Mercedes EQ Formula E Team to partner with SAP

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The Mercedes EQ Formula E Team team has announced its first technology partnership ahead of its maiden season in the all-electric championship in 2019.

Enterprise application software giant SAP has signed a long-term team to become the team's official Business Performance Partner.

The two companies will jointly develop and deploy new innovative technologies to support the racing team in their work.

"We are delighted to announce SAP as the first Principal Partner of our new Mercedes EQ Formula E Team", said Mercedes boss Toto Wolff.

"Although we are still 18 months away from our first race, this new agreement demonstrates the commercial potential of the series.

"[It] gives us a strong basis from which to begin our next phase of technical and sporting preparations for the Season 6 entry.

Mercedes F1 team gets behind manufacturer's Formula E effort

"This agreement will combine traditional brand value with the use of innovative technologies that will contribute meaningfully to our on-track performance."

Among the technologies lined up are SAP Cloud Platform and the SAP Leonardo digital innovation system. SAP HANA® will be utilised to develop engineering solutions to help analyse the large volumes of data generated during race weekends.

"SAP's focus on sustainability is an integral part of our vision and purpose to help the world run better and improve people's lives," explained Bernd Leukert, SAP's executive board member for products and innovation.

"Sustainable mobility is an important step on our way to carbon neutrality," he continued. "Therefore, we aim for twenty percent electric cars in SAP's car fleet by 2020 and to drive innovative IT solutions connected to e-mobility.

"Mercedes-Benz and SAP both aim to create a more sustainable future for our customers, partners, and society with the help of new digital technologies."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.