The excitement surrounding Williams Racing’s return to its former championship-winning glory is mounting, especially after its recent announcement that it had partnered with Atlassian as its official title partner, marking the largest sponsorship deal in the team’s 48-year history.
Now rebranded as Atlassian Williams Racing, the iconic Formula 1 team is set to leverage the cutting-edge collaboration technology of Atlassian, a global leader in AI-powered teamwork software.
In an exclusive interview with Newsweek ahead of the F1 75 launch event in London, Atlassian co-founder and CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes shared insights into the decision to partner with Williams.
Canoon-Brookes highlighted the team’s transformative journey under James Vowles, strong cultural alignment, and the potential for Atlassian’s technology to accelerate performance.
Atlassian Williams Racing/Atlassian Williams Racing
Newsweek: What made you want to make the move into a sports sponsorship and can you give us some insight into how you came to the decision to choose Formula 1?
Mike Cannon-Brookes: We’re always a very thoughtful, long-term thinking company, right? We have hundreds of thousands of companies around the world. But there are a billion knowledge workers in the world and we have a lot more of those to become aware of our products. So we were certainly looking very closely at global sports.
We have a customer base in a couple of hundred countries now in the world so we needed a sport that was very global. Obviously, it’s a good way of getting our brand out there.
Secondly, we needed a sport that involved teamwork. Our mission is to unleash the potential of every team. So sponsoring an individual tennis player or something, there’s lots of value in it, but at the same time we wanted one with a really good alignment to what we’re trying to do.
And we looked at a series of things, but landed on Formula One as a great example of teamwork. It’s very, very global, 24 races all around the world. And it really is technical and non-technical groups getting together.
It’s a huge team. I know we celebrate the individual drivers, but the number of people behind those drivers to actually get it to the track, then to be competitive, then to try to win or compete hard is a pretty amazing story.
About 80% of the teams are already big Atlassian customers, so we had quite a lot of relationships already. And that is what led us to, I guess, Formula One as a prime target.
NW: With Williams being unrecognisable compared to before James Vowles joined, what was it about the team that attracted you to become the title and technology sponsor?
MCB: Obviously, we looked around and talked to some people. We ended up talking to the Williams folk. And I will say there was a very big cultural connection, which was really good. James [Vowles] and I have got on very well since the start.
These things are a process of getting to know each other. It’s a very long-term deal so we wanted to make sure that these were the type of people we wanted to hang out with. And that they understood us and what we were about and what we were trying to do. Secondly, we wanted to make sure that we could help them.
I really think our software and practices and technologies can really help Williams. A big part of what they have to change and improve on is what we’re very good at, which also makes it a great storytelling opportunity for us, obviously, from the point of view of talking to our broader customer base.
And just the transformation journey they’re on is pretty inspiring. We wanted to be a part of that journey. We hope we can make the journey even more successful, but it’s a pretty compelling story and a part of a real turnaround of a very iconic brand.
A lot of us remember the heyday and watching them and everyone likes a redemption story of some kind. And so in this sport, with the stakes that they are and the technical prowess, it’s a pretty hard thing to do. But they’re very, very committed to it. We spent a lot of time looking at all the different angles of that journey and how we can help and we think we can make a big difference or be a part of that journey.
So that’s where we ended up with Atlassian Williams at the end of the day.
NW: With the change of regulations bringing in a new era for F1 in 2026, why did you decide that now was the right time to join?
MCB: It’s a very long-term partnership already, right? So actually when you start, if you aim at something long term, the actual starting date is less important.
We obviously want to be a part of that transformation journey. We will be a significant part. We have a whole host of people that now live and work in Oxford. And actually trying to help the team, you want to help them as early as possible. So it takes some time to go and implement process change and culture change and system changes.
It’s a great year to test some of those changes and get through that. I think there’s a lot of learning to be done. I know the reg changes in 26 are very large, but there’s still a lot of things to learn this year. New driver lineup, new sponsor and technology lineup. And so we want to do a lot of work this year.
There’s a lot of work to be done this year to be on that journey already for ’26.
NW: James Vowles has described Atlassian as an “active company,” how are you collaborating to push Williams back up the grid?
MCB: Oh yeah, we’ve signed up as a part of that. We’re very involved. So we’ve got a whole series of people that are now working in Oxford and continue to grow that team. Our software fundamentally helps teams of people, right? It helps technology-driven businesses to have their technical teams and their business teams work better together.
If you look at the inside of a Formula 1 team, you find a lot of technical teams, hardware teams, software teams, physical engineering, material science, all the way through to AI and massive, massive data analytics, teams writing actual software that gets deployed to the cars, and systems in the garages. So there’s a massive challenge already there that we can help them with. We have quite a lot of expertise at running very large, complicated systems at some scale and speed.
Secondly, there is a big distributed collaboration challenge, which is one of our biggest areas that we work in.
You’ve obviously got a hundred-odd people that are traveling around the world and you’ve got another thousand-plus people that are sitting in Oxford on race weekends. They’re moving back and forth. They’re all traveling, but you still need to be exchanging information. You still need to be clear on what’s going on – whether that’s logistics and manufacturing of parts and getting them to the races they need, whether that’s understanding debugging problems, testing, all the communication that goes on. There’s a lot of parts of their whole collaboration world that we can be really helpful with.
And so it’s not just our software, but it’s also the practices and the teams that we’re bringing to be there. A lot of executive time and other things as well.
I will say they’re very hungry for this, which is really interesting, right? James is a very technical guy, he used to be a software engineer himself, so a very technical guy, so they’ve got a lot of great talents come on board. They know what they need to do. The help on how to do it as they get through is something I think we can make a big impact on, hopefully.
