What I found was that there are far more routes into the sport than you might expect. An F1 team needs engineers and mechanics, but it also needs people working in marketing, software, data, logistics, communications, partnerships and media. So if you’ve ever wanted to work in F1 but assumed you needed to design a front wing or drive the car, there are loads of other ways you could find yourself working in the sport.

What Does It Take To Work In Formula 1?

There isn’t one single qualification or career path that gets you through the paddock gates, which is great if your CV doesn’t currently include “aerodynamics” anywhere on it. Some roles genuinely do need highly specialised technical education – so you’re probably not going to become a race engineer without an engineering degree and a love for data, but there are plenty of other roles that rely on business, communications, IT, logistics.

F1 teams employ people both at the track on race weekends and behind the scenes throughout the rest of the year. So if you’re interested in the sport but don’t know your DRS from your ERS, that isn’t exactly the barrier you might assume it to be.

Where Could You Work In Formula 1?

The F1 industry is basically a bunch of smaller departments working together, but it’s important to know what those areas look like before getting into a specific job.

There’s the technical and engineering teams designing and developing the car, and the race and trackside operations staff who keep everything running on a Sunday afternoon. Alongside are the business and commercial teams handling sponsorship deals and revenue, plus the media, marketing and communications staff shaping how the team is seen by everyone watching at home (shoutout to Lando Norris’s PR team working over time after this weekend in Madrid).

Then there’s everything keeping the whole operation moving: the logistics and support functions that get people, cars and equipment from one side of the world to the other in a matter of days.

1. Aerodynamicist

An aerodynamicist spends their working life obsessing over how air moves around, over and under the car, because in F1 even small changes to airflow can have a serious effect on performance. Williams says its aerodynamicists work on areas including wings, floors and diffusers, using wind-tunnel testing, CFD and track data to find improvements to the car.

Their work is all about downforce, drag and the balance of the car; which probably makes aerodynamics one of the most technically demanding areas of F1. It’s a role that usually needs someone with a strong understanding of fluid dynamics, computer modelling and how small aerodynamic changes can affect the car.

2. Race Engineer

The race engineer is the voice you hear crackling over team radio, working directly with the driver throughout a race weekend to interpret data and decide how the car should be set up or adjusted. Formula 1 explains that race engineers focus specifically on their assigned car and driver, using information such as telemetry, GPS data, radio communications and weather conditions to help make decisions during a session.

It’s a job that blends engineering knowledge with the sort of calm communication skills you’d want from someone talking drivers through a strategy change at super high speeds. Get it right and you’re a hero; get it wrong and you’re the reason a driver is swearing on live television.

3. Strategy Engineer

Strategy engineers spend the race weekend buried in data on tyre choices, pit stop windows and every possible scenario that might unfold once lights out happens, then use modelling and analysis to help the team decide what to actually do when those scenarios play out in real time.

Formula 1’s own explanation of the pit wall gives Ferrari as an example, where the Head Of Strategy coordinates a strategy department in Maranello; where teams work on individual analysis for drivers and study the opposition. This can give you an idea of how much work happens away from the circuit before a strategy call ever even reaches the pit wall.

4. Software Engineer

F1 cars and the teams behind them run on software just as much as they run on fuel, so software engineers are increasingly central to how a team operates. Williams lists Software Engineering, Enterprise Systems and Data & AI within its Technology & Innovation division.

Depending on where you land up, you could end up working on vehicle systems, simulation tools, data processing pipelines or the internal technology that keeps the entire operation functioning.

It’s a genuinely solid route into the sport for anyone with a computer science or software background who assumed motorsport wasn’t really their world.

5. Data Analyst

Every race weekend generates crazy amounts of data; someone needs to turn that mountain of numbers into information the team can actually act on. Williams says a single lap can generate data covering everything from tyre pressure and brake temperature to aerodynamic load and driver inputs. That data can then be used to understand car performance, spot potential problems and help engineers make decisions during the race

Data analysts and data scientists might focus on performance, reliability, strategy or any number of other areas, depending on the team’s structure and priorities. It’s a role that highlights just how closely modern F1 is tied to data technology, to the point where a good analyst can have an impact without ever touching the car.

6. Mechanics

Mechanics and car build technicians are responsible for assembling and preparing the car, both at the factory and at the track. Their work can involve everything from fitting components and checking assemblies to making sure the car is ready to run safely between sessions.

F1 teams also need people working on manufacturing, assembly, quality checks, testing and validation before the car even reaches the track. Mechanics working trackside also need to be able to work quickly between sessions when changes and repairs are needed. For someone who prefers practical work to spending all day behind a computer, this can be a more natural route into motorsport.

7. Logistics

F1 has an entire logistics operation happening behind the scenes, and it isn’t handled entirely by the teams themselves. DHL has been Formula 1’s Official Logistics Partner since 2004, working with F1 and the teams to transport everything from cars and engines to tyres, spare parts and broadcast equipment around the world.

That creates career opportunities outside the teams themselves, with specialist logistics companies employing people to plan shipments, coordinate freight and deal with the practicalities of getting thousands of items between races. With the 2026 calendar having 23 races, getting everything where it needs to be (and on time) – really takes a serious amount of planning.

8. Marketing

Marketing and partnerships teams handle sponsorships, campaigns, fan engagement and the really important job of keeping brand relationships happy. Formula 1 describes its commercial department as covering sponsorship, marketing, media rights and hospitality, while Williams includes marketing within its business services team.

