Those watching Formula 1 testing in Bahrain will have spotted an eye-catching addition to the Atlassian Williams F1 Team garage.
Situated on the back of the cockpit monitors, the team displayed a pair of animated eyes that looked like something out of the popular Pixar movie Cars, moving and blinking whenever someone walked past.
Cockpit monitors hang in front of drivers in the garage and display car data, live track feeds, and timing information.
This is a fairly mundane part of the action compared to the mechanics’ frantic movements, but Williams turned it into an opportunity.
Usually split into two screens, the team is using a single, continuous curved screen that allows a separate display on the outside.
Williams displayed the animated eyes as part of its partnership with Anthropic, whose artificial intelligence tool, Claude, was named their official ‘Thinking Partner’ for 2026.
The partnership with Anthropic is more than just jumping on the AI bandwagon; Williams is actually integrating Claude across its entire organisation.
“At a time when our team is on a journey to the front, this partnership is an opportunity for us to show what’s possible when you combine elite human talent with the right frontier models,” Williams Team Principal James Vowles said at the time of the announcement.
Later, Vowles told Sector: “The way we work, communicate, even have meetings has changed as a result of the technology that’s coming in place. Anthropic will add a very interesting dynamic with Claude code and some of the ways of working.”
Alongside integrating it into their race strategy systems, Claude will also help the team interpret and challenge the complex 2026 regulations. As the team uses Claude AI to see and analyse data, the animated eyes are a great way to illustrate those capabilities.
It is not the first time F1 teams have got creative to show off their sponsors, with McLaren trialling innovative digital advertising panels for sponsors in 2024.
McLaren called it a “game changer” with the panels being used to “communicate situationally relevant messages” on the car. They were later removed last season to maximise performance, despite weighing only 200 grams.
In the age when people can easily scroll past sponsorship activations, Williams has found a creative way to showcase their new partnership and keep fans entertained while waiting for the action to kick off on track.
