Visa entered Formula 1 in 2024 with Red Bull Racing its first new global sports sponsorship agreement in 15 years. But it was a bumpy launch as its entry came with a name mocked as one of the worst in motorsports history.
Didn't matter to Visa, which on Thursday announced a four-year contract extension through 2030 that expands its partnership with Red Bull Racing and Visa Cash App Racing Bulls.
Some fans call it VCARB, others call it Racing Bulls, and some even say Visa Cash App.
“When people embrace what you’re doing, people will find a way to talk about your name in positive light,” Frank Cooper, chief marketing officer of VISA, told The Associated Press. "Names become affectionate names once people find some kind of close connection to the company, the drivers, the team, and so people have gotten comfortable with it.
“I don’t know anyone has settled on ‘This is exactly what we’re going to call it every single time’ because sometimes people will say the car, sometimes they’ll say Racing Bulls, it’s a little bit all over the place. But I’m comfortable with that because: one, they’re talking about it, and two, the initial response of ‘How do I even say this? What does it mean?’ That’s all gone."
The extension with Red Bull shows how far the partnership has grown over Visa's first two seasons in F1. The new deal encompasses new branding rights, enhanced hospitality options and immersive experiential opportunities across both Red Bull and Racing Bulls.
“In a short space of time, Oracle Red Bull Racing and Visa have fostered a partnership built on collaborative effort and mutual success," said Paul Gandolfi, chief commercial officer of Red Bull Racing. "With Red Bull, we sit at the epicenter of sport, entertainment and lifestyle, meaning we are strategically positioned to bring globally recognized industry leaders like Visa, into the sport as we embark on a new era of Formula 1.”
Visa will continue as the title partner of Red Bull's second team, the two-car effort for Liam Lawson and rookie Arvid Lindblad, as well as the title partner for Racing Bulls' all-female Formula 1 Academy program.
But it also comes with a more prominent branding on the Red Bull cars of four-time world champion Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar, who was promoted from Racing Bulls at the end last year. Visa's logo will on the front wing of the new RB22 for 2026.
Visa has also secured exclusive rights within the retail banking category, alongside expanded pass‑through rights.
Essentially, Visa is backing all the cars across all Red Bull teams in F1 and F1 Academy.
Cooper said the contract extension gives Visa more access to the team, its drivers, the paddock and hospitality areas.
"We looked at it from the fan perspective of what do the fans want? What does a client want? Those are the things they want. They want to be close to the access," said Cooper. "They want to feel like they’re part of it. The way we think about it is, being a traditional sponsor means just simply being adjacent to the property that you paid some money for. You get a logo. You’re adjacent to it, you hope to get a halo effect from that adjacency.
“We decided that's fine for those who want to do it that way, but we think we can do more. Our approach is to try to add value to the fan experience and add value to the driver.”
Cooper said he learned from the popularity of the F1 docudrama “Drive To Survive” series that fans want to see the human side of the global racing series and that mindset helped develop one of Visa's more popular campaigns. Visa last year did a #TakeYourDriverToWorkDay event in which Hadjar and Lawson traded the cars for cubicles and participated in onboarding sessions at Visa’s London office.
The two drivers struggled through everyday office rituals in a campaign that was featured across social media and resonated with fans. The series felt a bit like the sitcom “The Office.”
Cooper expects to see more of that as Visa is in the middle of a monstrous year of activation: Visa is key sponsors of the Super Bowl, the Olympics, the upcoming World Cup and Red Bull's F1 team. Visa will also play a prominent role in the Red Bull Showrun Tour that starts in the United States this Saturday with a public exhibition event transforming San Francisco’s Marina Boulevard into an F1‑style demonstration course.
Visa also plans to add a musical element to its F1 activation this summer. Red Bull in 2022 — before Visa came aboard — hosted Bad Bunny at the Miami Grand Prix.
“One thing that has been true for decades is that athletes want to be around musicians and musicians want to be close to athletes,” Cooper said. “The opportunity to cross-pollinate across various cultural pillars and create new experiences is there for us.”
AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson of New Zealand prepares for a Formula One pre-season test at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson of New Zealand steers his car on the third day of Formula One pre-season test at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson of New Zealand steers his car during a Formula One pre-season test at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. forces carried out new defensive strikes on Wednesday on an Iran military facility after downing Iranian attack drones, according to U.S. officials.
The officials, who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said U.S. Central Command forces shot down four Iranian one-way attack drones that posed a threat around the Strait of Hormuz.
U.S. forces also struck an Iranian ground control station in Bandar Abbas that was about to launch a fifth drone, according to the officials.
The strikes came after President Donald Trump asserted Wednesday that Iran is “negotiating on fumes” and insisted that November's midterm elections won't make him rush into a deal to end the nearly three-month-old conflict that's spurred unease across the global economy.
Speaking at the start of a Cabinet meeting, Trump expressed confidence that a deal is near. Over the weekend, he even declared that his administration and Tehran had “largely negotiated” a settlement, though the talks are still in flux.
The president is looking for a settlement that will reopen the Strait of Hormuz and provide him with a credible argument that Iran’s nuclear capability has been diminished enough to declare victory, winding down a conflict that's been politically unpopular for Republicans.
But as things stand, Trump also risks finding that closure to his war of choice comes with an unsatisfactory ending.
