Automation Anywhere to provide RPA solutions to McLaren Racing ahead of 2020 F1 season

Robotic process automation (RPA) software firm Automation Anywhere will be deploying its bots to help UK-based motor racing team McLaren Racing streamline its business operations. 

The technology partnership will begin at the start of the 2020 Formula 1 season, the opening round of the season will be held at the Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit in Melbourne, Australia on March 15 for the Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix 2020.

San Jose, US based Automation Anywhere will deploy its intelligent digital workforce (digital worker) in the motorsport environment. The bots will work side-by-side with people to perform repetitive and manual tasks and will help streamline Woking, UK-headquartered McLaren’s business processes.

Mclaren Racing was founded by New Zealand race driver Bruce McLaren in 1963. It first entered its Formula 1 race in 1966 and has since won 20 Formula 1 world championships.

“To perform in this sport, we need to be at the forefront of technological advancements and empower our people to apply their thoughts and focus to chasing marginal gains on track. Automation Anywhere’s sophisticated technology will help us do this,” said Zak Brown, CEO, McLaren Racing.

RPAs are software bots that help make repetitive tasks easier. The current major players in the segment include Blue Prism, UiPath and Automation Anywhere, and all of them have raised a significant amount of money due to the growing demand for automation. 

Indian-origin founders' Automation Anywhere, for example, recently secured $290 million in a Series B funding round led by Salesforce Ventures. The investment was raised at a post-money valuation of $6.8 billion. 

Auto racing teams, and the automotive industry in general, are investing in emerging technology to help them make data driven decisions. Renault Sport’s F1 team already uses Microsoft’s cloud solutions to crunch numbers and get a greater insight into the data. 

Japan-based auto giant Honda had previously tapped into IBM’s Watson IoT for Automotive to work on its hybrid engines, which it provides to racing team Toro Rosso.