How an AI Oliver Bearman could help Haas F1 understand its fans

The Haas Formula 1 outfit is aiming to gain an early advantage over incoming American rivals Cadillac by boosting its knowledge of the prospective United States fanbase.

To do so, the team is working with its new official partner Infobip – a global communications platform based in Croatia, with revenue exceeding $1.8billion last year.

It provides tools to the likes of Google and Uber, while also helping to deliver content on WhatsApp, Apple Messages for Business and others.

Fan engagement is at the heart of the partnership and Infobip plans to roll out a number of new tools in the coming months. The aim is to – starting at September’s Italian Grand Prix – introduce a race companion Artificial Intelligence-bot ‘RaceMate’, which would utilise Haas’ social media fanbase to bring them closer to the team.

“For Haas, it has some key goals it is trying to hit, it wants to understand its fans in a much deeper way than it does today,” Infobip VP, marketing, Ben Lewis told Autosport.

“It has side objectives which is to get its fans to do more, purchase more merchandise, support Haas at the track.

“For Infobip we are looking for brand presence, showcasing our tech in a public setting and also as an opportunity to entertain customers and partners.”

Such activations mean Haas can learn more about its fans, which could be key in keeping hold of its numbers in the US – where it has been the only F1 team since launching in 2016.

Autosport understands one of the key considerations taken to expand fan engagement, and the understanding of Haas’ support core, is borne out of the fact it will be competing with General Motors-backed Cadillac from 2026.

On a visit to the Haas factory on Tuesday, Autosport was also shown future plans to build out from the ‘RaceMate’ concept, with fans able to interact with an AI version of Oliver Bearman – the ‘Ollie Bot’ using a large learning model to give the most realistic answers to questions users pose to ‘Bearman’.

There are also plans for Augmented Reality as another step to deepen fan engagement with Haas and future activations by gamifying race days – as the team would drop AR prizes to be collected and cashed in via the initial chat bot.

Such plans are being developed with the aim of bringing supporters closer to the team at the same time as giving Haas the opportunity to market the brand to a more targeted fanbase.