The emerging deal puts off many critical issues to be resolved later and has already exposed the Republican president to fierce criticism — even from some of his own supporters — that Iran's hardline leaders will emerge from the conflict battered but emboldened. It all comes to a head just as the midterm elections to determine control of Congress come into focus and as Republicans worry that rising costs and fuel prices are darkening the American electorate's mood.
But Trump on Wednesday dismissed the idea that the upcoming elections would shape his Iran strategy.
“They thought they were gonna outwait me. You know, 'We’ll outwait him. He’s got the midterms,'” Trump said. “I don’t care about the midterms.”
Trump acknowledged there's still work to do, but he spoke with a measure of certainty that the two sides would get there.
“They want very much to make a deal,” Trump said. “So far, they haven’t gotten there. We’re not satisfied with it, but we will be — either that or we’ll have to just finish the job.”
Talks were further complicated after U.S. forces carried out what the Pentagon called “defensive” strikes on missile launch sites and minelaying boats in southern Iran on Monday. The U.S. said it acted with “restraint” in light of the weekslong ceasefire, while Iran decried the action as a sign of “bad faith and unreliability.” Wednesday's strikes are likely to cause more complications.
While Trump insists a deal is within reach, there appears to be daylight between the U.S. and Iran on several key issues. The president is also facing scrutiny from Republican allies, including Sens. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Ted Cruz of Texas, who have said the terms seem too favorable to Tehran.
They're balking at aspects of the deal that have emerged publicly that they say too closely resemble the nuclear agreement reached with Iran by Democratic President Barack Obama, which Trump scrapped during his first term.
Under the potential deal, Tehran would agree to give up its stockpile of highly enriched uranium — a key Trump demand — in return for sanctions relief. That's according to two regional officials and one senior Trump administration official, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive negotiations.
One regional official, with direct knowledge of the negotiations, said how Iran would give up the uranium would be subject to further talks during a 60-day period. Some would likely be diluted, while the rest would be transferred to a third country, the official said.
Trump said that he “wouldn’t be comfortable” with either Russia or China taking Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium. The two countries have the closest relations with Tehran, and nuclear analysts have said they could be a potential acceptable third party to the Iranian Republic to take possession of the enriched uranium as part of a potential deal.
Iran has 440.9 kilograms (972 pounds) of uranium that is enriched up to 60% purity, a short, technical step from weapons-grade levels of 90%, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. Iran has not publicly committed to giving up its uranium.
Another key issue unresolved is whether the ceasefire will also cover Israel’s operations against Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militant group in Lebanon. Iran has insisted that Lebanon must be covered by any ceasefire agreement negotiated with the United States.
The administration appears to leave some wiggle room on the Lebanon question. The emerging memorandum of understanding calls for a ceasefire between the U.S. and its allies against Iran and its proxies, such as Hezbollah, but also underscores Israel's right to act against imminent threats and in self-defense.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday announced that the Israeli military is “deepening its operation” in Lebanon. Overnight, Israel's military clashed with the Iran-backed militant Hezbollah group along a strategic river in southern Lebanon as Israeli troops pushed farther north.
Jonathan Conricus, a former spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces, said Israel expects that Iran would quickly move to direct any sanctions relief to restore its military capability and boost proxy groups, including Hezbollah and Hamas in Gaza.
“We’re not done fighting, because the Iranian regime isn’t done,” said Conricus, who is a senior fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a hawkish Washington think tank.
Trump on Wednesday also reinforced his call that the deal should include a requirement for several additional countries, including Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Pakistan, to join the Abraham Accords, the U.S.-brokered agreements from Trump’s first term aimed at normalizing diplomatic and economic relations with Israel.
“We’re, you know, requesting strongly that they join,” Trump said.
Trump’s optimism that the other Middle Eastern and majority-Muslim countries could soon sign on to the accords might be overly ambitious.
For example, Saudi Arabia, the most significant power in the Arab world and long seen as the biggest prize for the normalization effort, has insisted that establishing a guaranteed path to a Palestinian state remains a precondition. It's something that Israel vehemently opposes.
Trump pushed for the Abraham Accords during a call with leaders of Mideast allies over the weekend.
Barbara Leaf, a retired U.S. ambassador to the United Arab Emirates and senior State Department official during President Joe Biden's Democratic administration, said officials from Gulf countries who were on the call told her that Trump's pitch was greeted by “stunned silence.” A person familiar with the call disputed that characterization and said that some regional allies responded positively to the president’s call to join the accords. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity about the private conversation.
Leaf, a distinguished diplomatic fellow at the Middle East Institute, said that Middle Eastern allies of the United States recognize that Iran will likely use any money from sanctions relief to bolster its military capabilities. Still, they have been supportive of Trump’s efforts to end the conflict.
“They see no other way out,” Leaf said of American allies in the region. “And they see no other way out because of many of these early mistakes that the president and the administration made in conducting the war.”
AP writers Matthew Lee, Michelle L. Price and Darlene Superville in Washington, Bill Barrow in Atlanta, Meg Kinnard in Columbia, S.C., Samy Magdy in Cairo and Melanie Lidman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump, center right, attends a Cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room, at the White House, Wednesday, May 27, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
President Donald Trump speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House, Wednesday, May 27, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
President Donald Trump, next to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, left, and Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, right, speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House, Wednesday, May 27, 2026, in Washington, as Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, front left, and Vice President JD Vance, front right, look on. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
President Donald Trump, next to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House, Wednesday, May 27, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
President Donald Trump speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House, Wednesday, May 27, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
President Donald Trump departs Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Tuesday, May 26, 2026, in Bethesda, Md. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
