All Formula 1 footage passes through F1’s Media and Technology Centre, located on the outskirts of London, thanks to Lenovo technology.
More than 750 million people worldwide tune in to watch Formula 1®: that’s more than the entire population of Europe. Or, to put it in visual terms, that is the equivalent of filling the Stadio Olimpico in Rome over 10,000 times. And for these devotees, race day isn’t just entertainment, it’s about being part of every second, every story – all made personal by the cutting-edge technology that puts viewers right at the centre of the experience.
That’s because F1 fans are closer to the action than just about any sport in the world. Not just sitting on the sidelines, they see the sport from their heroes’ eye level, from cameras inside their favourite driver’s helmet. Travelling at over 200 miles per hour (300 km/h), they hear directly from the drivers as they communicate with their teams over the radio. All of this is overlayed with up-to-the-second data on everything from speed and position to how much throttle or brake the drivers are using.
In this sport, every millisecond matters. Spectators watch with bated breath as winners are determined by fractions of a second – there is no room for error. And it is the foundational technology provided by Lenovo which allows the audio and visuals of racers to be beamed directly to aficionados across the world, bringing F1 enthusiasts as close as possible to the experience the competitors on the grid.
As the 2025 title fight continues to heat up, the many engineers and technicians who enable the capture, processing and airing of footage are tackling the challenges posed by such fast-paced competition. Both on the circuit and at the F1 headquarters in Biggin Hill, UK, Lenovo’s technology underpins the delivery of race day excellence at breakneck speed.
Facilitating the Fan Experience
For each of the 24 race weekends a year, a skilled team at F1’s Media and Technology Centre, Biggin Hill in Greater London is on hand to bring together the high-speed transmission of footage and data live, supporting its broadcast to millions worldwide. Unlike most sports, F1 has no natural pauses, meaning analysis and results must be delivered in step with the twists and turns of the race, where cars keep pace at 200 mph.
Lenovo’s hardware powers live timing, strategy insights and telemetry, making it possible to instantly pinpoint every car’s position, gap times and performance, regardless of where in the world they are racing. This information reaches production headquarters in the UK from the trackside Event Technical Centre in a quarter of a second, a literal blink of the eye – allowing real-time decisions by both race teams and programmers. A team of specialized technicians at Biggin Hill receive all 20 cars’ radio feeds simultaneously, instinctually selecting which voices to cut to at any given moment.
Thanks to mission control at Biggin Hill, F1 viewers at home experience the action of the racetrack, edited and with information overlays added with only a 35 to 40 second delay. With no room for error, Lenovo’s AI-ready data storage, processing systems and devices must generate timings and graphics which are precise to within a hundredth of a second. Even the slightest glitch could affect a team’s operations or the viewer’s experience.
Infrastructure for Excellence
From race to race, each Grand Prix is its own traveling circus. With no permanent stadium, each event means everything from cars and teams to all the supporting infrastructure has to be set up in a new location. One of the few constants is the media team based in Biggin Hill, a single fixed point of truth situated in Europe, managing and editing the broadcast, taking in footage from anywhere in the world and broadcasting it globally. From historically storied circuits to wild street courses, the technology supporting this remote function cannot fail no matter the circumstances.
Before anything takes place, up to 60 kilometres of fibre optic cables and two ten-gigabit data pipes are installed at every track to facilitate the transmission of the 500 terabytes of data which is collected using Lenovo technology each race day. That volume is equivalent to 48 years’ worth of video files or 200,000,000 songs.
Lenovo’s technology powers more than 180 bespoke applications on which operations run. Not just smart but tough, all of this technology must also withstand the violence of international travel, rough handling and unpredictable weather conditions, maintaining performance without a hitch.
As the 2025 Formula 1 season progresses Lenovo’s hardware and purpose-built technology solutions will help F1 stay ahead of their evolving needs, making the world’s fastest sport even faster.
