Pepperstone Signs Two-Time F1 Champion Alonso and Gives Him a Helmet

Pepperstone and the Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team have extended and expanded their partnership, with two-time F1 World Champion Fernando Alonso appointed a global ambassador for the broker from 2027.

Alonso will race at the Mexico City Grand Prix this weekend in a specially designed Pepperstone helmet to mark the expanded deal.

London's trading industry is coming home!

Tamas Szabo, Pepperstone’s Group CEO, said the company is focused on “expanding our products, advancing our technology and growing our global presence.” He named Latin America as an important growth region for the broker.

How the Partnership Started

Pepperstone first signed with Aston Martin Aramco in January 2025. The deal made it the team’s first partnership of that year. Pepperstone became the team’s Global Forex and Trading Partner on a multi-year agreement, with branding on the team’s cars.

An earlier Finance Magnates report put the entry cost of F1 sponsorship at about $500,000 for teams outside the top three or four.

The Crypto Business Behind the Branding

Althohgh announcement does not mention any specific Pepperstone platform, its crypto operations have grown considerably since the F1 partnership began.

The broker launched its dedicated crypto exchange in Australia in February 2026, initially offering Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, USDC and USDT against the Australian dollar. Trading carried a flat fee of 0.1%, and Pepperstone continues to offer crypto CFDs separately. Pepperstone built the crypto infrastructure in-house.

Szabo told Finance Magnates at the time that the reasoning was partly based on client behaviour. “Internal and external research has shown that CFD traders are heavy crypto investors,” he said.

The broker’s interest in crypto predates the exchange. In a 2024 interview with Finance Magnates, Szabo said crypto had become Pepperstone’s fourth-largest asset class, with a rise in first-time traders choosing it as their first instrument.

Pepperstone later deployed Fireblocks’ digital asset stack to power the exchange, and the announcement flagged a product roadmap extending into staking and decentralised finance. Szabo’s earlier disclosures put Pepperstone’s crypto CFD turnover at about US$6 billion a month.

Pepperstone appointed Nigel Fernandes as Chief Technology Officer, effective 1 October 2026, and said it plans to develop more technology in-house under his leadership. In a mid-year update, Szabo said a progressive global rollout of the crypto arm was under way, after it was first set up for the Australian market only. He also reported a 40% year-on-year increase in new client first trades.