Red Bull Racing extends Oracle partnership, deploys AI strategy agent for 2026 season

The multi-year renewal covers race simulations, the new hybrid power unit developed on Oracle's cloud infrastructure, and a trackside AI agent designed to support real-time decisions by race engineers.

Oracle and Oracle Red Bull Racing have announced a multi-year extension of their title partnership, timed to coincide with the most substantial regulatory overhaul in Formula 1 in recent memory. The 2026 rules reshape how teams generate and manage power, requiring significant changes to car design, energy deployment, and race strategy.

Under the extended deal, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) will continue to underpin the team's technical operations, while Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications will be used across finance, HR, and marketing functions. The partnership also introduces a new AI-powered strategy agent that will work alongside race engineers during grands prix.

The strategy agent is built on Oracle's AI stack and is designed to automate data collection, process historical and live race inputs, and surface information to help engineers respond to changing conditions more quickly. It represents a shift in how the team handles the volume of data generated during a race weekend, reducing the manual workload on engineers at the point when decisions matter most.

On the engineering side, the debut of Red Bull Ford Powertrains' next-generation hybrid power unit, developed and tested on OCI, marks the team's first foray into building its own engine. The programme was completed in four years, competing against manufacturers with significantly longer histories in power unit development. Oracle's high-performance computing and simulation infrastructure was used throughout the design and validation process.

The 2026 regulations also demand more detailed race modelling. The team will use OCI to run simulations that account for energy usage, active aerodynamic configurations, tyre behaviour, and a range of race scenarios specific to the new rules. Those simulations feed directly into the strategic briefings given to drivers and engineers ahead of and during race weekends.

"We rely on Oracle's expertise to help us understand and optimise countless variables with greater precision and speed than the competition," said Laurent Mekies, CEO and Team Principal at Oracle Red Bull Racing. "With Oracle Cloud and Oracle AI, we can adapt quickly, make smarter decisions, and sustain the level of performance required to win championships."

"The same technologies the team uses to model strategy, refine its hybrid power unit, and deploy the latest AI innovations trackside are the ones powering transformation for companies across every industry," said Clay Magouyrk, CEO of Oracle.

The 2026 Formula 1 season begins in Melbourne on March 5.