Formula One is celebrating its 75th anniversary by handing the wheel to fans. In partnership with Amazon Web Services, F1 has launched the Real-Time Race Track experience—an online tool that lets users design custom tracks, simulate weather and strategy conditions, and generate personalized, AI-powered race posters. It’s a crossover between cutting-edge technology and the high-octane world of motorsport.
As someone who had the chance to try the experience firsthand at the AWS F1 event during the Imola Grand Prix, I can say this is as close as most fans will ever get to being a race engineer.
A Fan’s Playground, Powered by Data
The experience, powered by Amazon Web Services’ new family of foundation models—Amazon Nova—puts the sport’s vast trove of real race data directly in fans’ hands. All it takes is a touchscreen or mouse to sketch out your dream Formula One circuit. From there, Amazon Nova Pro instantly analyzes the track’s lap times, top speeds, overtaking zones and strategic complexity.
You can even set your circuit anywhere in the world. Whether it’s the slippery streets of your hometown or the blistering tarmac of the Abu Dhabi desert, the simulator uses live weather and climate data to model track conditions. Based on those inputs, the system offers two race strategies, including optimal tire choices, pit stop timing and weather-specific insights. It’s all presented with the same level of detail that real teams use on race weekends.
Gamifying Race Strategy
With more than a million data points coming off each car per second, the sport has long been a showcase for cloud computing and telemetry. Amazon Web Services has been the official cloud and machine learning provider of Formula One since 2018, and this marks its most fan-focused innovation to date.
“This is taking what we’ve done on the broadcast with live insights and turning it into an immersive experience for fans,” said Kristin Shaff, Amazon Web Services’ global director of strategic partnerships. “Now anyone can design their own circuit and instantly see how weather, tire selection and pit timing influence performance.”
Retro Posters and Real Rewards
Once your masterpiece is complete, Amazon Nova Canvas transforms it into a retro-style Formula One poster, perfect for sharing on social media. But that’s not all—every track design enters you into a sweepstake for a chance to win a trip to the Formula One British Grand Prix in 2026.
On top of that, Amazon Nova Sonic—a speech generation model—lets fans converse with an AI race strategist about their design choices, almost like getting feedback from a real pit wall.
Racing Toward the Future
Formula One’s popularity is in full swing, thanks in part to Netflix’s Drive to Survive and the upcoming Brad Pitt F1 movie. But beyond the celebrity buzz, this new digital experience reinforces how deeply intertwined the sport and technology have become.
“Formula One continues to evolve and transform how fans interact with the sport,” said Jonny Haworth, director of commercial partnerships at Formula One. “This gives fans an inside look at the complexities and innovation of race strategy, using the same technology that helps to power our sport.”
Final Thoughts
Real-Time Race Track is a powerful tool disguised as a fun fan experience. It takes some of the sport’s most complex elements—strategy, telemetry and weather modelling—and makes them accessible. More importantly, it invites fans to become creators and strategists, not just spectators. In a season celebrating 75 years of Formula One, this may be one of its most future-forward moves yet.
