In a sport where success can be made or lost in a split second, ensuring your technology stack is at its best is vital for every Formula 1 team.
With budgets constantly being reviewed and new regulations coming into effect for the 2026 Formula 1 season, every team must ensure its workforce is as efficient and productive as possible.
The Aston Martin Aramco Formula 1 (AMF1) team recently announced a renewed partnership with ServiceNow and TechRadar Pro was invited to the team's Silverstone headquarters to find out more.
“Kernel Override”
ServiceNow means many things to many customers, but for an organization as broad and diverse as AMF1, the company has played a key role in the team's ongoing digital transformation, although AMF1 doesn't necessarily use that term.
“I’m not a big fan of the word digital transformation – to me it means it’s already been done,” Sioned Edwards, Aston Martin F1 IT Operations Director, tells us. “To me digital transformation is about incremental change and bringing technology into an organization, so trying to say it’s done will never work – and it will never be done here!”
“We're always in this endless cycle of trying to improve technology, implement technology, try something new—so we're constantly undergoing digital transformation.”
“In many cases, one of the most important things that digital transformation misses is that it is a by-product of organizational change—we're talking about business transformation, artificial intelligence transformation,” says ServiceNow Chief Innovation Officer Paul Hardy.
“Digital transformation done right is amazing… it redefines what you do, it redefines why you do it – and what impact it has on your business – but it can’t be done well without business transformation or organizational change.”
Hardy adds that AMF1 is undertaking what he calls “a real digital transformation journey… and it's not something that can be done in 12 months – it takes time – but it's what we've been doing (for clients) for the last 20 years!”
“Part of implementing ServiceNow is delivering value now, value today and value tomorrow,” he notes, “we know the use cases, so we can come in and say: you may be a Formula 1 team, but I guarantee you will take steps to adapt, change advertising, remove… and guess who else has the same problem? Banks, healthcare services and others – so we're not just building a product for That's what we're building a narrative.”
Edwards points out that Formula 1 is an ever-changing landscape and IT has a vital role to play, but there is a fragility to it. The team composition in 18 months could be completely different from what it is now, so having a trusted partner in ServiceNow was critical.
“We've approached the implementation of ServiceNow so that it's gradual, keeping small wins and small amounts of work to replicate what we're trying to do with the organization to improve performance,” she says, noting that AMF1 itself as an organization was only formed in 2021 as the next generation of the former Racing Point team, meaning a strong foundation is needed when it comes to comes to IT – and that's where ServiceNow came in.
“It brings value rather than one big group decision – like sometimes when you do big projects, especially from an IT perspective, the value is lost – with incremental change it's easy for people (on the team) to buy into it.”
“Implementing ServiceNow gave us the opportunity to get it right the first time… it was literally a blank sheet of paper!”
This makes it much like a Formula 1 car in that the car that takes to the grid for the final race of the season will be completely different to the one that starts the first race, such is the rapid pace of development of the sport.
Edwards notes that after the message was changed to attract the attention of bosses who are trying to win Formula 1 races, the benefits of working with a partner like ServiceNow became clear.
She notes that even cybersecurity can be tied to keeping a car off the track, so it's vital to tie it back to the team's core values of being here to win and race.
“It's important to have not only the best technology, but the most reliable technology,” adds Edwards, “You need a laptop to start the car, and if that laptop doesn't work, the car won't start!”
I'm looking forward to it
With new rules coming into force in Formula 1 in 2026 and new challenges facing the entire team, I ask Edwards if this has affected her priorities in any way.
“In other words, cost containment is just a budget, with some very interesting exceptions and rules,” she notes, “any IT leader has to make decisions… how much performance will this add to the car and how much risk are we mitigating?”
“We operate with a fairly high risk appetite, but there are some areas where we are not willing to take risk.”
“There's a lot of work being pushed through the IT department driven by the business and the organization: new tools, new software, new hardware,” she notes, highlighting the ever-changing new cybersecurity threats as another key factor.
“So we need to look at the timing – the first test will never change, so we need to make a priority call – we need a lot of time, a lot of people to move around… so it's a whole piece of not only technology work, but also logistics work.”
I ask Hardy if there have been any specific customer use cases that have helped ServiceNow adapt to the fast-changing world of Formula 1.
“Every millisecond counts and when you work with the team, it feels like they are just passionate about success – and I think we work with a lot of companies where people want to make a difference – and the energy you get for something so fast-paced is just electrifying.”
“It's a consensus across all industries: Every industry needs to reduce risk, every industry needs to reduce costs, be more efficient and wants its employees to be more productive… and we're in a good position to answer that question.”
“Customers tell us we're moving at a pace that business expectations are rising like never before, and yet we absolutely know this is the slowest we're ever going to go and the future is tomorrow, not five years away.”
“We want to keep the world working—there’s a lot going on, and if we can change that a little, if we can add a little to it, we’re not only doing better for our customers, we’re doing better for humanity.”
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