Interview: Steve Riley, head of IT operations and service management, Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1
As the British Grand Prix rolled into Silverstone for the annual jamboree of Formula One motor racing, we caught up with the Mercedes F1 team to find out how technology has advanced in the year since the last race
Steve Riley, head of IT operations and service management at Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team, reflects on a job well done. Having worked for the racing team for almost a decade, where he established the IT foundations for stellar success on the track, Riley can be proud of his achievements. However, despite these successes, there’s always another race to win.
“Like every other function, IT plays a part in how the team comes together to deliver wins,” he says. “Some of our inputs might be more obvious than our contribution in other areas, but every component in the cars is manufactured on a platform that we’ve helped deliver.”
Riley’s department provided the IT systems and services off the track that helped the team win an unprecedented eight constructors’ championships in a row between 2014 and 2021. While the past few years have been more challenging, the team continues to push the boundaries to deliver race-winning results.
To understand how IT plays an enabling role, Computer Weekly spoke with Riley at the company’s state-of-the-art technology campus in Brackley, Northamptonshire, in the build-up to the 2025 British Grand Prix at Silverstone. While the team is focused on the current season, the challenges the organisation faces will ratchet up again next season, when a new set of F1 regulations will redefine the sport. Once again, IT will play a key role.
“That’s one thing we speak to our new starters about – don’t feel that because you’re in IT, you’re not directly contributing to the outcome of this race. Some of your role might be contributing to the race that’s happening this weekend. Some of it might be capability that’s going to help deliver performance in 12 months,” says Riley.
“But IT contributes to the outcome of races, seasons and championships. And I always enjoy talking with our new people about that contribution because it’s something that isn’t quite as front of mind sometimes.”
Delivering reliable systems
Riley quickly discovered the vital contribution IT makes to F1 when he joined the team in early 2016. A lifelong motor racing fan, he’d always kept an eye open for senior leadership opportunities in the sport. Having previously worked as a service delivery manager for NBCUniversal Media in London, he jumped at the chance to work in F1.
“It sounds straightforward, but if you’ve got a skill and you’ve also got a passion, why wouldn’t you try and put those two things together?” he says. “I’ve been here nearly 10 years now, and time disappears quicker than pretty much anywhere else.”
One explanation for that perception is the huge amount of work that Riley and his organisation have completed.
“When I joined the team, we were at a relatively early stage in our IT maturity journey,” he says.
“Like every other function, IT plays a part in how the team comes together to deliver wins. Every component in the cars is manufactured on a platform that we’ve helped deliver”
Steve Riley, Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team
“When you look at the organisation from outside, you think that everything related to technology in F1 is going to be at the top of the game. I was surprised and reassured because I could see that I could make an impact when I joined. There was plenty of work to do. And since then, we’ve been on that journey.”
Riley says the definition of value for his IT organisation is all about boosting performance. Back in 2016, this focus was a challenging concept for his IT team to understand. As the importance of technology and data to F1 has increased during the past decade, the IT department has recognised its contribution.
“The journey we’ve been on has been around leveraging the data we have, making strategic decisions based on that insight, and then continuing to build and grow the team to where we are today,” he says, reflecting on the scale of modern IT operations in F1, where his department coordinates data-enabled technology provision across a 24-race calendar.
Embracing regulatory change
Riley says performance works hand in glove with efficiency. Mercedes, like other F1 teams, must operate within the sport’s cost cap, a spending limit that controls racing spend. This year’s cap is $140m, covering development and in-season running costs.
“We have a limited set of resources, so we need to demonstrate that every investment we make delivers value,” he says.
“We’re literally in situations where we say, ‘Well, do we want to invest in new technology, or do we want to put more money into the performance of the car?’ It’s those kinds of decisions that demonstrate the value of investments we make.”
“We’ve been doing a lot of work on our storage platforms and network to generate as much reliability as we can,” says Riley.
“The performance of the technology that we’re rolling out – and we’ve got some great tech partners that support us – means that through this process of upgrading, roll-outs and retiring older kit, we’re generating more time for ourselves.”
