How Oracle Red Bull Racing locks down F1’s most valuable data

The modern world presents a complex issue for Formula 1.

A plethora of systems, apps and AI-driven workflows multiply the number of keys, tokens and passwords in use, each creating a potential weak point to be abused. Oracle Red Bull Racing’s response has been to build a culture that controls information while implementing software that makes access more secure and efficient. 

That’s the through line from Mark Hazelton, Oracle Red Bull Racing’s chief security officer, speaking to host Calum Nicholas on episode two of the Securing the Win podcast.

“The world was a different place back then,” Hazelton says, reflecting on two decades inside the team. “Espionage. It’s as old as there’s been industry. And, whilst somebody has something they want to keep private, somebody else has wanted to know about it.

“So this is an ongoing thing for an awful long time.”

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The threat of espionage hit headlines in 2007 when a rival outfit was found to be in possession of another team’s intellectual property. After an FIA investigation, the team was excluded from the championship and handed a $100million penalty – the largest financial penalty of its kind.

“Theft of IP, loss of IP, accidental loss of IP, etc can mean the difference between winning and losing,” he warned.

While Hazelton’s role in the team started in the implementation of ERP and CAD systems, it has evolved with the times as teams are now forced to defend against information leakage.

“It’s not just espionage or information gathering between different companies anymore. It’s also protection from all the other world events. Know your WannaCry outbreaks, your ransomware, malware, phishing attacks, communal garden fraud, etc. 

“So, there’s insider risk. There’s the threat of loss to the competition, but you’ve also got this whole challenging environment, the whole ecosystem. We’ve got to protect against a number of different threat vectors.”

This is why Oracle Red Bull Racing is focused on reducing friction, because hard logins and mislaid passwords create shadow IT. 

Mark Hazelton, Oracle Red Bull Racing Chief Security Officer

“We have to focus on making things fluid and smooth where we can,” he said. “So we can’t introduce any downtime. Our engineers are laser focused on what they’re doing, etc. We try not to get in the way. So any time we do something, we try and make something easier.”

The target is to reduce the length of this process while maintaining data security.

“In those days, every application you went into, you’d have had to put a new password in. A different password for everything. These days, much less friction. 

“So VPN, you fire your laptop up, it connects to the internet. It’s always on.

“So those things where we’re constantly improving and that’s where things like 1Password come along and help us with things like that. 

“So, from your perspective, that would have been a little bit of a challenge,” he tells Nicholas, who was previously an mechanic for the team. “From a high-performance computer engineer’s and developer’s perspective, that sort of thing is an absolute nightmare because they’re having to put those passwords in and refresh those logins constantly throughout the day.”

Friction isn’t just an annoyance; it’s lost time on the car. Removing this friction using 1Password allows the team to simply get on with their jobs. 

Oracle Red Bull Racing didn’t stop at more efficient sign-on methods; it vaulted developer secrets and tightened control over where these can end up. 

“There’s a couple of things with 1Password in itself. We do have more single sign-on. We’ve got a lot of developer secret type stuff going on to remove that friction that we’re talking about, the friction in everybody going about their daily jobs, and as part of the solution we’re looking at managing the unmanaged apps that are evolving and being used.”

There are larger things coming, however, with Hazelton warning of AI and even quantum computing becoming part of the equation. 

“I think the really big shift is going to be quantum at some point in the future. Quantum computing mixed with AI. Who knows what that’s going to bring.”

Pushed further on the role of AI within the team, the Briton sees it as another tool to be used to seek success.

“We’ve used advanced mathematics in compute for years and years. From the Monte Carlo simulations through to the various different analytic techniques and machine learning that we use, etc. AI is another branch there. It’s coming thick and fast.”

Hazelton sums up his reality as “97% boredom, 3% sheer terror.” 

“If you get the basics right, hopefully you don’t get the excitement,” he says. With 1Password in charge of how sensitive data is managed, the team ensures the routine 97% prevents the 3% from deciding a title.

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– The Motorsport.com Team