A winning Formula: Atlassian's sponsorship of Williams Racing and the brilliance of F1

With Atlassian's Williams Racing title sponsorship announced ahead of the 2025 season, we're looking at the key lessons F1 teaches us about business success.

Our partnership with Atlassian has always been about driving innovation and helping businesses accelerate their digital transformation journeys. Together, we deliver cutting-edge solutions that help our clients' teams do their best work. With such an extensive background in precision teamwork, Atlassian's sponsorship of the Williams Racing Formula One (F1) team this season is undeniably a great fit. F1 teams involve hundreds of people working seamlessly together to achieve results—from engineering to hospitality, everyone has an essential part to play in getting those cars and drivers out on track on race day.

Alongside celebrating Atlassian's involvement, F1 is even more incredible from a digital transformation perspective; it's a case study in development practices at their best. From rapid prototyping to product development within incredibly tight time constraints—not to mention that the 'viable' part of your Minimum Viable Product really matters when it has to travel at over 200mph!—here are five key lessons from F1 that we can apply to the world of business:

Continuous delivery of the best possible product
The F1 year: build a prototype, test it, learn something from that, and test again. And this is exactly how great development works. The teams proceed like this throughout the season in a constant quest for incremental gains. Rather than making a plan for jumping across a giant chasm, this approach is about taking a small step, checking where you are, and then taking another step, in a constant feedback loop. In essence, it's about recognising that your destination is reached via many small steps, exactly as an F1 team does.
There's a clear goal, and everyone knows what it is
All F1 teams are in pursuit of a single, clear goal: get faster. While winning every Grand Prix would be unrealistic for most teams, they will all have their own internal targets—to get on the podium, or to score a certain number of points—that constitute success in a particular race. Really though, it all comes down to the unequivocal goal of simply 'get faster'. That kind of clarity of purpose and getting everyone on the same page is just as vital in your business, too.
UX—collaborating with your customers—is key
Putting things in business terms, the F1 driver is the customer—and the 'user'. Essentially, the engineers are building a car to suit the driver, so they can drive it as fast as possible. Interestingly, the most successful drivers tend to be the ones who are best at giving feedback on the car's performance, and the most successful teams are the ones who are best at extracting feedback from the driver. This is how prioritising UX and listening to the customer leads to success. The customer has to be both willing and able to provide actionable feedback after every iteration, just like an F1 driver.
Individuals and interactions are more important than prescribed tools or processes
F1 is about a small group of people driving around a track very quickly, each backed up by hundreds of other people, every one of whom is vital to their drivers' success. It's crucial that they all work together coherently and do their part well. The pragmatic teamwork of motivated individuals with a clear goal is what underpins business success—a principle we champion in our work with clients.
Development is cyclical and continuous
Finally, F1 development occurs in loops within loops. There's an iterative cycle even within each race itself—the team is continually getting feedback and making adjustments to the car. Then there's the one or two-week cycle around each race, preparing for a specific track, testing, and refining the car on that track ahead of race day. Aerodynamic testing in the wind tunnel is a three-week cycle. Around it all there's an annual cycle of car development—work on next year's car begins mid-season and is informed by what's being learned every day about the current car. This cyclical approach to improvement keeps teams agile and able to adapt quickly, and F1 shows us just how effective it is.

As Atlassian takes to the track with the Williams team sponsorship this season, we're cheering them on as a global Triple Platinum Partner, and as experts in the transformative principles and methodologies that F1 illustrates. With Atlassian's tools and The Adaptavist Group's expertise, we're in pole position to continue helping businesses navigate the twists and turns of digital transformation.

Ready to shift gears?

Let us fuel your transformation and start racing towards your goals.

Talk to us today