As a record crowd packs into Melbourne's Albert Park for the return of Formula One to Australia for the first time since the very start of the pandemic, there's a race going on off the track as well among the teams and some of the biggest and smallest tech companies in the world as technology takes centre stage in one of the world's great sporting spectacles.
JigSpace is an app that allows anyone to build the most amazing 3D models to be viewed either in the app, on the web or in augmented reality . Australia's Daniel Ricciardo has another Aussie brand on his car, with STEM nonprofit DeadlyScience selected to be highlighted this weekend as part of tech company Smartsheet's sponsorship of the McLaren Formula One Team.Alfa Romeo used JigSpace to allow fans to not just reveal the car, but to get up close with it virtually in their own home.
Founded by proud Indigenous Australian Corey Tutt, DeadlyScience is providing mentoring and resources to remote and regional school students across Australia to ensure they are not left behind in the STEM education, which is becoming far more important every single year.STEM nonprofit Deadly Science was selected to be highlighted this weekend as part of tech company Smartsheet's sponsorship of the McLaren Formula One Team.
Red Bull refer to Oracle not as a sponsor but as an "innovation partner", enabling their F1 business to push the boundaries of innovation. One of the examples given by Zoe Chilton, head of partnerships at Red Bull Racing, is the advanced strategy work required in Formula One, known as Monte Carlo simulation, using Oracle Cloud computing power to help the team decide just what to do during a race.
When asked about the competitiveness off-track between tech companies, Taylor Newill, senior director of motorsports engineering at Oracle, told 9News: "I think Red Bull is the absolute best at what they are doing."