Formula 1 will bring new AI innovations to its TV broadcasts in 2026, after deploying a new cooling solution developed by global partner Lenovo.
As F1 continues to innovate its broadcasting and race output, as well as real-time data processing, the demands on its high-performance computing environment continue to grow.
Scaling this process efficiently is crucial to meeting the strict technical and environmental objectives laid out for 2030.
Lenovo’s Neptune Liquid Cooling solution offers a breakthrough in cooling technology, enabling high-performance computing capabilities that will power F1’s AI systems inside their UK-based Media and Technology Centre.
This will directly integrate into Lenovo’s servers at F1’s UK base, removing heat at the processor level by using warm water, improving thermal efficiency and dramatically reducing the power required to cool high-density computing by 40%.
Neptune’s water-based heat removal technology can provide peak computing performance while significantly reducing energy consumption compared to traditional air-cooled systems.
“Lenovo Neptune Liquid Cooling fundamentally strengthens F1’s technical infrastructure, enabling consistently higher workloads and greater speed, paired with significant energy savings,” said Lenovo Chief Technology Officer, Dr Tolga Kurtoglu.
“It means F1 can confidently expand the scale and sophistication of its broadcast systems while meeting the efficiency, reliability and sustainability requirements driven by the evolution of the sport.”
Across a typical race weekend, around 600 terabytes of live data flow directly between the trackside Event Technical Centre and Media and Technology Centre.
F1 can confidently expand the scale and sophistication of its broadcast systems while meeting the efficiency, reliability and sustainability requirements driven by the evolution of the sport.
Dr Tolga Kurtoglu
The latter acts at the nerve centre for F1’s global broadcast output, where a wide range of data is collected, including car telemetry, tyre data, team radios, 4K camera feeds and audio streams that get broadcast to more than 820 million fans worldwide.
Lenovo’s solutions are key to helping that output, having moved the majority of its processing power to F1’s UK base in 2022. This latest innovation will help F1 deploy more powerful AI and data workloads that benefit the global broadcast, according to Chris Roberts, Director of IT at F1.
“It integrates seamlessly into our existing air-cooled data centre, enables us to run data and AI workloads on-premises and lays the foundation for future innovation across our operations.”
Further innovations are also expected as a result of this technology integration, further elevating the fan experience globally.
