Ever wondered how Ferrari connects millions of fans to the thrill of F1? 🏎️
At IBM Think 2025, host Daniel Newman sat down with Stefano Pallard, Head of Fan Development at Ferrari, for a look into how Ferrari is harnessing the power of AI and data analytics to revolutionize fan engagement and performance in Formula 1. This session sheds light on the strategic partnership between Ferrari and IBM, highlighting their innovative approach to leveraging technology in the fiercely competitive world of racing.
Key takeaways include:
🔹Beyond the Broadcast: Ferrari is leveraging technology to deliver data-driven insights and personalized narratives that go beyond what traditional broadcasts can offer, deepening fan connection & engagement.
🔹AI-Powered Personalization: The future of fan engagement is personal. Ferrari is working with IBM to use AI to tailor the fan experience, delivering customized content and interactive features based on individual preferences.
🔹Data-Driven Storytelling: Ferrari is using the vast amounts of data generated on the track – telemetry, weather data, and race results – and working with IBM to translate it into compelling and understandable stories for fans.
🔹A Strategic Partnership: Ferrari’s partnership with IBM is about more than just sponsorship; it’s a collaboration built on shared values of innovation, trust, and security, ensuring that the fan experience is both engaging and reliable.
Learn more at Ferrari.
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Transcript:
Daniel Newman: Hey, everyone, The Six Five is On The Road here at IBM Think 2025 in Boston, Massachusetts. It’s a dreary day. It’s a little bit rainy here, but that’s not uncommon here in the Northeast. But it’s been super busy and active when it comes to all things technology and AI. Now I’m watching the roads. They’re a little bit damp, just like they were in Miami this last week during the F1 Grand Prix down there in Miami. And we’re going to take that topic from Miami to Boston as we have the Ferrari team here who, you know, has a partnership with IBM. So I’m really excited to have this conversation today. We’re going to talk a little bit about fan experience. We’re talking about data, and I’m going to have the chance to talk to Stefano Pallard with Ferrari, he leads the fan experience for Ferrari. Welcome to the show. Great to be here with you.
Stefano Pallard: Thank you very much for having me here.
Daniel Newman: Yeah, it’s exciting. I mean, look, let’s start off, you know, we’re about, what, a third of the way into the season. F1 has just had this incredible handful of years. I mean, it’s been incredible for a long time, but the last handful of years, I think ever since the Netflix show picked up, people have really found the passion. How’s the season going so far?
Stefano Pallard: Okay. From a performance point of view, you know, we’re struggling a little bit, but probably that’s not me the right person to speak about performance. We have time, I mean, to keep up the pace. And probably like last season, like, McLaren won the championship and they were not starting very well. So, I mean, we have 18 races to come back.
Daniel Newman: But you guys had an incredible start to the year. I mean, Sir Lewis Hamilton joined the team. He had some changes. I think there’s a lot of people who love Carlos and we wish him obviously, all the best. I still like watching him on race days. But Lewis brought so much legacy and of course, Charles an incredibly strong driver. So I imagine as a fan experience person, though, you were pretty excited about having that as the backdrop of your season.
Stefano Pallard: It started like more than one year ago when Lewis was announced. I mean, it. It has been huge. I mean, I joined Ferrari, like, in July. So one year ago, I was working in the media. I was working in Gazzetta Dello Sport previously, the leading sport publisher in Italy. So I was watching Lewis arriving in Ferrari from a media perspective. It was huge. In Italy I mean, everyone was talking about it. And I think for Ferrari it was good to have the time to prepare for his arrival. Because when such a champion joins a team like the level of all the company has to raise, you bring in seven time world champions in. And not just the sport performance has to race, but also marketing, communication, everything goes up by one level.
Daniel Newman: Yeah, there was a ton of enthusiasm, a lot of excitement. There was just so much energy and enthusiasm coming into the season. It was a little odd for a fan of the sport like myself to see him shifting colors, you know, green to red. But he wears it well.
Stefano Pallard: Yeah, definitely.
Daniel Newman: So a big theme here at IBM Think is data, of course. And so you as you know, helping to drive the fan experience. I mean you have to be thinking constantly about using data, the applications, tracking the fans, tracking what they’re interested in. Talk a little bit about how data utilization is evolving.
Stefano Pallard: So my role is fan engagement. So the importance of data for fan engagement. I see two main points. The first point is translating all the data we receive from track from the car into a narrative that could be understandable and relevant for the fans. Because of course all that data coming from the car might be difficult to understand from our fans. So what we are trying to build with IBM is turning those data insights into a relevant narrative that is understandable and relevant for different segments of people. This is point number one. And point number two, I would say we’re trying to get to know our fans better. So gathering fans data in order to provide them a more personalized and relevant experience at the end of the day.
