is going to be green instead of purple.
Just like the changeover in Australia, this is a temporary rebranding that is required due to Belgian gambling restrictions, which do not allow them to use Stake as a sponsor in their usual manner. Alfa Romeo isn’t going to be the only one with tweaks to the livery; many teams are going to be required to do something about their gambling team sponsors, if any.