And lastly, obviously with AI, we’re pretty cutting edge on AI. We have a huge amount of people working on it, have done for a fair while now. And in terms of the problems they’re solving and the things we’re seeing in how those AI technologies get deployed to just make that all faster, it’s a great opportunity to really test it in an environment which is unlike most businesses. It changes every two weeks. There’s huge steps forward.
That’s a really great fit for how AI is evolving so quickly and being able to test stuff every week and see what difference it makes. There’s a lot of things we can learn from the partnership as well.
NW: I’ve seen that you support renewable energy sources and moving away from fossil fuels in Australia. Was F1’s goal of being net zero by 2030 a selling point for you and how would you like to support that?
MCB: Sure. I think it’s obviously very, very important. We had a number of discussions with both the sport itself and obviously with the Atlassian Williams team. Both have pretty good plans, I would say, to get there. That requires constant vigilance, right? We all know setting a long-term goal is one thing, but actually executing every step… [I’ve] been pretty impressed with what the sport’s done in the last few years to really make strides there.
I think they know it’s a huge challenge for them, but they can also be a real demonstrator of automotive technologies around the world. I think Atlassian Williams has actually gone quite a few steps beyond that, which is really, really good. Looking at science-based targets, looking at stronger structural measures, and even the progress that the team themselves have made over the last couple of years is really good.
So, look, it’s a journey that all industries and businesses and everything are on. It’s a case of being honest about that journey, having a clear plan, knowing how you’re going to get there, etc. And I’ve been so far impressed with both of them, but we’ve got to keep improving as we go.
And [the] 2026 rule changes, I see a lot of people in sport talking about the actual physics of the changes and some of the other things, even the move into the half-electric engine, it’s a massive step forward already, right? Sustainable fuel – there’s a lot of steps in there that I think are a surprise for people when that actually rolls around next year.
NW: What would you like to see from the sport in the future in terms of sustainability? For example, do you want to see a V10 on sustainable fuels or a move towards electrification?
MCB: They’ve obviously, in the new rule changes, chosen a sort of blended approach, which is quite interesting.
I think we’re going to need to push along sustainable fuels as well, so that’s really important. I think the consumer market, electric cars are pretty much going to win if you look at the 10-year view. It’s a cheaper, better to run, better to drive, everything alternative.
But there’s still going to be a lot of parts of the economy that need sustainable fuels, so we’re going to have to keep making that. So I think it’s actually really interesting they’ve chosen a blended approach.
We’ve got the rules set for the next five years from 2026. So maybe in 2031, they’ll have another look at that, but that’s probably for someone else to decide.
NW: James recently mentioned that F1 isn’t fully utilizing AI at the moment. Does Williams and Atlassian plan to innovate when it comes to using AI in the sport, and if so, what does this look like?
MCB: AI is evolving incredibly fast. That’s the first thing I always start with.
We can be firstly helpful to the broader Atlassian Williams team because we have more people that work on AI than work at Williams full time. We have a ton of people working on this on a regular basis. So even just sharing what we learn weekly gets that speed of those learnings across to them quicker.
There’s no doubt AI is full of data. It’s full of information. How you mine and learn from the patterns and information as quickly as possible and then hopefully turn it with some sort of agent technology. As our agents can do, into some useful action in the business, right? I think there’s a lot of places in almost every function of a business, but specifically in the F1 team sort of structures that can certainly get a bit quicker from AI, right?
It’s not going to necessarily drive the car faster, but the speed you can learn from test laps, a lot of things in simulation, a lot of things in how you take massive amounts of data exhaust the cars give off and put it together and then turn that into tests and turn it into learning. Anything you can do to increase the speed of those loops it’s going to help you with some sort of learning. It might stop you spending weeks down a path that’s not productive. That’s also useful because you can spend the time on other things, so I think we’ll all have to learn. It’ll be every race, hopefully we get a little bit better.
NW: How much marketing power do you feel Carlos Sainz has brought to the team? If Williams were still running a rookie alongside Alex Albon, would you have found it as attractive?
MCB: I think it’s all a part of what they’re trying to rebuild. Every step along that journey from James joining, a whole bunch of the hires that he’s brought in, to actually then demonstrating some sort of success. We want to be a part of that flywheel that’s building, the momentum that’s building. There’s no doubt Carlos signing was a huge step. It was a huge vote of faith in the team.
So I don’t know if it was instrumental in our decision, but it certainly helps, right? It’s all about people signing up and again, even chatting to them, they know that this is a transformative journey. There’s something more satisfying about taking something and improving it significantly, which I think we’re all signed up to.
NW: With the season starting in your home country, do you and Williams have anything special planned for fans?
MCB: You’ll have to wait and see. But certainly, Atlassian Williams will be in Melbourne. There’s no doubt there’s a large demand from the local contingent of at least thousands of staff and thousands and thousands of customers in Australia. So, hopefully, it’s a very proud thing.
It’s certainly one of the bigger Australian sort of rooted companies, I guess we’d call ourselves – Australian-founded companies. All of the sports sponsorships I think that anyone has ever done in Australia, I would hopefully say it’s one of the most logical and the most thoughtful sponsorships.
It’s not just a sticker on a car, as they say, or a sign on a shirt, right? We’re going a lot of levels deeper than that, and that’s important to us, that we can actually help in some way and that we can learn as well, right? And show our customers how these technologies can be used, obviously, you can bring a lot of customers for a lot of races.
But it’s kind of nice to be starting at home. And I’m sure it’ll get a lot of local media coverage. And Melbourne’s a great race. The city turns out, puts on a great event. You know, it’s fantastic.
It’s fabulous. It’s one of [the drivers] handful of favorite races and a large part is because hundreds of thousands of people go every day and it’s a real party. It’s very close to the city, it’s easy access, so it’s a really, really nice place.
Hopefully, we get some sun and it’s a good start to the year.
