It is the second most wonderful time of the year for Formula 1 fans as teams have started revealing their cars for the 2022 season.
While we generally don’t cover this news, developments at the Red Bull Racing camp caught our ear yesterday mainly because there is a new title sponsor for the team.
That title sponsor is Oracle and as such the team name is now Oracle Red Bull Racing as announced during the reveal of the RB18 car. Why is a company like Oracle sponsoring Red Bull? Well it’s a sponsorship that makes sense for both parties.
As we’ve mentioned in the past, Formula 1 cars generate a lot of data during a race. Managing and interpreting that data to enable split second decision making is vital in the modern form of the sport and its expected that Oracle’s presence will help Red Bull Racing expand the use of AI and machine learning for driver training, optimise engine development and more.
This will be of particular importance this year given all the rule changes and the need to understand how cars perform in race conditions.
This sponsorship didn’t come cheap though as according to a report from the Associated Press, Oracle paid $500 million to secure this title sponsorship.
“Oracle Cloud enabled us to make race-day decisions that helped Max Verstappen win the 2021 Drivers’ Championship,” Oracle Red Bull Racing’s team principal and chief executive officer, Christian Horner said in a statement. Too soon Horner, too soon.
“Discovering and reacting to opportunities quickly, is crucial to our success on and off the track, and Oracle is integral in that effort. Every element of our performance is driven by data analysis. Having Oracle as our title partner shows the confidence we have in their expertise and their ability to deliver a true competitive advantage,” the team principal added.
During the 2021 season, Red Bull Racing increased the number of simulations it ran by a thousand times thanks to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). The power of this infrastructure also allow these simulations to run 10 times faster.
We also suspect that Oracle’s entrance is a tactical move on Red Bull’s part. Budget caps are being implemented aggressively across the sport in a bid to bring teams more in-line with each other. Having a partner like Oracle on the team would likely help Red Bull cut costs in certain areas so those funds can be redirected to other areas such as engine development.
“Our commitment to this partnership reflects our belief that OCI is a strategic weapon on race day, helps create the most exciting fan experience in sports, and can define the future of F1. Oracle Red Bull Racing is, and will continue to be, the most forward-thinking and innovative F1 team in the world,” says executive vice president and chief marketing officer at Oracle, Ariel Kelman.
[Photo credit – Bryn Lennon/Getty Images]
