“The financial regulations were effectively the third tier of governance introduced to the sport in 2021. … Technology spend, unfortunately, IT sits squarely within the cap. So every technology spend we now make, there has to be some kind of justification, a genuine business case that adds up. … We're now running as much data analysis against our financial forecasting and modeling as we are on some elements of the development of the car.”
Technology Now · October 2026
Context
Asked whether technology helps with Formula 1's financial regulations, the Mercedes team's CIO explains that the cost cap covers IT spending, which changes how the team decides what to build.
Transcript
…and heating up an already hot engineering crew is vitally important too. But, yeah, across the course of the candidate, there's many different challenges, depending on geography, locale, local weather, all of those things, but they're just things we take in Australia in the world of Formula One.
So, F1 regulations are incredibly strict. Everything is an opportunity for performance. And so, often that sometimes gets locked down. My understanding is finance is also now part of the regulations, has been for a few years. Is that something that the technology helps with? The
…change at the start of this season, which is added an additional level of complexity. Just as you start to think your mastery and the understanding of the regulations, they change, and then you have different treatment for different things, and you then have to go and find ways to be smart and clever again. Obviously, technology is a huge enabler to be able to do that, large data analysis. We're now running as much data analysis against our financial forecasting and modeling as we are on some elements of the development of the car. Historically in Formula One, it was all about finding an opportunity to improve a part and taking that to the track as quickly as you possibly can. And the financial aspects of that were sometimes a bit of a second thought. Now it needs to be part of the equation. So there's a cultural change that's happening. Certainly in our team and I suspect all of the other teams up and down the grid to…
Michael Taylor you so much for time. It's been a real pleasure interviewing you on Technology Now.
Ah, Michael, it's been an absolute pleasure too. Yeah, so thank you very much.
Thank you.