A passion for F1 perfection at Visa Cash App Racing Bulls

By Jenn Schlegel

A couple of years ago in 2021, we travelled to Faenza, Italy for a story. Now, I have followed F1 as a casual fan for decades. (A good chunk of the 1990s was spent cheering for my favorite driver at the time — Nigel Mansell. Never a dull race with Nigel behind the wheel.)

But I must confess, my automotive journey as a writer has mostly revolved around stories about the details of engineering the cars you and I drive from the other big Motor Cities like Detroit, Ingolstadt, Wolfsburg and Torino, amongst others.

A revolutionary Digital Twin

Well that first visit in 2021 revolutionized my idea of what you could do with advanced simulation and the Digital Twin in the world of automotive. Faenza was where innovation was happening: these guys weren’t just simulating the car itself – it was the whole performance package: the car, the different tires, the customized seat and cockpit and even the F1 driver. (What we used to call “pilot-in-the-loop” in the earlier days of computer-aided engineering.)

(To get an idea of how revolutionary this was at the time, check out a younger Liam Lawson trying out his seat in the original video here. It is amazing to see firsthand how the team had already leveraged the best parts of the Siemens software, creating a solid base for their digital thread and Digital Twin, and what it meant for safety and performance in F1.)

*Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad with VCARB 03 prepping for the Miami GP (as one does) in Miami, Florida, USA on April 29, 2026. Image courtesy of Red Bull Content Pool.*

Fast-forward five years

So, you can imagine our excitement when we heard back from the team in Faenza, now known as Visa Cash App Racing Bulls or VCARB for short. They were excited to talk to us about their advanced simulation tools and digital transformation and explain how important their partnership with Siemens and the Digital Twin and digital thread foundation were to the new F1 car design for the 2026 season.

A passion for F1 perfection

The 2026 F1 season (so far) has been intense and exciting to say the least. We have new shorter, lighter and narrower cars. We have had some tricky starts from star performers, and we have the (rather highly debated) new power unit, a 1.6-litre V6 engine that totes currently a 50-50 split between combustion and electrical power. Tripling the previous electrical output and running entirely on advanced sustainable fuel, this twist to the challenging new FIA regulations has put performance engineering as well as energy management into play trackside.

“What is making a big difference compared to the past is the way you manage the energy and the way you run the car on the track. We’ve built a complete new scenario together with our vehicle performance engineers. And now with the drivers, we have to find the best way of using the car and achieving the best performances,” explains Paolo Marabini, Chief Designer, Visa Cash App Racing Bulls.

“It is fundamental to have a tool which is working together with you to develop the car. The more the car becomes more complicated — and this is happening every single day — the more the tool needs to develop together with the car.”

Not short of F1 challenges

And that tool that Paolo Marabini is referring to is the Siemens Xcelerator toolset, centralized on Teamcenter, Designcenter for CAD and NX Manufacturing, Simcenter and Fibersim, a toolset that the team has been implementing and refining for decades both in Faenza, Italy and in Milton Keynes, UK, the team’s other location.

“We thought that Siemens was the right tool to give us the right level of performance, designing, simulating and putting it all together.”
Paolo Marabini, Chief Designer, Visa Cash App Racing Bulls.

“2026 is actually one of the biggest changes Formula One experienced,” adds Marabini. “A detailed digital twin or virtual simulation of each car component is fundamental. We use a variety of tools supplied by Siemens starting from conceptual work, virtual scheming and then structural analysis. The tools follow the workflow downstream to the design. This includes physical components management and the overall product management. And all this needs to work in a seamless situation. You don’t want any delay between one phase and the following one in the process.”

A matter of creating perfection

The team has been using the Siemens Xcelerator ecosystem for quite some time and today, the focus is on improving further integration throughout the Digital Twin, including design and performance simulation, carbon fiber design and simulation including a materials library, advanced structural analysis and best-in-class component design, and AI-enhanced optimization. PLM and PDM management and other overall processes are based on Teamcenter.

“Before the car hits the track, it lives a lot of lives in the digital twin. If you don’t understand why and you don’t understand the correlation on the track, you cannot not improve the car.”
Raffaele Boschetti, Head of Innovation, Visa Cash App Racing Bulls

“What was really important this year is to build a very solid digital twin of the car. We have Siemens helping us with CAM, helping us with the CAD system with design. We have also a lot of R&D, stress analysis, and all of this is coming from the Siemens tools. We aim for perfection. and we need to be really solid in managing our challenges,” adds Giuseppe Masi, PLM Project Leader, Visa Cash App Racing Bulls.

*Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad driving the VCARB 03 cars during the F1 Grand Prix of Belgium at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps on July 19, 2026. Photo courtesy of Red Bull Content Pool.*

The challenge of weight in F1

Every year, making the required FIA car weight is top-of-mind in F1. With the new car regulations, FIA set the weight to 772 kg, which meant slashing 30 or so kilograms off compared to the previous car. The team knew this was going to be a tough challenge and, according to the F1 track press, the VCARB team is charting well in part thanks to the pre-season design concept work and optimization using Siemens software, notably Fibersim and Simcenter.

“Siemens is helping with the weight target because it is allowing us to design more in-detail components, to explore different ways of designing and to reduce the mass and simulate tighter components which are smaller and at the same time lighter,” adds Marabini.

The fact that the FIA also utilizes Teamcenter creates a common language, streamlining compliance and data exchange, which is a testament to the deep embedding of Siemens technology in F1 and other motorsports globally. Image courtesy of Red Bull Content Pool.

Digital thread and Race Day

Although the VCARB Digital Twin plays a starring role, let’s not forget another element of the team’s success and this is the PLM digital thread based on Teamcenter. A critical digital backbone and integrated data management system, it is a key element. It is the secret to data accuracy, speed and smooth communication between dedicated teams in Faenza and Milton Keynes, between processes like engineering and manufacturing, and most importantly, between the control center and the track on race weekends.

“Our design, simulation, and manufacturing process is orchestrated through Siemens solutions. Siemens technology underpins every critical engineering decision.”
Raffaele Boschetti, Head of Innovation, Visa Cash App Racing Bulls

“We have strategically invested in the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio because it provides the integrated and holistic platform necessary to connect every stage of our car’s development and the abundance of back-and-forth data that is associated with F1 racing,” explains Raffaele Boschetti, Head of Innovation, Visa Cash App Racing Bulls.

Real time track-to-control room data

Besides enabling comprehensive engineering tasks between offices in Milton Keynes and Faenza, Italy in real-time, the Siemens Xcelerator digital thread is all-important on race weekends providing real-time track-to-control center data that is shared between the onsite team at racetracks around the world and the experts on the ground in Faenza during qualifying and race days.

The digital thread and the Faenza factory

The digital thread continues into production, which heavily depends on Designcenter and NX for Manufacturing. Using the NX-CAM simulation solutions has reduced production time drastically as well as milling machines errors that waste time, money and expensive raw materials.

“Now, with what Siemens is building up, this will be very easy and will be quite immediate. You will have everything in the same platform. This is a dream,” explains Masi. “If you have the possibility to try something before, and avoid any kind of issue, for example, for the CAM, for the tooling and so on. This is a really big improvement and a really big saving. If something goes wrong on a milling machine, you would easily trash thousands of euros. But if you can try everything before, you can easily gain thousands of euros.”

Only as good as your data

Data accuracy is something that the team really takes seriously and the single-source-of-truth Teamcenter digital thread is something that is tried and trusted throughout the organization.

Francesco Palma, CAD/PLM Specialist, Visa Cash Racing Bulls states, “The most important topic nowadays for all factories is to manage information and, for us, it’s more true than true because we are running very fast so we need information to be correct and reliable. Teamcenter is like a backbone where every user in the company can share the correct information and can be sure the information they shared is the one they want to share. Without a PLM system, it is quite impossible.”

Five-year return on investment

Over the past five years, the team has really seen the value of investing in the Siemens solution and other Siemens Xcelerator tools, but also the value of the close partnership.

“What we need in the end is not a software provider, it’s a technology partner that is able to understand our needs and to scale our needs. So, with Siemens through the years, we were able to invest more and to get more value out of the product. With Siemens, we had the ability to have not just this digital backbone, but also adding value in the last five years. For example, to be able to increase the speed up of our development process, we’re able to simulate better the car, we’re able to reduce the error and to be faster in developing the car,” says Boschetti.

VCARB receives a Siemens Techcellence Award at Realize Live Europe in June 2026.

Award-winning digital transformation

The team’s commitment to its digital transformation was recognized in June at Realize LIVE Europe 2026 in Amsterdam, where Visa Cash App Racing Bulls received a Siemens Techcellence Award for Digital Transformation. The award recognizes organizations using digital technologies to drive sustainable enterprise-wide transformation. From design to manufacturing to race-day operations, VCARB has benefited from its strategic digital transformation vision using Siemens’ solutions and aligning its technology initiatives with the team’s long-term goals and objectives.

Already thinking about next F1 season

Looking ahead, the team plans to push data automation even further including AI-driven workflows, and high-performance computing.

“The amount of data generated is constantly increasing, and our goal is to extract even more value from it. We see strong potential in combining simulation, digital twins, and AI to accelerate decision-making and optimize performance even faster. Siemens will continue to be a key partner as we evolve in this direction,” concludes Boschetti.