F1’s AI revolution accelerates as tech giants redefine sport

Artificial intelligence is becoming deeply embedded in Formula One, with Liberty Media’s championship and its 11 teams embracing AI across racing operations and business strategy in an already highly data-driven sport.

According to research firm Ampere Analysis, eight new AI partnerships have been signed in the past six months alone. Among them, Atlassian Williams Racing has teamed up with AI company Anthropic, using 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,” Williams board advisor Peter Kenyon told Reuters. “We see it as one of our differentiating points: how can this partner help us in that journey back to the top?”

The shift marks a clear evolution from earlier eras of Formula One, when tobacco sponsorship dominated liveries. Today, partnerships are increasingly anchored in artificial intelligence and technology firms, focused on extracting insights from vast datasets while also leveraging the sport’s global visibility.

“What Anthropic and our tech team are doing is understanding the opportunities and then integrating those into our business to be able to demonstrate for ourselves and them, and showcase their technology in the pursuit of getting Williams back to the top,” Kenyon added. AI can be a key tool enabling teams to navigate new regulations and the cost cap, now set at $215 million.

“Efficiency is one of the ubiquitous benefits of AI products, meaning a natural synergy between teams and AI brands,” said Adam Lewis, senior analyst at Ampere Analysis.

Technology led the top 10 spending categories for F1 teams, reaching an estimated $769 million 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, the report added, including cloud infrastructure company CoreWeave, valued at $65 billion, which has a partnership with the Aston Martin F1 team.

In the 2025 season, Formula One reached $2.54 billion in total team sponsorship revenue, the second-highest grossing sports property behind the National Football League, which generated $2.7 billion.

Helping with admin, rules, and track decisions

AI has been used to sift through administrative tasks and interpret sporting and technical regulations, helping engineers make faster decisions during on-track situations that were not possible 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,” Jack Harington, group partnership lead for Oracle Red Bull Racing, told Reuters.

The Red Bull team, which four-time champion Max Verstappen drives for, has a partnership with software company Oracle and has integrated its technology across operations. “So it’s really playing into the strength of AI as an enabler for our team, allowing engineers to focus on the core responsibilities they have and perform better at what they do,” Harington added.

Technology companies such as Alphabet-owned Google are also seeing benefits from entering the F1 ecosystem.

“These blue-chip companies are using Formula One as a launchpad and spotlight for their own AI products or rebrandings,” Lewis said, noting Google’s partnership with McLaren has shifted toward Google Gemini, a generative AI tool, from Google Pixel branding.

Formula One, which returned to Miami after no races in April, has also adopted 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, which was crafted by a silversmith in the United Kingdom.

“I think F1 has the never-ending, unquenchable thirst for the latest technology,” Lenovo Global Chief Information Officer Arthur Hu told Reuters.

Lenovo, a Hong Kong-listed technology company, is one of F1’s global partners and has worked with the organization since 2022.

Hu said Lenovo helps F1 enhance productivity, mobility and remote collaboration through laptops and devices, including AI PCs, to support race operations.

“Formula One is at the sweet spot where it’s an intensely technical sport, and I think that only opens up new possibilities,” Hu said.

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