Artificial intelligence’s (AI) integration into Formula One and its 11 teams has been noticeable on- and off-track in the already highly tech-powered sport.
Eight new AI partnerships were signed in the past six months, according to research firm Ampere Analysis.
Among them, nine-time constructors’ champion Williams are partnering with AI company Anthropic for its Claude model to support team operations and race strategy.
“It’s much more than a sticker on a car or a sticker on a billboard,” said Williams board adviser Peter Kenyon. “We see it as one of our differentiating points: how can this partner help us in that journey back to the top?”
Whereas F1 cars of yesteryear had a plethora of brands with tobacco companies at the centre, now partnerships often centre on AI and tech companies helping the teams understand datasets, while benefiting from great exposure.
“What Anthropic and our tech team are doing are understanding the opportunities and then integrating those into our business to be able to demonstrate them, and showcase the technology in the pursuit of getting Williams back to the top,” Kenyon said.
AI can be a key tool enabling teams to navigate new regulations and new cost cap rules, now set at $215m (R3.6bn).
“Efficiency is one of the ubiquitous benefits of AI products, meaning a natural synergy between teams and AI brands,” said Adam Lewis, a senior analyst from Ampere Analysis.
Technology led the top 10 spending categories for F1 teams, reaching an estimated $769m last season, up 41% from the previous year, according to intelligence platform SponsorUnited.
AI and machine learning brands account for four of the top 15 new sponsorship investors, a SponsorUnited report also showed, including $65bn-valued cloud infrastructure company CoreWeave, which has a partnership with the Aston Martin F1 team.
In the 2025 season, the single-seater motorsport reached $2.54bn in total team sponsorship and was the second-highest grossing sports property behind America’s National Football League, which achieved $2.7bn.
AI has been innovative in sifting through administrative tasks and interpreting key rules within sporting and technical regulations, helping engineers take swifter decisions during on-track situations which were impossible decades ago.
“So it’s gone from a sort of basic AI to more of an agentic approach where rather than just searching for something, it’s actually providing decisions for us,” said Jack Harington, the group partnership lead for Red Bull Racing.
The Red Bull outfit, which four-time champion Max Verstappen races for, has a partnership with $494bn-valued software company Oracle, and has embedded its technological nous across the team.
“So it’s really playing into the strength of AI as an enabler for our team. Allowing them [engineers] to focus on the core responsibilities they have and perform better at what they do,” Harington said.
Technology companies like Alphabet-owned Google are also seeing positives from entering the F1 arena.
“These blue-chip companies are using Formula One as a launchpad and spotlight for their own AI products or re-brandings,” Lewis said, noting Google’s partnership with F1’s McLaren shifted to Google Gemini, a generative AI tool, from Google Pixel.
As an organisation, F1, which returned at Miami after no races in April, has also embraced AI. Its partnership with Amazon Web Services uses generative AI for live television broadcasting and in 2024 it applied generative AI to the design of the Montreal trophy after it was crafted by a silversmith in the UK.
“I think F1 has the never-ending, unquenchable thirst for the latest technology,” said Lenovo global chief information officer Arthur Hu.
Lenovo, a Hong Kong-listed technology company, is one of F1’s global partners and has been in a partnership with the organisation since 2022.
Hu said that Lenovo helped F1 to enhance productivity, mobility and remote collaboration through laptops and devices, including AI PCs, to support with the delivery of races.
“Formula One is at the sweet spot where it’s an intensely technical sport.... And so I think that only opens up new possibilities,” Hu said.
Reuters
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