IBM has partnered with Scuderia Ferrari HP to overhaul the Formula One team’s fan app using artificial intelligence, in a deal that puts AI-driven storytelling, personalization and fan engagement at the center of one of sport’s most storied brands.
The partnership comes as Formula One has emerged as a hot destination for major technology companies. AWS, Oracle and Anthropic are among those that have signed partnerships with F1 teams for sponsorship visibility and to provide data analytics and AI tools with a competitive edge. IBM identified F1 as a glaring omission in its sports partnership portfolio two years ago and selected Ferrari as its entry point.
“They’re the winningest team in history,” said Kameryn Stanhouse, IBM’s vice president of sports and entertainment partnerships.
At the heart of the collaboration is the Ferrari fan app, which IBM has rebuilt around AI-driven content and personalization. Ferrari hired Stefano Pallard in the newly created role of head of fan development, who said the team’s goal was not just to reach fans but to make each of them feel individually known. “That starts with taking the data we get from the track and turning it into content that is easy to follow and engaging,” Pallard said.
Formula One teams process millions of data points per second during each race, capturing every movement of the driver and car. Turning that data into accessible fan content is one of the central applications of enterprise AI in the partnership. Stanhouse said the old Ferrari app was a place where people found race details and left. The new version includes games, AI-written race summaries, behind-the-scenes content, a predictions feature and an AI companion that fans can ask questions.
“There are two drivers, but did you know it takes 24 people working simultaneously in two seconds to change a tire?” Stanhouse said, illustrating how AI-powered storytelling helps fans feel closer to the team.
Some changes were straightforward — including making the app available in Italian for the first time, despite Ferrari being an Italian company with a large Italian fanbase. Others were more structural. The team uses AI to analyze engagement signals in the app, including which content fans read and the sentiment of messages they send. “That helps us understand what resonates most with the Tifosi and it directly informs how we shape our storytelling and how we deliver content,” Pallard said.
Engagement data has trended upward since IBM came on board, with the company citing a 62% increase in engagement over race weekends as a headline figure. Unlike other sports apps IBM has built — which tend to see activity spike around specific tournaments — the Ferrari app is designed to keep fans engaged year-round, reflecting the sport’s global calendar.
Ferrari’s fanbase has diversified significantly. F1 released statistics last year showing that 75% of new fans are women, many of them Gen Z — a shift partly attributed to Netflix’s “Drive to Survive” documentary series and the F1 Academy, an all-female racing series aimed at developing the next generation of women drivers. Pallard said the team is building for this broader, more demanding audience. “They are asking for more data, more insight, more features, and we have to be able to deliver that. With IBM, the vision for the next five years is to make every fan feel like the experience was built for them, whether they have been with us for 30 years or 30 days. That is how you build loyalty that lasts.”
