F1 broadcasts will now have access to a new AI-powered tool, Strategy Insight, developed in collaboration with AWS. Using machine learning and F1’s real-time data feed, Track Pulse, Strategy Insight is a predictive model that will appear in graphic boxes explaining what is likely to happen based on current conditions and historical precedent.
“F1 strategy’s always been described as a bit of a dark art and a black box, and now with the power of the insights that we have available to us that are empowered by AWS, we can make that a glass house,” said Ruth Buscombe, an F1 Race Strategist and AWS Technical Advisor.
Buscombe previously led race strategy for Alfa Romeo’s F1 team and worked with Scuderia Ferrari and Haas as well. She is now an on-air analyst for F1’s world broadcast feed who assisted in the creation of the Strategy Insight feature. The model will predict optimal race plans on when to pit or change tires for the viewers. Buscombe noted that the depth of information available through the AWS product is similar to what she had access to with her F1 teams.
“Teams are constantly assessing and changing [strategy],” Buscombe said, “and that Strategy Insight plugin, we hope, is a way to be able to bring that story to the forefront to give the viewers at home a clearer window into the decision-making process.”
This weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix is an ideal debut race, she noted, likening its strategy to “a knife’s edge” because of the delicate calculation of whether to stop once or twice. Buscombe said a two-stop plan needs to have the first pit by lap 20 of 70, which typically needs to be decided even earlier.
“If you wait too late on the two-stop, you lose,” she said. “You go too early and it’s a one-stop, you lose. Teams have got 15 laps to work that out and we are going to bring that story live at home. So you don’t have to wait to see what teams are doing. We’re going to show you the story as it evolves.”
AWS has been an F1 sponsor since 2018 and recently won Sports Sponsor of the Year at the Sports Business Awards in May.
