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Insight Customer Experience 7 min read

Lights Out at Sepang: Where Salesforce Fits in Formula 1, Beyond the Logo

A rain-soaked race, a record 261,000 crowd and a Friday night nobody planned for. What Formula 1's return to Malaysia shows about the race off the track, and the part Salesforce plays in it.

Aerial view of Sepang International Circuit, with the main grandstand between the two long straights
Sepang International Circuit from the air. The main grandstand sits between the two long straights.

Sunday, 4 October, Sepang

The rain came just before lights out. Torrential, the way only Sepang rain can be, and the start was pushed back by an hour and forty minutes. When the cars finally got going, more than 100,000 people in the grandstands were on their feet.

Max Verstappen started on pole, lost the lead to both Mercedes cars on intermediate tyres, then took it back at the lap nine safety car restart and pulled away. He won by 2.3 seconds. It was his first win of 2026 and the 72nd of his career, nine years after he won the last Malaysian Grand Prix at the same circuit in 2017. "72 mate, 72!" he told his team on the radio.

Lewis Hamilton started second. Ferrari sent him out on slick tyres on a track that was still too wet, and he slid to the back of the field, as low as 18th. Then the track dried, the safety car bunched everyone up, and he drove. With three laps to go he passed Isack Hadjar for third. Front row, back of the field, back on the podium, ending Ferrari's five-race podium drought. George Russell, running third, retired with five laps left.

It was meant to be the Bahrain Grand Prix. After conflict in the region forced the April race in Bahrain to be cancelled, Formula 1, the FIA and the two governments moved it to Malaysia. Sepang had about two months to get ready. The weekend sold out: 261,000 spectators, 103,000 on race day, the biggest crowd in the circuit's history, with millions more watching around the world.

Lewis Hamilton

Front row, back of the field, back on the podium.

Started P2Lowest P18Finished P3
P1P5P10P15P20Slicks on a wet trackP2P18P4P3GridWet early laps3 laps to goFlag
261,000spectators across the weekend, a Sepang record
103,000on race day, sold out
1h 40mstart delayed by torrential rain
72career wins for Verstappen, his first of 2026
Final top ten and key moments, from published race reports. Hamilton's lowest position is as reported by Sky Sports; the chart shows key moments, not every lap.

The other race that weekend

There was a second story at Sepang, and it started on Friday night. An estimated 100,000 people came on the first day, far more than the event had planned transport for. The 95-bus shuttle fleet was stuck in the same traffic as everyone else. Some fans waited up to four hours, and thousands walked along the expressway towards KLIA and Mitsui Outlet Park in the dark. Malaysians online compared it to Train to Busan.

By Saturday, the authorities had added dedicated transit lanes, KLIA Ekspres ran until 1am, and things improved a lot. To be fair to the organisers, they built a Formula 1 weekend in two months for a crowd bigger than anyone expected.

But it shows something every business with crowds of customers already knows. Racing is what fans come for. What they remember is everything around it: the ticket, the parking, the queue, the wait, the way home. That is the race Formula 1 has been running off the track, and it is where Salesforce comes in.

Formula 1 is a fan business

Formula 1 earns its money from broadcast rights, F1 TV subscriptions, race hosting fees, sponsors, tickets and hospitality. All of it depends on two things: knowing its fans, and proving its value to sponsors.

That is a big job. Formula 1 says it has 827 million fans worldwide, and 43% of them are under 35. They buy tickets, stream races, play fantasy games, shop for merchandise and follow drivers on social media. Before 2022, much of that data sat in separate systems.

Where Salesforce actually fits

Salesforce signed a five-year partnership with Formula 1 in 2022, reported at around £20 million a year, and in March 2026 the two extended it for several more years. The logo at the track is the visible part. The bigger part is that Formula 1 runs much of its fan business on Salesforce.

It is worth being clear about what Salesforce does not do. It does not design the cars, read the telemetry or decide when to pit. That side runs on Formula 1's official cloud partner AWS, and on each team's own technology partners, such as Oracle with Red Bull.