Daniel Newman: Yeah, so that sort of leads me nicely into where I was going to go with this with AI specifically. Right. Because you know, data has been around a long time, but the way data can be leveraged, utilized. In the opening keynote, Arvind talked about 99% of enterprise data still really hasn’t been applied to AI yet. And so some of the data you have, you know, comes from the public domain, it’s from social platforms. But you also have built the fan experience, the app experience, the fan engagement tools, which is providing you a whole new look into what the Ferrari fan base that you’re responsible for is interested in. So what are you sort of seeing in terms of the role of AI and how do you see kind of AI evolving to make your work work?
Stefano Pallard: It is really, really an exciting time for AI in coming into sports and coming into Ferrari experience. Because before my arrival, since one year ago, we were not using AI to provide any kind of fan experience. Now with IBM, we’re building the first steps into content generation. So of course content is king when it comes to fans. And Watsonix AI is helping us produce more content, personalized content in a faster way in order to, of course, provide a better experience to our fans. But it’s just a starting point. We’re working a lot on new interactive features. So the next step is trying to not just provide content, but provide interactive experience. Experience built by AI and personalized. So you come into the app and you get an experience that is different from mine and personalize so you’re able to interact.
Daniel Newman: Yeah, it seems like with AI, you know, we’ve seen some of the progress with things like being on board with your favorite driver, being able to track because, you know, throughout the course of the race, if you’re watching it on TV and they do a great job, but you know, you’re like, well, I want to see the battle that my favorite driver’s having. And of course TV can only track so many things at once and it has to kind of manage the whole race through the applications. You can get those experiences and of course kind of see a real time stream, seeing where they’re at in the track, you know who you know, maybe two drivers, you like, comparing them head to head. There’s all kinds of really great things that you can do. Let’s talk about the IBM partnership though. Big announcement this year. Adding the logo right there prominently looks good on the shirt. Let’s talk a little bit about what you know, because when teams like Ferrari, they have more than enough options for who wants to sponsor them. It’s not just who’s willing to pay you, it’s who it’s always about “fit”. And so when they choose a certain technology partner and say, we’re going to put the badge on the wing of the car, on the halo or wherever it is, on the shirts, on the uniform for the driver, there’s a lot that goes into it. What does the partnership with IBM look like? How are you using IBM’s technology?
Stefano Pallard: Of course. So as you said, we have been talking with different possible partners to build fan engagement powered by AI. Then we got to sign the IBM partnership. I think first thing from a higher partnership level is common values. So we share innovation values, strive to improve. Then when it comes to fan engagement powered by AI, I would say the three keywords were experience, trust and security. So we were looking for a partner that has experience in the sports field and IBM, of course, working with Wimbledon, the US Open with Augusta Master. So we’re already proven experience building relevant fan experiences. Then of course, security and trust. Because, of course, our most important asset in Ferrari is our brand. So whenever we provide an experience to our fans, our brand is exposed. So we really wanted to choose a partner that was. I mean, we can trust. So.
Daniel Newman: Yeah, I think that’s a big thing. I mean, we talk a lot about the data, we talk a lot about the tools. You know, as I was observing how IBM built its enterprise AI platform, it was very focused on some things that maybe some of the bigger tech companies aren’t as focused on. Like, for instance, you know, the governance of the data. Right. So the data you have is very. It’s unique, it’s proprietary. Your fans want to feel trusted, especially you being European based in Italy. Europe is extremely focused on making sure that people’s individual data is protected. You, of course, want to be a company that has the ethos, that has that kind of fundamental belief. And it seems IBM would really align very well on that trusted security side.
Stefano Pallard: Security, definitely. Security is key. So in two ways. The one you said, so let’s say users data for protecting user data, but moreover, like protecting Ferrari data, because as Fred was saying, we are feeding our app with all the telemetry data, weather data and stuff. Some of them are very confidential. So the way IBM manages them, it’s crucial for us and so be sure that those data doesn’t flow anywhere else and they are secure. It’s the most important stuff.
