Formula 1 is not only the fastest and most exciting sport in the world, it’s also safe to say it’s the most data-driven sport.
With the ten teams constantly looking for anything that will give them an edge and sessions and races often decided by tenths of a second or less, making the most of the data generated by Formula 1 cars is more important than ever.
McLaren have had an excellent season so far and, together with their official partner Alteryx, have told Ny Breaking how data can help them in their championship fight.
Mountains of data
“Organizations have more data than ever before, yet the vast majority of them aren’t getting the most out of it,” said Alan Jacobson, Chief Data and Analytics Officer (CDAO) at Alteryx. He noted that more than 80% of industrialized data remains unused. This presents a “huge opportunity” to use this data to make better decisions.
“The good news is that almost every organization I meet clearly understands that the ability to use data and analytics to drive business results is now more important than ever before.”
Jacobson adds that some companies have been slow to make this transformation, “because transformation is hard. It’s hard to reskill an entire workforce and get them ready for the future. So the challenge is figuring out how to do the transformation.”
And when it comes to a journey, McLaren is certainly well-placed. The team hasn’t won a Formula 1 constructors’ championship since 1998, but has made an incredible rise in recent seasons to challenge for the title in 2024, culminating in a recent dominant 1-2 between Oscar Piastri and Landon Norris at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Speak with Ny BreakingDan Keyworth, Director of Business Technology at McLaren Racing, notes that there are 300 sensors on a single Formula 1 car, generating more than 250 million data points per car per race weekend (the equivalent of 11 billion over a season). This means the team is “dealing with a tsunami of information.”
“We have a winning mentality, so we always know what our objectives are,” he adds, noting that taking a closer look at the data has helped not only the drivers and pit stop crew, but also McLaren Racing’s 1,200 employees.
“When you understand what your drive for success entails and then apply that to your supply chain, your logistics, your finance, your engineering, your HR and people team, you can begin to understand what data analytics can do to really take your business to the next level.”
The best of the best
McLaren and Alteryx clearly have a deep-rooted relationship. Alteryx is not only helping the team increase efficiency and productivity, but also in potentially surprising use cases, such as data scientists looking to improve workflow visualization and save time on coding.
“They are the best of the best and they are very happy with the tools,” Keyworth notes.
He also highlights how Alteryx has helped the team with testing and development – a crucial task in such a rapidly changing sport. With new regulations coming into effect for Formula 1 from 2026, teams will soon effectively be working on three completely different builds for the current season, next season, and an entirely new build for 2026.
Keyworth notes how McLaren has used the estimated 250 million data points each car generates per race to build a full digital twin of the car for testing. Alteryx can then help ‘stitch’ together all the delta data sources to find differences between this digital twin and the simulation runs against the real car to find marginal gains.
“We’re constantly analyzing that data, constantly criticizing ourselves… (and) we’re always looking for those little margins,” he says.
Jacobson agrees, noting that IT leaders really need to recognize that they need to change their mindset because “the fundamental goal is to change business processes to drive efficiency and better outcomes.”
“It’s a really exciting time for IT leaders to help their organizations leverage this data.”