Ferrari Is Using IBM's AI to Turn Casual Viewers Into F1 Superfans

Formula One has always attracted two types of fans. There are the lifers — the Tifosi who can tell you the difference between a 2004 F2004 and a 2026 SF-26 and who watched every qualifying session before breakfast. And then there are the newcomers — the millions of viewers who discovered the sport through Netflix's Drive to Survive, started following Lewis Hamilton on Instagram, and now watch most races through digital platforms without quite knowing what a DRS zone is. Ferrari wants both. IBM is helping them get there. At the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix on May 1, 2026 — the sport's first US stop of the season — Scuderia Ferrari HP and IBM officially unveiled a major overhaul of the Scuderia Ferrari app, packed with new AI-powered features built on IBM's watsonx platform. The goal, according to the teams behind it, is ambitious: to turn Ferrari's nearly 400 million global fans from passive viewers into deeply engaged, knowledgeable, year-round superfans. Why IBM Chose Ferrari Two years ago, IBM realised there was one glaring omission in its roster of sports partnerships: Formula One. The tech-centric sport had become one of the world's most popular, especially in the US, where Drive to Survive turned F1 drivers into mainstream celebrities. With companies like AWS, Oracle, and Anthropic already partnering with teams for sponsorship visibility and data analytics, IBM went looking for its own F1 partner — and landed on the most iconic team in the sport's history. "They're the winningest team in history," Kameryn Stanhouse, IBM's Vice President of Sports and Entertainment Partnerships, told TechCrunch. The partnership centres on storytelling — specifically, enhancing fan engagement by overhauling the technology powering the Ferrari fan app. One of the best parts of sports, Stanhouse noted, is how much data is available and how effectively AI can use it to help fans connect with the experience in ways that genuinely serve them. What's New in the Scuderia Ferrari App The 2026 update is the most significant overhaul of the app since IBM and Ferrari first launched their reimagined mobile experience in May 2025. The new features were designed to bring Ferrari's passionate global fanbase closer than ever to the team, the drivers, and the cars they love — on race day and beyond. Here's what's inside: AI Companion Built with IBM watsonx, the enhanced AI Companion acts as a digital guide, helping fans uncover everything from race-week insights to Scuderia Ferrari HP history in a more intuitive and personalised way. Conversation-style prompts let fans ask questions about the team, the drivers, the race season, and more — for example: "How does the SF-26 differ from previous Ferrari and F1 cars?" IBM's Watsonx Orchestrate technology surfaces contextual responses grounded in current and historical Scuderia Ferrari HP data, as well as curated knowledge sources. Game Center The new unified Game Center is a dynamic destination where fans can participate in race predictors, quizzes, and challenges tied to live Grand Prix moments. Timed quizzes and global leaderboards give competitive fans a reason to keep opening the app throughout the race weekend — not just during the race itself. Race Centre & Racing Insights The Race Centre and Racing Insights sections use IBM's AI to turn complex telemetry data into digestible race recaps and post-race reports. For newer fans who are still learning the sport, this is potentially transformative — the difference between watching a race and actually understanding what happened. Achievements & Social Sharing The app also introduces Achievements that fans can share on social media — a smart move that converts in-app engagement into organic social promotion, turning every engaged fan into a micro-ambassador for the Ferrari brand. The "New Superfan" Strategy The new app is primarily aimed at what Ferrari calls "new superfans" — fans who have recently gotten into F1 and follow most races through digital platforms. It is also designed to strike a balance between inclusivity and exclusivity, engaging casual viewers, hardcore fans, and even those who simply admire the Ferrari brand beyond the track. The app blends human storytelling with advanced AI trained on the team's tone of voice, official press releases, and telemetry data. IBM emphasised that the model was carefully tuned to reflect how Ferrari communicates about races, with guardrails in place to avoid leaks or misinterpretations. That last point matters. AI-generated sports content has drawn criticism in other contexts for being generic, inaccurate, or tone-deaf. Ferrari and IBM appear to have thought carefully about this — training the model on Ferrari's own voice rather than simply unleashing a general-purpose AI on race data. The Numbers Don't Lie The initial results from the May 2025 relaunch — before this year's deeper AI integration — already tell a compelling story. Since the app relaunch, IBM reports a 35% increase in cumulative downloads, a 36% increase in average monthly active users, and a 56% increase in average race active users. Those are significant numbers for a fan app in a sport where engagement has traditionally been concentrated around broadcast moments. A 56% increase in race-day active users suggests the app is genuinely changing how people experience a Grand Prix — not replacing the TV broadcast, but deepening the connection to it. IBM has confirmed it will continue rolling out new features on the Scuderia Ferrari HP app throughout the 2026 season. The Bigger Picture: AI Is Reshaping Sports Fandom The Ferrari-IBM collaboration is part of a broader shift in how sports organisations are thinking about fan engagement. The old model — broadcast the event, sell the replica shirt, repeat — is giving way to something far more personalised and data-driven. Ferrari and IBM are moving beyond traditional broadcast experiences to create personalised connections with millions of racing enthusiasts. The partnership signals a broader shift in sports tech, where AI-driven insights could redefine how teams build communities and monetise attention in an increasingly competitive entertainment landscape. For Formula One specifically, the timing could not be better. The sport's global audience has exploded over the past five years, driven by the Netflix effect and a new generation of fans who consume sports primarily through screens and social platforms. The challenge now is converting that casual interest into deep, lasting loyalty — the kind that fills grandstands, sells merchandise, and sustains a sport for the next generation. If Ferrari's numbers are anything to go by, AI might just be the tool that gets them there.