Finding The Racing Line
How AI Is Guiding the Future of Fan Engagement
Written by Phillipa Rodney
Picture this: You’re at home, watching the Sao Paolo Grand Prix unfold, and your favourite driver has a strategy call pop up on the screen. They stay out for a few extra laps instead of pitting and you want to know why! Right now, not in the post-race debrief. Or imagine this: your commentators start talking about rain approaching in T minus 10 minutes. Your team makes an odd tyre strategy call and you’re sitting there thinking…?!?!?! You don’t want to wait until the end of the race to get an explanation because you are an uncontrollable ball of excitement and this is happening in real time.
This is the modern motorsport fan and teams are finally starting to catch up.
Why Fan Engagement Matters More Than Ever
The new generation of fans are digital-first, always up to date and always connected thanks to advancements in tech, In this new age of AI, large language models and being able to access everything faster than ever before at the tap of a button or a Claude prompt, we’re seeing a massive shift in what sports fans need and expect. More and more sporting professionals are on social media, sharing their stories and behind-the-scenes content. This helps fans feel closer to them, more connected. Fans aren’t simply watching a game or a race anymore. They’re seeking deeper connections; they’re analysing data, creating content to fuel their interests or building their portfolio in the hope of breaking into the industry of their dreams. Fans are now looking for ways to buy tickets, grab merch, watch games and highlights, scroll through team updates and interact with other fans - all in one place. As an F1 fan, I find myself flicking through Instagram for team posts and updates, jumping onto the official F1 site to vote for driver of the day or to make tweaks to my fantasy team, then scrolling through social media to interact with like-minded fans. That’s a lot of context switching, and it could be made easier if all of this lived in one place. An app, perhaps?
Thanks to the rise in motorsport documentaries such as Drive To Survive, F1 Academy, Formula E: DRIVER (to name a few), the barrier to entry for enjoying motorsport has been lowered. This opens the sector to a wider range of fans than ever before which is so exciting for diversifying the fanbase of the sport. Social media has transformed sports from passive viewing to extremely active participation and teams must lean into this if they don’t want to be left behind.
So who is at the forefront in fan engagement? Let’s look at some examples outside of motorsport first. Wimbledon uses data to drive “likelihood to win” segments and personalised summaries in a ‘catch me up’ section in their app. The key insight here? Making complex data instantly accessible to fans. The likelihood to win feature is a brilliant way to help new fans develop their understanding of the rules and points system for tennis without feeling overwhelmed.
The NFL is giving fans the opportunity to design their own helmets to boost fan-generated content in the app, and those designs might even be shown in the game. The story here is turning fans into creators and storytellers, giving them activities to take part in whilst they enjoy the game or during the build-up to match day. Formula E have introduced interactive entertainment at their Fan Village during race weekends. You’ll see fans creating digital graffiti and digital trading cards - immersive and fun! On the app, you’ve got a Stats Centre with an AI companion that shares concise race stats on the drivers or teams you choose to follow. The cards adapt throughout the season and session, sharing information such as past and present performance and circuit by circuit records. As a fan and motorsport enthusiast, having access to trends and data demystifies a lot of the jargon and complexity of learning about team strategy calls and the rules of the series. It helps fans track the journey of the teams and drivers they love the most. The AI companion lets fans ask questions about stats and milestones throughout the season to deliver insights in an understandable, digestible manner. Insights delivered in the way YOU can understand.
How Motorsport Teams Are Getting Involved
Bringing it back to our home turf, what are F1 teams doing in this space? A notable innovation is the partnership between IBM and Ferrari. With the launch of the new Ferrari app, fans can expect to get AI-generated race summaries within hours of the end of the race. Some might say this is too slow - a chatbot to discuss the race with might be another feature worth considering. What is very exciting though, is the historical context and comparison to previous winners. This gives fans more cultural and historical information that can be missed depending on your streaming service and commentators. A nice touch to emulate the feeling of using social media is that fans can participate in daily polls and share messages to their favourite drivers and teams. Whether this is shown during the race is unknown, but it would be a nice touch if the chosen messages were projected onto screens in the race stadium or somewhere highly visible. That’ll definitely encourage people to participate. Ferrari is focusing on real-time storytelling, translating data into narratives to involve fans at every point in the race lifecycle.
What do I Actually Want To See?
As a self-proclaimed nerd, I would like to see FIA decisions and alerts about new rules or innovations teams are taking on ahead of upcoming races - such as new power units and changes to their cars. Reading about these changes can get you thinking about what this means for upcoming qualifying sessions. It gets you speculating with friends and the group chat is set alight with predictions and updates as free practice and quali play out.
