AI Innovation Drives Mercedes F1 Team Partnership With Abu Dhabi-Based G42

Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell will be competing in Grand Prix races this season with a new sponsor logo featured on their cars and helmets. The logo belongs to G42, an Abu Dhabi-based artificial intelligence and cloud computing company. While the logo itself is not expected to have a major effect on team performance, the technology being developed and deployed by G42 has the potential to make a significant difference by using data-driven insights that improve operations on and off the track.

The partnership between Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS and G42 can provide benefits by making the reams of data generated on the Formula One tracks, in the pits and garages, and around the circuits more useful. In addition to artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing technology, the collaboration could draw on companies in G42’s portfolio ranging from healthcare and biotech to geospatial mapping and surveying to the AIQ energy industry joint-venture with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC). The Mercedes-G42 partnership will also play a role in aiding talent development, training, and innovation programs.

By identifying areas and opportunities for converting data into information, the Mercedes-G42 collaboration can create new knowledge for boosting efficiency, effectiveness, and performance across both enterprises. As seen in the popular Netflix behind-the-scenes documentary series “Formula 1: Drive to Survive,” success in the fast-moving, highly-competitive world of F1 owes especially to a combination of the right people and the right technology. Advancements in AI are increasingly making their way into that effort.

Another thing about the partnership is that it reflects and refracts the value of innovation in Abu Dhabi’s growth as a global city.

Abu Dhabi holds a special place on the F1 calendar. The Grand Prix season finale has been held at Yas Marina Circuit since 2014 and the circuit is under agreement to continue hosting the final round until 2030. Last year, more than 140,000 people attended the event during race week, with more than 70 percent coming from abroad. Organizers are planning for record-level numbers this year.

It altogether factors into Abu Dhabi Vision 2030, the national strategy that aims to shift the Emirate’s economy and society from oil-driven to knowledge-based. Abu Dhabi’s progress in that direction is being built a great deal on an entrepreneurial ecosystem. According to Ramesh Jagannathan, managing director of startAD, the startup accelerator powered by Tamkeen and based at NYU Abu Dhabi, the emerging ecosystem cannot be bought simply through investments from oil wealth—“it has to be natural and home-grown” rather than with “quick, ready-made solutions off the Silicon Valley shelf.”

From his vantage point, Jagannathan, who was a member of the five-person panel tasked by the Abu Dhabi government with certifying the Vision 2030, sees Abu Dhabi’s push as grounded in “creating tangible technologies that tap into and create products and services that reflect their local, cultural and social sensibilities at relatively low cost.” To achieve that requires enabling access to high-quality “intense, immersive, and granular programs” that attract global minds and organize them on high-performing teams. And it requires mature examples for new entrepreneurs to learn from.

The Mercedes-G42 partnership could serve as such an example.

In the meantime, the Mercedes team will take to the F1 tracks this season trying to win another World Constructors’ Championship. The team took home the trophy for eight consecutive seasons from 2014-2021, but finished third last year. The partnership with G42 could give it an edge that helps achieve the goal of regaining the top spot.