Cisco has extended its partnership with the McLaren Mastercard F1 Team, opening what the American technology company describes as a new chapter focused on AI-powered performance across the team’s operations.
The extension consolidates Splunk’s long-standing relationship with McLaren Racing under Cisco’s umbrella following its acquisition of the observability platform, giving the team a single technology supplier spanning communications, enterprise networking, security, and data monitoring.
The deal reflects one of the longer evolutionary arcs in F1’s technology partnership landscape.
What began in 2021 with Webex as the team’s Official Collaboration Partner expanded into an Official Technology Partner arrangement covering networking infrastructure in 2022, before Cisco’s security portfolio was added in 2024.
Splunk’s own McLaren relationship predates Cisco’s acquisition of the company – the team used its analytics to win an esports championship during the pandemic before applying the lessons to its physical cars.
“When a championship team like McLaren Mastercard F1 chooses to build their future on the full power of the Cisco portfolio, that validates our unified approach,” said Bryan Jones, SVP of Global Revenue, Field and Partner Marketing at Cisco.
“Seeing our technology at the heart of their operations – there is no more powerful proof point to demonstrate to our customers that Cisco is the critical infrastructure for the AI era.”
The next phase launched with an exclusive event at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking ahead of the Pirelli British Grand Prix.
Seeing our technology at the heart of their operations – there is no more powerful proof point to demonstrate to our customers that Cisco is the critical infrastructure for the AI era.
Bryan Jones
High-Speed AI: Executive Conversations brought together Cisco customers and executives alongside McLaren Racing leadership and ecosystem partners including Mastercard and Deloitte, exploring how organisations move AI from experimentation to enterprise scale.
Cisco has been explicit about the commercial logic underpinning the relationship.
In a sport where spending is capped, the company argues, the fact that the reigning Constructors’ Champion chooses to invest budget in its technology is itself the proof point – a demonstration that its infrastructure delivers when pressure is at its highest.
The partnership also gives Cisco a hospitality and engagement platform with its most important enterprise customers, a function the Woking event made explicit and one the company says will generate further activity in the coming weeks.
