Tech Investors and Founders Ramp Up Deal-Making at 2026 Miami Grand Prix

Founders and investors mingled in the paddock at the 2026 Miami F1 weekend in Florida as a TechCrunch reporter observed conversations focused on deal-making. Over cold drinks in the Florida heat, discussions barely paused except for occasional glances at the track where drivers chased the checkered flag in multimillion-dollar machines.

F1 weekend is a three-day affair with the race as the finale and includes kickoffs, soirées, cocktail parties, dinners, and nightclub takeovers.

One founder recalled being brought to the paddock by a venture firm two years ago and described it as a hot place for everyone with access trying to strike a deal. Chandler Malone, a founder, attended only side events and not the race at the 2026 Miami F1 weekend because so many venture firms were hosting events. "You name the fund, it was someone there hosting clients," Marell Evans stated.

Evans added that lots of folks missed Milken for F1 Miami. F1 teams have embraced technology sponsors in the past five years. Oracle became the title sponsor of Red Bull Racing team, the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 team struck a multi-year partnership with Microsoft, and CoreWeave became Aston Martin Aramco’s official AI cloud partner.

Anthropic began working with Williams Racing in the past five years while Palantir and IBM partnered with Ferrari. AWS began providing data analytics to F1, and the audio app ElevenLabs and fintech Revolut have teamed up with Audi. Some firms have taken ownership stakes.

Dorilton Capital acquired Williams Racing in 2020. Otro Capital, RedBird Capital Partners, and Maximum Effort Investments made a 200-million-euro investment into Alpine. Hannan Happi credited the 2020 Netflix show “Drive to Survive” as a catalyst for increasing audience interest in F1.

Hannan Happi said the tech industry showing up in force in F1 is really the last three or four years. U.S. cities — Austin, Las Vegas, and Miami.

Josh Machiz, who joined Lightspeed a few months ago after working at Redpoint, worked with Aston Martin Aramco and other F1 teams to introduce Lightspeed founders to these entities and their enterprise clients at the Miami race. The Miami race brought in 10 portfolio companies for Lightspeed Venture Partners.

One of Lightspeed's blockchain companies struck a handshake deal over the Miami F1 weekend while one of its AI infrastructure startups closed two deals.

Miami kicked off the Lightspeed Aston Martin program. "The Aston Martin tech team also opened doors to our founders and talked about what they need from builders," Josh Machiz said. Farooq Malik, founder of Rain, closed a deal, connected with a prospective client, and met another founder at the Miami F1 weekend.

"This model was a lot more interactive with more organic interactions," Malik said. Investor Immpana Srri went to Miami in 2026 to look for deals and noted it has become a place for tech people to meet up over the past five years. Immpana Srri met operators, allocators, and founders at the McLaren paddock and brand activations during the 2026 Miami F1 weekend.

Hannan Happi said F1 champion Nico Rosberg stopped by Exowatt's headquarters over the Miami Grand Prix weekend. Josh Machiz is planning to bring a small group of European founders to Silverstone later in 2026. @techcrunch reported that in the paddock, CIOs and CISOs stand next to CEOs in rooms small enough for people to actually chat.

Machiz called Lightspeed the first firm to formalize this kind of partnership with Formula 1. Hannan Happi said F1 represents engineering excellence, rapid iteration, and a willingness to spend big to win. "F1 is a luxury sport by nature, and that brings a certain type of person," Happi stated.