On track

The car and the race

Car design and simulationThousands of virtual tests before parts are built
TelemetryLive sensor data from every car, every lap
Race strategyWhen to pit, which tyre, how to react to a safety car
TV graphicsThe on-screen predictions and battle data fans see
Run by F1's official cloud partner AWS, and each team's own technology partners

Off track

The fans and the business

One profile per fanData 360 joins 100+ sources: F1 TV, tickets, shop, app
Fan serviceAgentforce and Service Cloud fix login and streaming issues
MarketingMarketing Cloud picks the right content and send time
SponsorsTableau tracks what each partner was promised and received
Fan companionAn AI agent on F1.com explains the 2026 rules, any hour
Staff on race daySlack keeps teams in sync during live broadcasts
Run on Salesforce
Salesforce does not touch the cars. It runs the business that sells the sport, from fans to sponsors. Based on Salesforce and AWS published case studies.

What it has delivered

Formula 1 joined data from more than 100 sources into 24 million fan profiles on Data 360, and did it in under four months. On top of that one view of each fan, it built the rest:

80%faster average response to fans
95%+issues fixed on the first contact
+22%click-through from AI-picked content
90%fan satisfaction, up 8 points in a year

In March 2026, Formula 1 added an AI fan companion on F1.com, built on Agentforce. It explains the new 2026 car rules at any hour, using official F1 sources, and tracks what fans are asking so the team knows what to explain better. Figures are as reported by Formula 1 and Salesforce.

A race weekend is a customer journey

Look at a fan's weekend as a lap of the circuit. Every stop is a moment where the organiser either knows who the fan is and helps, or does not. Sepang's Friday night happened at stops 3 and 6.

START / FINISH12345678
  1. 1
    Ticket boughtWho is coming, from where, and with whom.
  2. 2
    Parking or shuttle passHow each fan plans to get there, so capacity matches the crowd.
  3. 3
    Getting thereLive updates on queues and routes, by app or WhatsApp.
  4. 4
    At the gateEntry scanned, and a welcome that fits the ticket.
  5. 5
    In the grandstandFood, merchandise and offers that suit the moment.
  6. 6
    Getting homeWhich exit, which shuttle, how long the wait is.
  7. 7
    Watching at homeF1 TV, the app and social, on the same profile.
  8. 8
    Next seasonAn early offer, timed to when they bought this year.
One fan, one race weekend, eight stops. Red marks the stops where the Friday crowd at Sepang felt the strain. Each stop either adds to one fan record or starts another separate list. Sepang International Circuit layout, redrawn; the stops are illustrative.

What any business with a crowd can take from this

Know who is coming
Tickets, registrations and bookings tell you the size and shape of the crowd before it arrives. Use them to plan capacity, not just to count sales.
Talk to people in the moment
When a queue builds or a plan changes, a message by app or WhatsApp to the right people beats a crowd with no information.
Let agents take the routine
AI agents can answer the questions everyone asks, like logins, refunds and directions, so people handle the hard ones.
Prove value to partners
Sponsors and partners want evidence. Track what they were promised and what they got, in one place.

This applies far beyond motorsport. Concerts, stadiums, airlines, malls, telcos and banks all serve big crowds at peak moments. The ones that win are the ones that treat every fan, passenger or customer as one person, not ten separate records.

Where to start

1
Pick your busiest moment
A launch, a sale, a payday or an event day. That is where gaps show first.
2
Join the data you already have
Bookings, app, website, service and payments, into one profile with Data 360.
3
Add an AI agent for the top questions
Start with the five questions people ask most, with clear handover to staff.
4
Message people when it matters
Use consented app, email and WhatsApp messages for real-time updates, not just promotions.

Sources: Malay Mail: Verstappen conquers rain-delayed Bahrain Grand Prix at Sepang; Sky Sports race report; Bahrain International Circuit: record-breaking sell-out crowd; The Rakyat Post: Friday transport at Sepang; Salesforce customer story: Formula 1; Salesforce: Formula 1 and Salesforce deepen partnership (March 2026); BlackBook Motorsport: Salesforce and Formula 1, 2022; AWS: Formula 1 case study. Formula 1, F1 and team names are trademarks of their owners; Telcowin is not affiliated with Formula 1.

Know your crowd before it arrives

We help Malaysian brands join their customer data and put it to work, from one profile per customer to AI agents and real-time messaging.