Formula 1 is close to reaching 1 billion fans across the globe, rising from 12% year over year from 2024 to 2025., with the current figure standing somewhere around 800 million.To try and capture some of this huge potential market, the TGR Haas team has partnered with Infobip, resulting in a novel way to stay engaged with fans while funding car development through merchandise marketing.RaceMate is an AI-powered fan companion that provides conversational updates on the team’s grid positions, race and qualifying outcomes, and team race intelligence.(Image credit: Benedict Collins / Future)Gamified engagement across the racing scheduleAt Silverstone, the home of the British Grand Prix, I spoke to Michael Heath, Senior Fan Engagement & CRM Manager at TGR Haas F1 Team, and Ante Pamuković, Chief Revenue Officer at Infobip, to discuss how RaceMate has changed the face of fan engagement throughout the 2026 season.Following the launch, Haas ran several highly successful fan quizzes through the Racemate chat - but Heath and the team noticed that fans were engaging in an entirely unexpected way. “We actually started to see that fans were then asking this WhatsApp channel questions, but at the time we didn't have any capabilities built into it that would respond,” he explained. “That was ultimately what fans wanted to do, how they wanted to interact, that's kind of where RaceMate was then born from.”Racemate runs on Infobip’s AgentOS platform, which has allowed Haas to set guardrails on the topics of conversation users can begin, and helps steer fans back on to relevant topics about TGR Haas. “This is where we saw actually the spike of more and more people joining the conversations and actually more of them returning,” said Pamukovic. “We saw up to 30% of returning fans to the platform, which is quite high.”A challenge TGR Haas is attempting to counter is the banning of social media for under 16s, as many Formula 1 fans use social media as their first point of contact for engaging with teams and drivers. “We need to have a place where, one: it's safe for them to be, but two: they can still get all the information that they're used to getting,” Heath explains.“When you look at short form video content that they can get on Instagram right now, can we now start delivering that to them through Racemate because it's a safer platform where there's not all of the comments and negativity which is associated to it, but it's still on something which they feel like they own and operate and isn't just a commercial brand shouting at them loudest,” he adds.(Image credit: Benedict Collins / Future)RaceMate is available directly through the WhatsApp Business Platform and Apple Messages for Business. “It's on a communication channel that you already have effectively, rather than making you download something else and remembering to go there,” Heath explains.One of the most important parts of fan engagement is creating a revenue stream without making it cost to be a fan. “Race mate for us is great because it's a very low barrier of entry,” Heath says. “Once they're then in and they can start engaging, then we can start capturing their data, and then once we've got the data we can then start to build that 1 to 1 relationship, start to build that profile type.”“I think that's gonna have more waiting for commercial value rather than charging the fan directly,” he adds.Pamuković concurs with Heath’s point. “We see all of these different components, different silos merging into one, and being able to create the data and then use it to the best possible extent. This is the way forward. Understanding the interactions, the fans, the behaviour, what drives them, what motivates them, and then of course how to best serve them.”To that end, Racemate includes a feature that allows users to virtually try on team merchandise before making a purchase - something I very much enjoyed testing.A demonstration of RaceMate's virtual try on feature.Benedict Collins / FutureA demonstration of RaceMate's virtual try on feature.Benedict Collins / FutureRaceMate’s futureLooking into the future, Heath has big plans for Racemate. “I want Racemate to be the second screen. So if you are watching the race or you're not in the house and you want to know what's going on in the race and you want to get closer to the action, I want Racemate to become that home.”Racemate also has the potential to help new fans learn more about race strategy, and the general rules surrounding Formula 1.“Can we basically use Race Mate to unlock that conversation in fairly simple terms so that a fan can start to understand what they're looking at on a pit wall? So that a fan can start to understand why they've made a pit stop at a certain point? What window are they trying to come back out into?” Heath asks. “Because I think to truly understand the sport you need to understand all of those touch points.”