On 26 February 2026 Oracle extended its title sponsorship of Red Bull in Formula 1 for several more seasons, and the renewal includes an artificial intelligence agent that works alongside the race engineers. In January Microsoft joined Mercedes with its logo on the airbox of the new car. In November 2025 Google put Gemini at the heart of its partnership with McLaren. Three front-running teams, three companies that sell cloud and artificial intelligence.

The common assumption is that teams use artificial intelligence to attract sponsors. I read it the other way round. It is the AI companies that seek out the teams, because a Formula 1 or MotoGP team is one of the few places in the world where their technology can be seen working under pressure, with real data, in real time, in front of a global audience. AI in motorsport is first of all this: a test bench with a story to tell. You buy the software that runs in production, not a conference demo.

At a glance

• Oracle, Microsoft, Google, Atlassian and IBM are now among the main partners of Red Bull, Mercedes, McLaren, Williams and Ferrari; in MotoGP, Lenovo plays that role with Ducati.
• They are not just buying visibility: they are buying a use case proven on track, to take to their own customers.
• For the team the value is twofold: the contract and the tools.
• Artificial intelligence also serves the sponsor: to measure exposure and to build experiences with the audience.

What an AI company buys when it sponsors a team

There are three things. The first is a test bench: simulations, race strategy, car development, all with deadlines that do not move and results measured to the thousandth of a second. The second is a story for customers: in my experience, a chief information officer who sees the product working in the garage is convinced faster than one who reads a brochure. The third is a stage: the paddock is one of the places where a software company brings its most important customers to see the same technology they have bought, used where the pressure is highest.

As I see it, the logo on the bodywork comes afterwards. It is the public proof of work done elsewhere.

The cases, one by one

Oracle and Red Bull

Oracle has been Red Bull’s title partner since 2022. With the renewal announced in February 2026, its cloud infrastructure remains the platform for race simulations, which now also have to account for energy management and the active aerodynamics of the 2026 cars, and an artificial intelligence agent now joins the team at the track, gathering data and offering recommendations to the engineers over race weekends. According to Oracle, the new Red Bull Ford power unit was also designed and validated on the same infrastructure. Since Oracle arrived, the team has won three drivers’ titles and two constructors’ titles.

Microsoft and Mercedes

Microsoft joined Mercedes in January 2026 with a multi-year deal and its logo on the airbox, the space previously occupied by Ineos. Microsoft’s Azure cloud and artificial intelligence tools go into simulations, performance analysis and race strategy modelling, at the factory and at the track. According to a sponsorship expert’s estimate quoted by Sky News and reported by BlackBook Motorsport, the deal would be worth around 60 million dollars a season. Until 2025 Microsoft was with Alpine.

Google and McLaren

In November 2025 Google and McLaren renewed their partnership, shifting its centre from Chrome to Gemini, Google’s artificial intelligence model, whose branding has been on the cars since the United States Grand Prix in October 2025. On the technical side, McLaren and Google Cloud have built a Gemini-based tool that lets trackside engineers quickly search and compare the sporting regulations during a race.

Atlassian and Williams

Atlassian has been Williams’ title partner since 2025, in what the team described as the biggest deal in its 48-year history; the value has not been disclosed. At the 2025 Las Vegas Grand Prix Williams raced with a special livery dedicated to Rovo, Atlassian’s artificial intelligence assistant. According to Atlassian, a Rovo agent at Williams reads and interprets raw wind tunnel data and feeds recommendations back to the departments concerned: an analysis that only a few specialist engineers could carry out before.

IBM and Ferrari

The Ferrari case is about fans more than the track. Since May 2025 the Scuderia Ferrari HP app has used watsonx, IBM’s artificial intelligence platform, to summarise races; in 2026 came an assistant that accompanies fans through the weekend, predictions, a tyre strategy tool and quizzes. IBM reports that since the May 2025 launch daily active users have doubled and the average time spent in the app has risen by 35%.

Lenovo and Ducati

In MotoGP the reference case is Ducati. Lenovo came in as a technology partner in 2018 and since 2021 has given its name to the factory team, the Ducati Lenovo Team. Among the projects is the digital twin of the circuits: a robot with LiDAR sensors scans the track and produces a virtual model of around 200 GB per circuit, which the engineers use to prepare the weekend. We have told the full story in the Lenovo-Ducati case.

Google Cloud and Formula E

Championships buy artificial intelligence too. In January 2025 Formula E expanded its multi-year partnership with Google Cloud, which in January 2026 became the championship’s Principal Partner and Principal AI Partner. In March 2025 Formula E had presented Driver Agent, a tool based on Vertex AI and Gemini that gives drivers an analysis of their driving data: lap times, speed, braking, acceleration.

What the team gets out of it

For a team, a technology partner is worth twice over. It brings a contract, and it brings tools the team would struggle to build on its own: computing power for millions of simulations, agents that summarise hours of data, systems that connect the factory with the track. In my experience, this is precisely what makes technology partnerships stable. When the sponsor’s product becomes part of the way the team works, separating costs both sides, and contracts get renewed.

That applies above all to the front-running teams, though. They can choose between several technology companies; in my experience, many midfield teams end up accepting a deal closer to visibility than to integration. Williams with Atlassian shows that it is not inevitable: that is where a well-run negotiation makes the difference.

Artificial intelligence also serves the sponsor

There is another way artificial intelligence enters sponsorship, and it concerns every brand, not only technology brands. It works on two fronts. The first is measurement: computer vision systems recognise logos in broadcasts and on social media and estimate their value, race by race. We covered this in our guide to sponsorship analytics. The second is the audience experience: the Ferrari app shows how a partner can become the very way a fan follows the team, instead of a brand next to the content.

Racing without a driver

At the opposite end are the races in which artificial intelligence drives on its own. The Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League runs driverless single-seaters derived from the Dallara SF23, driven by software developed by teams from universities, research centres and start-ups: the 2025 final was held at Yas Marina on 15 November with a prize pot of 2.25 million dollars, and in 2026 the championship made its European debut at Imola on 5 September. For a technology company it is a small showcase, aimed above all at a technical audience.

Where brands trip up most often

There are four situations I see repeating.

1. The logo without integration. An artificial intelligence company that buys only visibility loses the reason it came in. The technical audience notices, and so do the customers.
2. The crowded category. In Formula 1 the technology sector is among the most present on the grid: before negotiating, you need to know which category exclusivities have already been sold, in the team and in the championship.
3. The use case that stays in the garage. If the integration does not become content for customers, through case studies, visits and hospitality, the technical work never reaches the people who buy.
4. Measuring only visibility. For a technology company the return is measured in sales opportunities, not just impressions. We cover this in our guide for tech and SaaS brands.

How we work with technology companies

For thirty years we have been taking brands into the Formula 1 and MotoGP paddock, and with technology companies the most useful part of the work comes before the signature: understanding where their product can genuinely become part of the work of a team or a championship, choosing the right level of partnership, building the customer programme around the deal. In our model the commission is paid by the sports property, not by the company that sponsors: that is why we can also point to the less famous team, when that is where the integration works.

The logo is seen on Sunday, the integration works all week. Integration comes before the logo. Always.