Daniel Newman: Yeah, I think it’s a very good fit from my viewpoint. So it’ll be great to watch kind of how the partnership evolves and, you know, how, again, some of these technologies can also be on the fan experience. And I know that’s your domain, but really also optimizing the cars because, you know, some of the fan experience has really been so closely tied to what data has done, what all the access to sport has provided, and how fans can get to the next level. I don’t think even five years ago, fans understood to the extreme that you do today. Everything from the dynamics of the wings to the, you know, the exact degradation of the tires to, you know, how much fuel load that the car carries. And I think now fans really know all that. So fans have become much more involved in the process of being able to understand, like, why they pick those tires. You see 20 cars on the grid, you see 16 on one and four. What are the other four? And fans have become super connected and understanding. And I think part of what you can now do is.
Stefano Pallard: And they are more and more demanding. They’re asking for more data, for more content, more data related content and being able to, and they’re asking us questions and so we have to be able to provide answers and be able to tell those data driven stories to them.
Daniel Newman: So is generative AI something that you’re thinking about? Is that changing at all how you’re thinking about it?
Stefano Pallard: That’s how we’re starting. So in the new app we’ve just launched, there’s an AI powered race summary. So basically how it works, just a few minutes after the race, all data coming from telemetry weather results are managed by IBM and an AI generated summary. And we get this AI generated summary. We just check if everything is fine. And a few minutes after the race is published on our app.
Daniel Newman: Have you had the chance to drive one of the cars yet?
Stefano Pallard: No, not really. Just a simulator.
Daniel Newman: Have you driven the simulator? Have you driven the simulator without all the, the, you know, special modes? Because I’ve driven a simulator in one of the paddocks before.
Stefano Pallard: Okay.
Daniel Newman: But they, they generally tune it for like us normal people.
Stefano Pallard: Yeah, no, no, I’ve just driven, I’ve just driven. I mean, I mean I’m not a driver, so normal mode. But it’s quite tough. I was, I was not expecting this. I mean, the first time I jumped into the simulator I was thinking, okay, it’s like a video game? No, F1 video game. No, it’s really, really difficult. Like, but my first lap was just about going to keep the car on the road.
Daniel Newman: Yeah, no, absolutely. But I mean that’s kind of one of those great examples of where technology has become accessible. Fans now get to contribute, they get to feel like they, they, they get behind the wheel and they’ve become so much more intimate to the sport. So maybe just with the last few minutes we have left here, kind of what, if anything, do you sort of see evolving in terms of the fan, you know, experience? What are some of the big goals that you have to connect more deeply to take that Scuderia and make them much closer and keep the fans and not let any defectors go off to any other team. And what are some of the things you think you can do?
Stefano Pallard: So when I joined Ferrari my biggest challenge was really turning our digital fan experience from an editorial experience. So the experience we were having one year ago was like a flow of news basically in our app. So turning this editorial with a passive fan consumption of content into an interactive experience. So having fans being able to interact with our app, doing things. So the three keywords I would say for my goal in involving experience are interactivity, personalization. Because like one year ago, every fan was getting the same content, the same experience. So our next level of evolution is trying to provide every fan a different content and different experience. So having an algorithm that if you like Lewis more than Charles, you get more Lewis content. And of course, the third big challenge for us is trying to gather fan data and being able to use and to create more personalized experiences.
Daniel Newman: Well, that’s a great way to lead this, Stefano. I really appreciate you spending some time. It sounds like it’s an exciting time to be a Ferrari fan. An exciting time for F1. It continues to grow in popularity around the world. I look forward to kind of continuing to watch your journey, watch the partnership between Ferrari and IBM. And I just want to say thank you so much for spending some time with me.
Stefano Pallard: Thank you very much. Thank you for having me.
Daniel Newman: And thank you so much everyone out there. This is The Six Five. We are On The Road at IBM Think 2025 in Boston, Massachusetts. Hit subscribe. Be part of our community. Join us for all of our coverage here at IBM Think and of course, all of the Six Five coverage across the tech space. For this episode, for me, for all of you out there, it’s time to say goodbye. We’ll see you later.
Author Information
Daniel is the CEO of The Futurum Group. Living his life at the intersection of people and technology, Daniel works with the world’s largest technology brands exploring Digital Transformation and how it is influencing the enterprise.
From the leading edge of AI to global technology policy, Daniel makes the connections between business, people and tech that are required for companies to benefit most from their technology investments. Daniel is a top 5 globally ranked industry analyst and his ideas are regularly cited or shared in television appearances by CNBC, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal and hundreds of other sites around the world.
A 7x Best-Selling Author including his most recent book “Human/Machine.” Daniel is also a Forbes and MarketWatch (Dow Jones) contributor.
An MBA and Former Graduate Adjunct Faculty, Daniel is an Austin Texas transplant after 40 years in Chicago. His speaking takes him around the world each year as he shares his vision of the role technology will play in our future.
