Visa locks in a 4-year Red Bull F1 extension through 2030, expanding branding and access

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) — President Donald Trump is attending the dignified transfer Wednesday of four U.S. service members killed in the Middle East.

Trump will be at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware when the remains of the troops killed in action are returned to their families, the White House said. The ritual is one of the most somber duties of a commander-in-chief. It will be the third that Trump has attended since he launched the war in Iran in February.

Speaking to reporters on his way to Dover, Trump called it “one of the hardest things to do as a president.” His message to grieving families, he said, will simply be “we love you, we love your child.”

“There’s no games, there’s no nothing — that’s their child,” Trump said. “And all you can do is throw out your heart.”

Two U.S. Army soldiers killed in Iranian missile and drone attacks in Jordan will be returned during the dignified transfer, according to an administration official who was not authorized to discuss it publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The remains of a third service member who is believed to be the soldier missing after the Jordan attacks will also be returned, the official said, as well as the remains of a soldier killed in Iraq during a detonation of an Iranian drone.

The soldiers killed in Jordan were identified by the Defense Department as Tyler James Feehan, 25, of Ewa Beach, Hawaii, and Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Carrollton, Texas. The soldier who disappeared after the Jordan attacks and is now believed to be deceased is Angel S. Rampersad, 28, of Ozone Park, New York, the Defense Department said.

The soldier killed in Iraq was identified as Michael Emmanuel Swinton, 30, who lived in Spring Lake, North Carolina.

“We feel very badly, but you know, those great people, those great patriots were out there fighting so that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” Trump told reporters on Sunday. He added that the U.S. was striking Iran “in honor” of the fallen troops.

The U.S. has launched multiple retaliatory strikes against Iran as an interim agreement to end the war falls apart. Trump on Monday said that every time Iran kills an American soldier, “they will pay for that killing many times over!”

Since the war began on Feb. 28, 18 U.S. service members have been killed.

Trump on Tuesday said that while almost all the incoming fire in Jordan was stopped, some made it through.

“They did slip something through in Jordan,” he said. “If we had other operators, you know, it would have not happened, unfortunately.”

He went on: “We’ve stopped almost everything, but when you let other people do your job with the United States — we let other people do the job — and sometimes it doesn’t work out so well.”

Trump did not elaborate on his comments, and it was not immediately clear who he was saying was responsible for protecting U.S. forces in Jordan.

Trump attended two previous dignified transfers since the outset of the war, most recently in March.

During the ritual, transfer cases draped with the American flag and holding the remains of the fallen soldiers are carried from the military aircraft that transported them to an awaiting vehicle to take them to the mortuary facility at the base. There, the service members are prepared for their final resting place.

Feehan, a first lieutenant who was killed Saturday, will be posthumously promoted to the rank of captain and awarded the Bronze Star, Purple Heart and Combat Action Badge. He was assigned out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to the 32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Command.

Gonzales, who was killed Friday, was a private with the 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command in Ansbach, Germany. She graduated last year from Hebron High School in Carrollton, near Dallas, school officials said.

Rampersad, a sergeant who was believed to have been killed in Friday's attacks, was assigned to the 57th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 52nd Air Defense Artillery Brigade, 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command in Ansbach, Germany.

Swinton, a sergeant who was killed Sunday, will receive a Bronze Star, Purple Heart and Combat Action Badge, and will be promoted to staff sergeant. He enlisted in the Army in 2017 and was assigned to the 55th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 108th Air Defense Artillery Brigade, out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

This undated photo provided by the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command shows 1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan. (U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command via AP)

This undated image provided by the U.S. Army shows Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Carrollton, Texas. (U.S. Army via AP)

This undated photo provided by the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command on Tuesday, July 21, 2026, shows Army Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton. (U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command via AP)

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun listens as he meets with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House, Tuesday, July 21, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)