How F1’s Tech Innovations Are Changing Medicine, Athletics, Aerospace, and More

It’s a tired cliche that Formula 1’s wellspring of technological advancements eventually trickles down to more pedestrian motorcars. But one of the lesser-known effects of the premier motorsport series is the profound influence it has on a multitude of other research and development tracks.

The talented engineers, designers, and logistics experts within F1, which just commenced its 75th season in Melbourne, continually enhance processes in the chase for optimal efficiency—down to hundredths of seconds and thousandths of grams—as they further sharpen that competitive edge. “We understand the physics of a problem, we ask all the right questions, and therefore can get to the nub of the problem and come up with solutions very rapidly,” says Jason Smith, director of the Applied Science division for the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 team.

The innovation spillover impacts industries from aerospace to athletics, the latter including carbon-fibre running shoes worn in an Olympic trial last year. Yet one of the most important beneficiaries has been the medical field, where F1’s ability to steer change is well established. In the 1990s, for example, London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children adopted elements from Ferrari’s pit-stop protocol to more efficiently orchestrate personnel to improve both safety and efficacy, ultimately resulting in massive reductions in errors.

More recently, when the Covid-19 pandemic demanded rapid development and distribution of lifesaving hardware, a consortium of engineers from Red Bull, Renault, Mercedes, Racing Point, Williams, and Haas collaborated on expediting the production of ventilators, and the Mercedes team was directly involved in constructing CPAP machines.

“We did a lot of work on the breathing circuit to minimise oxygen utilisation,” recalls Becky Shipley, professor of health-care engineering at University College London and chief research officer at UCLPartners. As for ventilators, F1 manufacturing facilities were repurposed at a feverish pace. The U.K. government authorised the making of 10,000 units dispersed to over 130 hospitals in the U.K., with a peak of more than 1,000 produced daily.

Bruno Botelho, director of digital operations and innovation for the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, adds that his collaboration with Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff and representative Bradley Lord helped infuse some of their best practices into his workplace. “Their modus operandi and understanding how they communicate and empower a no-blame culture led me to understand how that approach can be scalable to non-motorsports organizations.”

A more curious programmatic quirk of F1 triggered a different sort of symbiosis. In 2021, a cost cap of $145 million per team was implemented to level the playing field. “We could either shrink our organization and lose the benefit of having all that rich engineering talent and skills we built up over the years, or we could bring in a formal process where we take F1 engineers and apportion their time to non-F1 projects,” says Smith. Hence, the Mercedes team’s Applied Science division was formed.

It’s a tactic that has now been widely embraced, as evidenced by such examples as Red Bull’s Advanced Technologies and Williams Grand Prix Technologies. Attesting to the commercial viability of this business model, a similar arm at McLaren was sold off from the automaker’s portfolio to a private- investing firm.

Smith says the benefits are more often seen on high-end, boutique applications rather than broad market efforts, citing a project involving the world’s fastest roller coaster in Qiddiya City, Saudi Arabia. When developers realized the high speeds would necessitate protective eyewear for riders, Smith’s squad devised side shields that deflected airflow, obviating the need for glasses. Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes-AMG, and McLaren also regularly contribute surplus talent to sailing’s own elite category of sport, the revered America’s Cup.

Perhaps the most poignant and personal F1 collaboration is with one of its own, Sir Jackie Stewart OBE, a three-time winner of its World Drivers’ Championship. After his wife, Helen, was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, Stewart founded Race Against Dementia in 2016 to implement F1 processes in the fight. Since then, the charity has raised $19 million for the cause, helped generate over 129,000 hours of research, and launched 69 cross-institutional partnerships.

“Formula 1 thrives on agility—quick thinking, innovation, and a relentless drive to push boundaries,” says Stewart’s son Mark, chair of the trustees for the charity. “Race Against Dementia has the same approach… By working with the brightest minds, we are breaking barriers and driving progress in dementia research like never before.”

Since 1950, Formula 1 has been synonymous with the rapid implementation of visionary solutions. Now that the sport is riding an unprecedented wave of global popularity with a torrential revenue stream, interdisciplinary mentoring will likely be further fuelled, as those involved realise that, beyond podium finishes, even greater wins await away from the circuit.