Aston Martin Aramco has appointed Zscaler as its worldwide cybersecurity partner.

      The multi-year agreement positions Zscaler’s Zero Trust Exchange as integral to the team's car design, race strategy, and trackside data, with branding appearing on the AMR26 starting from the Austrian Grand Prix. A typical Formula One race weekend can produce over a terabyte of telemetry, which streams in real-time from numerous sensors on each vehicle to engineers located across different time zones. Ensuring the flow and security of this data is now an officially designated role within the Aston Martin Aramco team.

      The team has announced a long-term collaboration with Zscaler, designating the cybersecurity firm as its Global Cybersecurity Partner. Through this partnership, Aston Martin Aramco will implement Zscaler’s Zero Trust Exchange platform to safeguard what they consider their most critical assets, including car design, race strategies, and the live data exchanged between the track and their AMR Technology Campus in the UK.

      The platform enables a direct and secure connection between the race team and its applications, preventing network exposure to potential attackers. Their collaboration emphasizes a shared operational environment where milliseconds are crucial, decisions cannot afford to be delayed, and a single point of failure can lead to disastrous consequences, whether it be a missed pit stop or a network breach.

      Formula One is one of the most data-intensive arenas in global sports, and the partnership is portrayed as a means to maintain high-speed data while ensuring its security. Zscaler, which claims to protect over 45% of the Fortune 500 companies, joins the team as they work towards transforming into a championship-caliber operation.

      The commercial aspects are clearly defined: Zscaler branding will feature on the nose, seatbelts, and wing mirrors of the AMR26, as well as on the drivers' overalls, with the debut occurring at the Austrian Grand Prix.

      “We're delighted to welcome Zscaler as our Global Cybersecurity Partner,” stated Jefferson Slack, managing director of commercial and marketing at Aston Martin Aramco. “This partnership unites two organizations committed to performance in highly challenging environments.” He noted that the agreement reflects “the momentum we are building throughout our business” and enhances the technological ecosystem surrounding the team.

      For Zscaler, the context revolves around the rigorous testing of enterprise technology. “Formula One is where the future of enterprise technology is trialed at speeds of 300km/h,” remarked Sunil Frida, the company’s chief marketing officer. “Each car acts as a mobile data center, every race is a globally distributed operation, and every millisecond is critical.” He connected the partnership to the company's broader perspective that protecting against threats that "operate at machine speed" now necessitates AI-driven security.

      This deal adds to the array of technology partnerships that Aston Martin Aramco has formed around its data operations, which increasingly focus on zero-trust and AI-based defense strategies. The team did not disclose the financial terms of the partnership. Zscaler’s branding will appear on the car during the race in Austria; however, the functions performed by a cybersecurity partner are intentionally not visible from the grandstand.