The world of Formula One has caught the blockchain and cryptocurrency bug today, as leading race team Williams Martini Racing unveiled a technology partnership with enterprise blockchain specialist Omnitude.

The deal will see the two companies investigate and research ways to implement blockchain technology into numerous aspects of how a Formula One team operates. Across everything from inventory management to telemetry logging, the potential for blockchain to provide highly scalable, meticulously recorded data records is enticing to the data-centric world of F1 racing.

Motor racing in general, but particularly Formula One, is known for its early and extensive adoption of enterprise data capture, mining and analytics technologies. Teams look for every advantage to shave tenths of a second off lap times, so anything that can help them to collect and use more information about their cars and their performance at every stage of their lifespan, is highly desirable to a race team.

Omnitude’s technology allows enterprises to adopt blockchain on a ‘plug and play’ basis, integrating with existing enterprise IT systems rather than requiring companies to replace systems wholesale. It’s aim is to make the integration of blockchain into a business easier, cheaper and faster while reducing disruption to existing systems and workflows.

“Williams prides itself on speed of innovation and engineering excellence. We welcome the opportunity to form a close partnership with Omnitude and provide the ideal environment to showcase radical new technologies that have the power to transform the capabilities of businesses around the world,” said Claire Williams, Deputy Team Principal of Williams Martini Racing.

Omnitude has agreed a multi-year deal with Williams, which will also include branding appearing on team uniforms, starting at this year’s Spanish Grand Prix. The company’s logo will also appear on the team’s race cars at the Spanish and Monaco Grand Prix races.

“We are exceptionally pleased to have signed this deal with Williams,” Chris Painter, CEO and Founder of Omnitude added. “Working with Williams Martini Racing is a major validation of our product and vision and this partnership is a natural pairing of two of the UK’s most innovative and cutting edge organisations.”