Scuderia AlphaTauri gets in gear with RapidAPI to improve performance

With opportunities unexpectedly presenting themselves for the challenger team in a surprising new season to date, Formula 1 racing team Scuderia AlphaTauri has announced a major multiyear partnership with fellow rising outfit RapidAPI to improve in-house software applications and ultimately improve performance on the track.

Formerly known as Scuderia Toro Rosso, the racing team has been involved in Formula 1 since 2006 and is one of two Formula 1 constructors owned by Austrian beverage company Red Bull. It began a new era in 2020 when Red Bull entrusted the team with the flagship role of promoting its premium fashion brand, AlphaTauri, which was created in 2016.

The second year of the AlphaTauri era, 2021, proved to be its best ever in terms of points scored, with drivers Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda finishing in the points in 19 of the 22 races, taking the team to sixth place in the Constructors’ Championship. Both drivers are present for the 2022 season driving the team’s AT03 car.

The team, which has facilities in Faenza, Italy, and Bicester, UK, sees RapidAPI’s expertise and centralised, cloud-based application programming interface (API) platform – taking information from telemetry networks – as playing an important role in improving team performance.

“Nowadays, F1 car performance is influenced by the ability to exploit advanced technologies and innovation. We design, simulate and set up the car using different software, many of which are bespoke applications developed over the years using in-house code,” said Scuderia AlphaTauri head of IT Raffaele Boschetti.

“RapidAPI will allow us to speed up our development process while having top-quality software available at the track to support our engineers and gain an important competitive edge. We are very pleased to welcome RapidAPI as an important technical partner,” added Boschetti.

The growing Silicon Valley firm’s technology platform is intended to enable developers and enterprises to find, connect to and manage APIs across multiple cloud environments. Developers use RapidAPI to connect to tens of thousands of APIs using a single account, helping power modern software development by improving data sharing and collaboration between multiple applications.

Headquartered in San Francisco, the company is backed by investors including Andreessen Horowitz and SoftBank, among others, and recently achieved unicorn status upon closing its $150m Series D financing in March 2022.

“We are excited to start this partnership with RapidAPI to showcase how their technology is supporting our team to compete at the highest level of motorsport,” said Scuderia AlphaTauri team principal Franz Tost.

“No other sport is as reliant on information technology as Formula 1 and achieving the maximum performance requires a combination of human effort and state-of-the-art technology. [RapidAPI founder and CEO Iddo Gino] shares the same ambition as we do, and I am looking forward to this long-term partnership,” added Tost.

Gino said: “Scuderia AlphaTauri and RapidAPI have a shared commitment to ensuring that the team is always at the front of the pack by optimising the relationship between the data and the many teams and partners working behind the scenes on every aspect of the race.

“As innovation partners, we are solving the data and integration challenges that have existed across the sport, making Formula 1 a truly API-driven industry. We look forward to collaborating with the team to continue to improve performance and excellence across every aspect of the Formula 1 experience.”