Analytics and the science of marginal gains drives performance in a plethora of professional sports – including stick-and-ball pursuits as well as ones relying on wheels. SAP joined McLaren as a sponsor in 1997 and has now joined Mercedes – formerly a customer of its HANA software – as a partner with a mandate to help optimise resources, maximising development while remaining within the budget cap
GP Racing: What was your background before you joined SAP?
Fadi Naoum: I studied economic data processing at the University of Cologne, and then went directly from there to work for the German airline, Lufthansa. And that is where I came into contact with SAP, implementing their software.
GPR: SAP has been in Formula 1 since the 1990s as a sponsor, initially with McLaren. But like many tech companies the relationship has turned into something more than just a sticker on the car. So what’s the difference between being a customer and a partner?
FN: Well, first I must emphasise that Mercedes is still our customer! We’re proud to have Mercedes as a customer and now as a partner in Formula 1. We were also a partner with Mercedes in Formula E. We work together on innovation and it gives SAP an opportunity to develop in our laboratories, working hand-in-hand to meet customer requirements. Mercedes has also been a customer on the automotive side for a long time.
GPR: One of the key selling points with HANA [Highperformance ANalytic Appliance] is speed, and Mercedes has talked about the power of that in engineering development. But it was also interesting to hear how it’s become useful in policing budget-cap compliance?
FN: Yes, fundamentally it’s a fast and powerful database where the data is stored in such a way that it can be queried, searched, analysed and served with great speed by users working collaboratively. A great advantage for engineering teams. Now that the budget cap has been implemented, there’s much greater interest and focus on costs – not just on monitoring them in the present, but also in planning and forecasting. Some teams have already been hit [by penalties for breaches]. That’s one of the benefits of our partnership with Mercedes, we’re always ahead – we help the leaders stay on top of budgets in real time and forecast for the months to come.
It’s been a big change of mindset for Formula 1. Previously it was very engineering and performance-focused, now finance has to be integrated into the process so it works hand-in-hand to deliver the best parts, and the gr
