Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team’s real-world adoption of CoreWeave and NetApp technology diverges from initial partnership announcements, illustrating the complexity of modern motorsport storage and compute stacks. New details show the team owns its GPU hardware, with CoreWeave managing hardware and running AI workloads, while all data processing currently stays on-premises.
Key sponsors deliver technical infrastructure for track events and the team’s Silverstone HQ. Aramco is the primary backer, with NetApp and CoreWeave serving as core tech partners. NetApp’s sponsorship began in 2021, replacing Pure Storage (now Everpure), which previously provided all-flash storage under a 2020 ServiceNow deal. NetApp fully took over storage operations in 2023, completing a full migration from Pure arrays to a 100% NetApp environment in October 2025.
The team leverages a broad NetApp portfolio across trackside and HQ systems, including FlexPod, BlueXP, Data Infrastructure Insights, ASA A-Series block storage, StorageGRID object storage, and Cloud Volumes ONTAP for AWS, Azure and GCP cloud data resilience.
Neocloud specialist CoreWeave delivers global GPU-as-a-Service via distributed data centers including London sites. In May 2025, it announced a multi-year deal as Aston Martin’s official AI cloud partner, planning to migrate the team’s on-prem compute to large-scale cloud infrastructure. CoreWeave’s data centers predominantly run on VAST Data storage, plus WEKA, DDN, IBM Spectrum Scale and Pure Storage, without native NetApp integration. Its S3 object layer uses LOTA caching to place data directly on GPU nodes.
A critical F1 engineering workload is Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) wind tunnel simulation for analyzing vehicle aerodynamics. Current FIA rules ban GPU acceleration for Restricted CFD (RCFD) solver phases. Core solver calculations must run solely on certified homogeneous CPU cores, with all floating-point and integer operations barred from external accelerator offloading. Teams must officially register hardware specs with the FIA and submit logs for routine audits.
To ensure fair competition, the FIA limits CFD workloads via Allocation Unit hour caps determined by CPU core count, clock speed and FLOPS performance. GPUs will only be approved for CFD solver use starting January 1, 2028, leaving CoreWeave’s GPUaaS unusable for regulated CFD work until then.
Aston Martin recently hosted a Network Technology Forum at its Silverstone base, bringing together partners including CoreWeave, NetApp, Zscaler, Cohere and Arm to discuss motorsport tech strategies.
During the event’s media roundtable, F1 CIO Fabrizio Pilotti clarified key operational facts: NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP is not actively deployed; all data processing runs locally with no CoreWeave cloud workloads; the team owns all GPU hardware, while CoreWeave oversees hardware operations and AI model execution.
These inconsistencies with official announcements prompted further inquiries into cloud deployment, workload placement and cross-platform interoperability. The team withheld detailed architectural specifics to preserve competitive advantages, only sharing high-level updates.
It confirmed Cloud Volumes ONTAP remains part of its 2024 renewed NetApp partnership, though seasonal infrastructure updates have altered older configurations. The team noted workloads dynamically shift between on-prem and cloud resources based on real-time compute needs, with no public breakdown of individual workload placements.
The CoreWeave partnership remains active, focused on migrating on-prem infrastructure to cloud to enable AI-accelerated engineering, while specific hardware and workload details remain undisclosed. All cross-stack architectural mechanics are kept confidential for competition and security purposes.
Overall, Aston Martin’s rollout of CoreWeave and NetApp capabilities is advancing more slowly than initial announcements suggested. GPU-accelerated CFD solvers will not comply with FIA regulations until 2028, delaying full cloud compute integration for the team’s core aerodynamic simulation workflows.
Beijing Qianxing Jietong Technology Co., Ltd.
Sandy Yang/Global Strategy Director
WhatsApp / WeChat: +86 13426366826
Email: yangyd@qianxingdata.com
Website: www.qianxingdata.com/www.storagesserver.com
Business Focus:
ICT Product Distribution/System Integration & Services/Infrastructure Solutions
With 20+ years of IT distribution experience, we partner with leading global brands to deliver reliable products and professional services.
“Using Technology to Build an Intelligent World”Your Trusted ICT Product Service Provider!
Your message must be between 20-3,000 characters!
English
