In the high-stakes world of Formula 1 motor racing, where every millisecond can determine victory or defeat, speed isn’t just about the cars—it’s about data.

Behind the scenes, an intricate web of real-time telemetry, race simulations, and strategic decisions fuels every Grand Prix. The challenge? Ensuring seamless, high-speed data transfer between the track and the factory, regardless of location.

That’s where Bspoke Global Networks Ltd. (BGN) and Riverbed Technology come in. Through our long-standing collaboration, we’ve empowered F1 teams to optimize their performance, enabling them to make split-second decisions and maintain an unmatched competitive edge. Together—with support from BGN’s distribution partner, Infinigate—we’re transforming how real-time data powers performance on and off the track.

The Challenge: Managing a Moving Network

Every Formula 1 season takes teams to over 20 different locations worldwide, from the narrow streets of Monaco to the high-speed straights of Monza. Unlike traditional IT infrastructures, these teams set up and dismantle entire networks within a few days. One week, engineers are in Bahrain; the next, they are troubleshooting data latency issues in Japan. The stakes are high: if telemetry data arrives too late, teams may miss the window to make critical race-day decisions.

Latency presents a major obstacle, especially when transferring vast volumes of data over long distances. Even a few seconds’ delay in sending telemetry from the track to the factory can mean missed opportunities for setup adjustments before qualifying.

This is where Riverbed’s Acceleration solutions prove invaluable. With Riverbed SteelHead, BGN significantly reduces latency and optimizes bandwidth, enabling real-time collaboration between trackside engineers and HQ teams. The result? Prompt data analysis, immediate performance improvements, and faster strategic decisions during races.

BGN + Riverbed: Built for Speed, Efficiency, and Performance

Riverbed’s Acceleration portfolio is designed to overcome network performance inhibitors such as latency, congestion, and suboptimal last-mile conditions, ensuring peak performance for every user, everywhere. For BGN’s customers this ensures that telemetry data from the track reaches engineers with minimal delay, even in the most challenging conditions.

BGN also leverages Riverbed’s Network Observability solutions to gain deep visibility into network activity. This allows IT teams and engineers to proactively monitor and troubleshoot issues before they affect race operations.

The ability to access full fidelity network data at any time enables BGN to ensure the teams they support have no network performance challenges at racing venues across the globe from their HQ in Silverstone. This visibility ensures that teams in the factory can access critical information such as intercom audio from the drivers and video feeds of the cars during practice sessions.

Accelerating Performance at Every Turn

The integration of Riverbed Acceleration optimizes data flow across vast distances, ensuring that trackside engineers and headquarters stay in constant, real-time communication. Key Acceleration advantages include:

1. Optimized Global Data Transfers

Formula 1 teams rely on instantaneous data transmission. With Riverbed’s SteelHead, BGN enables:

• Faster telemetry transfers from trackside to HQ
• Real-time analytics, allowing engineers to optimize setups before the next session
• Seamless race simulations, ensuring every aerodynamic tweak and race strategy is data-driven

2. Elimination of Latency Barriers

Time zones and global circuits create unique IT challenges. Riverbed Acceleration helps teams operate as if they were in the same room, despite being thousands of miles apart. Engineers at HQ can analyze car data from anywhere almost instantly, ensuring strategic decisions are made in real time.

3. Enhanced Network Efficiency

Prioritization is critical during a race weekend. Riverbed Acceleration ensures that essential applications—telemetry feeds, simulation software, video analysis—always take precedence. This guarantees uninterrupted performance for data-intensive tasks, even in bandwidth-constrained environments.

Riverbed’s Impact on Team Race Performance

Riverbed’s Acceleration solutions have transformed how F1 teams approach race weekends:

• Trackside engineers receive data as if they were at HQ, reducing setup time
• Real-time simulations refine aerodynamics and tyre strategies mid-session
• Faster file synchronization enables seamless collaboration across teams
• Network speeds mimic LAN performance even across vast WAN distances

During the Chinese Grand Prix (March 21–23, 2025), one leading Formula 1 team achieved data reduction rates of up to 75%, a testament to the power of Riverbed Acceleration in optimizing network efficiency during high-pressure race conditions. This is just one example of how Riverbed’s technology makes a tangible impact, enabling teams to focus on refining their race strategies without worrying about data bottlenecks.

One F1 team IT manager noted:

“We cannot remove these devices; they are utterly critical to our trackside operation. The speed of deployment and instant effectiveness prove how crucial BGN and Riverbed have become to our strategy.”

Another F1 customer of BGN and Riverbed shared:

“Before we had Riverbed Acceleration deployed, the transferring of data at the end of a race would take over 2 hours, since we added SteelHead to our network, that has been cut down to under 20mins. The ability to transfer large amounts of data quickly has become a major enhancement to how we operate.

Another benefit of the Riverbed SteelHead solution is the ability to delve right into our link utilisation and see exactly who is using bandwidth, how much and between what end points so that we can ensure that the bandwidth is being used to its highest efficiency.

Just like with our cars on the track, anything that can be done to speed up the movement of data is seen as a competitive advantage. In short it has been a game changer. Even more so in the current times of cost caps and needing to maximise our assets.”

Beyond Race Day: A Competitive Edge

The benefits of Riverbed Acceleration extend far beyond race weekends. F1 team engineers rely on historical race data to fine-tune future car designs—refining aerodynamics, optimizing power units, and sharpening strategic modelling. In fact, the amount of data moving across one of the teams supported by BGN has skyrocketed—more than quadrupling between the 2015 and 2025 Australian Grand Prix. As Formula 1 teams push into an era of AI-driven analytics and cloud-powered collaboration, the demand for lightning-fast, reliable data transfer isn’t just growing—it’s accelerating at race pace.

BGN and Riverbed are continuously exploring new innovations to enhance communication between trackside engineers and HQ analysts. In a sport where precision is key, this partnership ensures F1 teams stay at the forefront of technology, not just on the track, but in every high-speed data exchange that drives success.

From the track to the tech—discover how Riverbed Acceleration powers every performance breakthrough.