AUSTIN, Texas — F1 is more than just a sport that is rapidly amassing a large fan base in the United States. Beyond the excitement of the high speed and extreme danger that encompass the sport, Formula 1 holds great weight in influencing and transforming the automotive industry.

In a panel at South by Southwest Conference & Festivals in Austin, Texas, focused on F1’s impacts on the world through transportation and culture, leader of McKinsey Center for Future Mobility Phillipp Kampshoff shared with the audience the origins of Quantum Black, the AI consulting arm of McKinsey, and how it has transformed the cars on the grid.

Acquired by McKinsey in 2015, Quantum Black originated from Formula 1 to improve the vehicles throughout the season. According to Kampshoff, the very first car of the season would not be able to score any points in the last race, demonstrating how the vehicles evolve over time. It’s a constant cycle of refinement.

“Today in the races, I would argue that the digital version of the car is actually the real car. Using AI and machine learning to say what engineering ideas do we have that you can put into the car without having to go through the physical design and going through the wind tunnel to see if it’s working or not,” said Kampshoff.

He reiterated that the real value is in the simulation of the digital twin of the vehicle. Most of the testing is designed to improve the simulations and the digital twin to reap the best results on grid race weekends. McKinsey took this instrument and applied it to the America’s Cup to help Emirates Team New Zealand and create digital twins of their boats. Similar to F1, these boats would compete against each other digitally without requiring sailors to build them.

Retired Indy Car race driver James Hinchcliffe chimed in to reiterate Formula 1 is a massive test bed for automotive manufactures. Everything from ABS to traction control to the rev has been influenced by designs completed from the grid. Commercial cars see improvements directly from F1.

Trends and the government are pushing for significantly more cars to be electric in the near future. The International Energy Agency says 60% of vehicles sold globally are going to be EVs. Enter 2021, 16.5 million EVs total sold. By 2030, they want 350 million.

“I don’t see how you could have that many EVs on the road in that short time period. The push for sustainable fuels, I think that’s really going to be a game changer. Look back 10 years, EVs was the future. By 2026, F1 will be running on [e-fuels,]" said Henchcliffe.

He believes as Formula 1 pushes for e-fuels to be the future of car racing, the automotive industry will follow.

E-fuels are created when you take CO2 out of the atmosphere from where it is being produced, like a big manufacturing facility, and combine it with green hydrogen. In order to be green hydrogen, it derives from renewable energy, and in most cases, it comes from nuclear power.

“It’s basically identical to the gasoline we have today. You can drop it into today’s tanks just like that. It’s cleaner than most electric vehicles today. Going all electric is very, very expensive. E-fuel is the exact opposite. You can just use your current [vehicle],” said Kampshoff.

As technology develops alongside the cars used to race in Formula 1, trends on commercial roads and in automotive industries will follow suit.