How Mercedes’ Antonelli signing compares to Liverpool’s Salah acquisition

This week we are doing something a little different. We explore how F1 teams make key decisions on areas like driver recruitment, development and race strategy and compare it with how things are done at a top Premier League football club.

F1 is a sport built around technology, whereas in football the smartest teams have begun only in the last decade to use it for recruitment, strategy, in-game tactical decisions and so much more.

With Smedley able to compare how Mercedes recruited Kimi Antonelli to how Liverpool FC discovered Mo Salah, we have two experts in their fields.

Smedley, former race engineer to Felipe Massa and head of track engineering at Williams, now runs the Smedley Group which advises across the F1 spectrum on data and AI.

And Dr Ian Graham, of Ludonautics and most famously head of the data department at Liverpool FC for 11 years. His data analysis played a key role in building the Jurgen Klopp team that won the Premier League and Champions League. His book, ‘How to win the Premier League’ is a brilliant guide to the way decisions get taken in an elite sport.

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A Motorsport Studios production for Autosport