WhatsApp debuts Mercedes F1 race car emoji

Meta’s WhatsApp messaging platform last night replaced its standard emoji of a race car with a new Mercedes-Benz F1 team version that’s now available to its two billion-plus users, and showed it off while hosting an event at the Empire State Building. Beginning Monday, WhatsApp said users of its app platform should have begun noticing in their chats a new race-car emoji that is a black and teal open-wheel car like the one Mercedes uses in real life.

This was the latest innovation between the app and the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team, following their partnership being revealed last November. Mercedes has also changed its team radio button on its drivers’ steering wheels to feature WhatsApp’s green logo, a potential source of brand exposure for WhatsApp anytime an in-car camera is showing during a race. 
 
Team Principal Toto Wolff and driver Lewis Hamilton attended the event at the Empire State Building, where a light show on the skyscraper’s façade showed off the emoji. Meta also announced it has seen recent double-digit growth in daily users and messages sent in the U.S. Today, Hamilton will do a demonstration run down Fifth Avenue with an older-generation Mercedes F1 car, according to Mercedes, which is its first such experience with an F1 car in Manhattan. A life-sized replica of the emoji race car will also be feature at today’s demo run.

The activations come ahead of the third edition of the Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix, which takes place Sunday at 4pm ET on ABC.