Teams have their own feeds which are solely tied to the app, but I would much rather see a TikTok integration so I can see admins’ updates in real time. The admins of F1 teams are the new celebrities; they’re becoming the most important people behind the scenes of fan engagement, connecting with fans and uploading content to meet niche trends and inside jokes. I don’t want to flick between apps. I want to see this in one place. I’m sure there’s a reason this hasn’t been done, but honestly, the ‘news feeds’ in these team apps are nowhere near as fun or engaging; the interactions are very low compared to Instagram and TikTok… so let’s find a way around it - PLEASE. As a fan, I’d probably enjoy notifications leading up to race day, and I’m not talking about responding to polls or quizzes for the sake of it. We’re driving your engagement, so what do WE get out of it? Top scorers could get a discount at checkout if they buy something that race weekend. Interacting with a quiz could enter you into a competition, or if you get 100%, you'll be entered into a prize draw to win something. Fans will jump at any opportunity to get merch and visit a team’s HQ. (I’m looking at you McLaren for a hot lap experience)
I want to see strategy comparisons to previous races with my fav driver on the same track! An F1 chatbot to ask questions at any time could be a kind way to ease new fans into F1 rules and regulations, especially if they don’t have access to tools such as Claude or ChatGPT. We want to see data used for real-time explanations and interactions, predicting pit stops for my favourite teams, allowing me to vote for driver of the day through the app and predicting where my driver will finish the race based on historical data, current strategy and so on. For example, if they receive a 10-second penalty, how will that affect their chances of finishing at P3? Or what needs to happen for the penalty not to affect their race? When I think of community, I think of the hours I would spend on Twitter during and after a live episode of Love Island or Game of Thrones aired. There really is something special about knowing that a lot of people are watching the same thing as you and are also scrolling, reading for updates, or posting their thoughts in real time.
That sense of community is missing from the F1 teams' apps, and I think being able to interact with fellow motorsport fans in real time would be worth testing out. But for it to be worthwhile you would really need a huge amount of fans using the app at the same time to make the interactions natural and free flowing…come back to me on that one. The psychology is: I'm not just watching. I'm part of something bigger happening RIGHT NOW. Imagine scrolling through the McLaren app and seeing a viewer counter - 47,293 fans watching/following right now, 8,472 people just reacted 😱 to a post for a significant moment in the race. Or…collective predictions you can interact with, with real-time summaries: You and 12,847 others picked Verstappen to win. After the race, we’re still craving attention, so give us an instant recap including the strategies of the top 3 teams and drivers, plus the team with the biggest net increase in positions during the race. It's a fun way to start spotting trends and patterns in team decisions, especially when paired with strategy history from previous races. Throw in a downloadable race summary for the data geeks and exclusive race wallpapers for devoted fans. The app will be a lot more engaging if we have access to exclusive driver interviews, behind-the-scenes footage of the debriefs or team cool-down sessions. How about some cheeky AI-powered predictions? All of it!
Why This Actually Matters
Fan engagement isn't solely about keeping fans entertained on race weekends—it's about growing the sport into something bigger, more attractive, and more understandable. F1's recent spike in fans didn't happen by accident. It happened because fans found entry points to the sport that make sense to them, that feel tailored to their interests and learning patterns. Whether that's from binging Drive to Survive, connecting with people through communities such as Driven By Us and Formula Careers. Or following fantastic creators like @rhetms44 (known for Pit Stop Plates), technical explainers from Ruth Buscombe and debriefs from Add Scotty F1, WTF1- the list goes on. When teams choose to leverage AI to deliver personalised content, real-time insights, and interactive experiences, they're not only serving existing fans—they're building the next generation of F1 enthusiasts who will stay up until an unreasonable hour to watch a race. Year-round engagement keeps conversations going between race weekends, converting casual viewers into fans who care about testing sessions, strategies, upgrades, and, of course, silly season. Accessibility matters too. Formula E's AI-powered audio reports for the visually impaired aren't just a nice-to-have anymore; I hope they become a standard feature for many fan apps. Accessibility should also be about whether fans with different needs can still feel connected and engaged. What have we forgotten to account for that could mean this segment of our fanbase is missing out on key moments? These are the questions teams need to ask.
The Bottom Line
For me, fan engagement is making my team feel like home. I want to feel seen and welcomed to the sport, make new friends and engage with the team I support through thick and thin. I want to feel like I’m always at the track, not just a spectator stuck on the sofa with a crushing amount of FOMO. Don’t you?
