There are fans of cars, teams and speed, who follow every curve and overtaking in detail. Others, from business and marketing, see an endless parade of spectacular brands, sponsorships and activations. And there are also those who look at F1 from technology: for them, each race is a mine of digital data. Because today the top motor category is much more than speed and engines: it is a huge state-of-the-art laboratory where strategies are designed and tested, and enormous amounts of data are analyzed in real time. In short, the limits of innovation are pushed. Grand Prix are no longer just races to see the fastest car, they are high-tech experiments that challenge the limits and define the future of motorsport.
In this way, it is logical to think that every second matters and can define a career and even a championship. It’s not just cars that race. Also the data. To do this, teams must capture, manage, process and convert them into relevant information in real time to make the best decisions.
In this continuous data compilation race, all the data matters: times of each lap, the seconds in the pits, the maximum speeds in each corner and even the tire temperatures that tell the driver when to change them.
And this is where artificial intelligence (AI) comes into play. With it, race simulations are made to foresee different scenarios and optimize the strategies to follow in each test and even in each section. It is not the same plan in the first laps as in the last. Everything changes second by second and these thousands of variables are analyzed with software capable of detecting patterns in the behavior of competitors and making millions of calculations in real time during the race.
At the center of any AI strategy is software and the cloud. For example, Kinetic software from Epicor (a company founded in Texas, United States, in 1972) was implemented by the AlphaTauri team (today called RB) to improve production, optimize operations and obtain real-time information about their processes and car manufacturing, which helped them maximize performance on the track. It also allows you to centralize all the team’s operations, such as inventory management, component sampling and even internal finances.
The calculations also serve to optimize energy and resource use and improve safety.
F1, technological laboratories on wheels
The importance of AI in teams is such that they all already have data and AI managers. McLaren has Andrew McHutchon, for example. The specific position is Head of Data Science. On his Linkedin profile, McHutchon often posts opinions about big data and his sport. “Five years ago, I bet very few companies had a massive investment in AI in their business plan, and very few people expected to interact with it every day. Yes, that’s probably a stretch and some claims are overly optimistic. For now. It’s often worth looking at the rate of change more closely than actual, current performance, particularly in innovation-driven domains like F,” he wrote in September.
F1 cars are a technological laboratory on wheels. Each machine has more than 300 different types of sensors. AI is key in optimizing cars, because it is capable of analyzing all those sensors and predicting. From the wind (aerodynamics) for the moment of the race to selecting the materials and structural design, to improve the resistance of the vehicle.
Technology quickly became associated with F1. Almost all the big companies in the AI and cloud world already have some type of sponsorship or association with the teams. Ferrari with IBM, Alpine with Microsoft and McLaren with Salesforce, are some examples. In the case of the latter, the agreement serves to enhance the connection with fans and generate more sales through the Agentforce AI platform, which offers support and personalized experiences 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The integrated platform unifies data, reduces response times in F1 by 80% and personalizes every touchpoint, from the first to the finish line and beyond. In this way, they managed to increase clicks on content generated by agents by 22%. And by being able to identify previously viewed content, offers are always kept ready for every fan, partner, customer or employee.
But AI also plays a strong role in the television broadcast of races. AWS, Amazon’s cloud, is a technological partner of F1 and has been providing F1 Insights since 2018. It currently ships thousands of terabytes per car. To size: the company generates 23 types of insights per second for live television broadcasts. The producers receive all that information about what happens on the asphalt between the 20 cars distributed along the 5 km track. And they are the ones who decide what data to throw on the screen because the viewer can only see a portion of all that on video. The goal is to use the data graphs on the screen to help fans understand what is happening on the track and give commentators around the world the information they need to maintain the excitement levels in the spectators.
Specialists assure that it will not take long for the graphics and images of each car to be available to anyone and for each viewer to decide what they want to see according to their favorite driver or team. We are heading towards total customization.
Sports analytics that never stops growing
F1 is the best example of a global sports analytics market that continues to grow. It is estimated that the item will exceed $32 billion by 2032, reflecting the enormous value of information in professional sports.
In the last decade, F1 invested efforts, talents and resources to increase the safety of its drivers and their teams. With the help of AI and machine learning, they allow risks to be anticipated in real time, analyzing the behavior of the cars, telemetry and track conditions. This predictive safety improves medical response and helps reduce serious accidents.
Cybersecurity is also a priority. Last year the agreement between Okta, a North American digital security company, and the McLaren Racing team was announced. Okta is now the official security provider of the British team and is focused on improving the security of its infrastructure and protecting team, partner and fan data.
Other teams such as Aston Martin and Alpine integrated platforms such as SentinelOne and Arctic Wolf to shield their enormous data flow against possible external attacks. Each car generates millions of data per race, and its protection is vital to maintaining strategy and competitive advantage.
invisible speeds
In Formula 1, nothing is left to chance. The 20 teams – including Ferrari, Red Bull, McLaren, Mercedes, Aston Martin, Haas, Williams and Alpine – use artificial intelligence to create simulators that process millions of data and variables per second. These algorithms analyze everything from tire wear to weather conditions, fuel consumption and aerodynamics.
Thanks to the cars’ digital twins, thousands of virtual simulations can be run before a driver even gets in the car or uses a single liter of fuel. Thus, teams test different configurations and strategies, adjusting every detail to win those milliseconds that define a race.
However, even with so much technology, the human factor remains key. The talent and intuition of the drivers are the heart of the show, and keep alive the excitement of millions of fans who follow every corner live, on the track, from TV and on social networks. LZ.
Marketing comes first
In the elite of motorsport, artificial intelligence not only races on the track: it also competes for the attention of millions of fans around the world. The teams analyze the tastes and preferences of their followers in real time to understand which drivers, teams and content generate the greatest passion. With this data, they create personalized publications and experiences, from exclusive videos on social networks to segmented messages for each audience.
McLaren alone has more than 12 different data sources to offer personalized experiences to its more than 700 million global followers and fans, thanks to software solutions such as Einstein 1 and Marketing Cloud.
Beyond the screen, the experience is expanded with augmented and virtual reality, allowing fans to experience the race from a driver’s perspective or tour the paddock without leaving their home. With these tools, F1 transforms each fan into a protagonist, accelerating the emotional connection with the fastest sport on the planet. In this way, during this year’s Bahrain Grand Prix, autonomous robots allowed fans to virtually connect with the drivers and explore the paddock, taking the experience beyond the in-person experience and bringing the world of F1 closer to fans around the world.
AI also gets into design and aesthetics. An example: the 2024 Canadian Grand Prix trophy was the first in the history of the competition to be designed with the help of generative AI from Amazon Web Services (AWS). Using Amazon Bedrock’s Titan Image Generator model, they fed the algorithm hundreds of conceptual and historical designs in just a few minutes, which were adapted by different goldsmiths to create the final silver trophy, which incorporated iconic Canadian elements such as the maple leaf and the St. Lawrence River. Tradition and innovation.
But in addition to the official trophy, F1 and AWS launched the PartyRock F1 tool so that fans can make their own virtual trophy designs with generative AI so they can compete for a trip to a race.