After going through some of those refresh cycles, Riley says there’s more headroom to think about how to deliver innovation. The IT department will face new challenges at the end of the season as regulations focused on car dimensions, power systems and sustainability requirements will bring fundamental changes to the way teams and cars operate.
Riley says changes to the cost cap as part of that regulatory process will mean the team has more opportunity in terms of operational expenditure. Previously, the business leaned toward capital expenditure investments in certain circumstances, such as for IT infrastructure. In the new era of racing, he says systems and services sourced as operational expenditure from big technology companies could look more attractive.
“We see the regulations not as constraints but as opportunities. We’re looking at where we can discover openings that other teams can’t”
Steve Riley, Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team
“That’s where private cloud-type solutions become more of an opportunity for us,” he says. “We see the regulations not as constraints but as opportunities. We’re looking at where we can discover openings that other teams can’t. That’s why we’re looking at different storage platforms for some of our activities.”
Exploiting advanced technology
One crucial area of investment is the team’s driver-in-loop simulator, which replicates the behaviour of a real car in a controlled digital environment at Brackley. Using the simulator, Mercedes F1 drivers George Russell and Kimi Antonelli can practice driving around race circuits, and the team can explore potential car configurations.
Drivers and the simulator team work closely with engineers to test solutions for real-time issues. The race team is frequently overseas in different time zones. TeamViewer’s remote connectivity platform Tensor ensures personnel can log in, monitor results, and make changes to the simulator devices in Brackley from any location.
Riley says Mercedes F1 is a long-time user of TeamViewer technology. Employees across the business use the Tensor platform to stay connected remotely and securely. He says Christian Damm, simulator development engineer at Mercedes F1, was looking for a capability that would help his team exploit its data.
“We showed him Tensor, and he was impressed with the performance and the security elements,” says Riley. “The simulator is one of the most sensitive areas in our site, so ensuring that everyone who has access, or preventing anyone who doesn’t necessarily need access on a day-to-day basis, was a key decision-maker for us.”
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Riley says the closeted and competitive nature of F1 means it’s tough to know how much of a game-changing advantage is created by the sixth and latest iteration of the simulator. However, evidence suggests that this digital twin is a crucial weapon in the team’s data-powered technology arsenal.
“I don’t know what the other teams are running, but I know we have a simulator that we can be proud of,” he says.
“It is a performance differentiator for us. There’s always cross-pollination in F1, and we have people that join from other teams, and they’re typically impressed with what we’ve got.”
Searching for new opportunities
Riley says his IT organisation continues to explore how they can exploit TeamViewer’s technological capabilities. “We speak with their development folks most weeks,” he says.
“There are a few other use cases in the pipeline that we’re getting very close to being able to implement. And that’s all on the back of the partnership that we have and how frequently we’re in discussions about what specific development requirements can enable different areas of our team to leverage the Tensor platform.”
When it comes to other areas of innovation, Riley says the team continues to explore artificial intelligence (AI). He acknowledges the AI industry has progressed significantly over the past 12 months. Once again, the competitive nature of F1 means Riley is reticent to share details, yet he says Mercedes is dabbling in AI.
“We already use AI in several ways to look at our performance data,” he says. “That’s the stuff that I can’t share too much about. However, like other organisations, we’re exploring how copilot-type technology can boost productivity. While it’s not right for everyone, there are roles in our organisation that would benefit from a copilot-type support application to work alongside them.”
What’s clear is that Riley and his colleagues will continue to search for opportunities to improve race-day performance. Computer Weekly toured the team’s factory at Brackley and its garages at Silverstone to see how technological advances help Mercedes F1 find new competitive edges. Almost 10 years into his relationship with the team, Riley remains hugely excited by the opportunity to turn data insight into milliseconds of advantage on the track.
“I am fortunate,” he says. “I get to go to the circuit and spend time with one of my teams that supports the IT infrastructure. It’s an incredible privilege to have that access as part of your job. I mean, before I joined the team, I only dreamt of that type of thing.”