This usually means working directly with some of the world’s largest companies and finding ways to turn a sponsorship into something fans actually see and interact with.

9. PR And Communications

PR and communications staff manage media relations, team announcements, interviews and the general flow of information between a team and the outside world. It’s a role that involves working closely with drivers, journalists and the public across social platforms, all while trying to keep everyone roughly on the same page.

Between traditional press work and digital communications, there’s a lot more to this job than issuing a statement whenever a driver says something they probably shouldn’t have on camera.

10. Media

Someone has to produce and deliver F1 content to millions of viewers around the world, and that’s where broadcast and media roles come in. These can cover production, camera work, editing, digital content and the broadcast technology that gets pictures from a circuit onto a screen in your living room.

It’s quite a solid route for anyone drawn to F1 through its storytelling and spectacle rather than its engineering, and there’s a lot of that storytelling to go around these days.

Finding Your Place In F1

Working in F1 doesn’t have to mean designing the car or sitting behind a steering wheel. Teams need people across engineering, technology, business, media, logistics and plenty other areas.

So if you’ve ever looked at an F1 job and thought your degree or experience wouldn’t get you anywhere near the paddock – you should maybe look a little closer at what’s actually out there.

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That little habit of going back shows a lot about how apps are changing – Spotify, Strava and Duolingo were all built around a specific purpose, but they’ve added ways for users to follow friends, share activity, compete, comment and see what other people are doing. The music still plays, the run still gets tracked and the language lesson still gets done, but there are now many more reasons to open the app that have little to do with the main feature itself.

The Core Product Isn’t Always Enough

A useful app doesn’t instantly become part of someone’s daily routine because once you’ve done whatever brought you there, there may be little reason to stick around. You track the run, close the app and get on with your day; unless Strava has managed to convince you that someone else’s 5km deserves your immediate attention.

Adding social features gives users something else to look at and interact with between those moments of actual use. Strava has feeds, comments, Kudos, clubs and challenges, while Duolingo has friends, leaderboards and shared streaks. Spotify has also expanded its social features, with Messages now allowing people to see what friends and family are listening to and invite them into shared Jam sessions, according to Spotify.

The original purpose of the app hasn’t disappeared, but it’s no longer the only thing bringing people back – a friend’s comment, a league position or a new playlist all create another reason to open an app.

Users Start Adding Value

As people begin interacting with one another inside an app, some of what makes the experience engaging starts coming from the users themselves rather than the app. Spotify has been building more of this interaction into its listening experience, and in January 2026 the company said almost 40 million users had sent nearly 340 million messages since Messages launched. Spotify also reported that daily active users of its Jam feature had more than doubled year over year.

Strava is kind of similar, with someone’s run becoming something that friends can react to, comment on or give Kudos to instead of remaining a collection of numbers on a screen. The company describes Kudos as a way for athletes to congratulate one another on activities, achievements and challenges.

Duolingo’s concept is almost the same when it comes to the daily effort of learning a language. Its Friend Streak feature lets users to share a streak with up to five friends, and Duolingo says learners with at least one shared streak are 22% more likely to complete their daily lesson.

These examples all show why the social element can be useful instead of just giving people somewhere to chat. The companies aren’t responsible for creating every interaction or every reason to return because users can provide some of that activity themselves.

Social Connections Give People Something To Come Back To

Once an app has a network of people around it, leaving it can definitely become a little harder. If you’re using a service just because it performs a useful function, moving to another app isn’t exactly difficult. Your running data, playlists or language lessons may be valuable, but the app itself is still replaceable.

Having friends, followers, shared streaks and ongoing conversations creates something that isn’t as easy to leave behind. You’re also leaving behind the people you’ve connected with on the app, which gives you another reason to stick with it rather than just moving to something else.

That doesn’t mean companies are deliberately trying to lock users in, but social connections give people another reason to stay; with Duolingo’s own data supporting this idea.

The App Becomes More Than What You Downloaded It For

Spotify, Strava and Duolingo aren’t trying to become Instagram, and they don’t need endless feeds of unrelated content to keep people interested. Their social features work because they are connected to something users were already there to do.

For the companies behind them, that creates another way to keep people involved with the product without changing its main purpose. A run can become something friends react to, a playlist can become something people discover together and a language lesson can become a shared commitment.

The app still does the job you downloaded it for, but the people using it alongside you can now become part of what keeps you coming back.

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If final sign-off goes to plan, the public funding will pull in an additional £30 million from private pockets to create a £60 million co-investment deal. It’s one piece of a much larger £7.8 billion strategy running to 2030, designed to keep the UK’s defence, tech and space sectors properly orbit-ready.

Occupying an old RAF outpost at the northern tip of Shetland, SaxaVord is officially the UK’s first licensed vertical rocket launchpad. Regulators have capped its activity at 30 launches per year, an infrastructure limit instead of an active flight schedule.

To date, no rocket has successfully made it to space from Unst. An August test launch was shelved after the launch provider ran into undisclosed technical troubles, a helpful reminder before treating the site as a fully operational orbital hub.

Where The Money Actually Goes

The planned investment is intended to fund the completion of three launchpads, mission-management infrastructure, a second rocket-integration hangar and facilities usable by multiple international launch providers, essentially the shift from development-stage infrastructure to regular commercial launch operations.

SaxaVord itself isn’t a rocket manufacturer. Its role is providing launchpads, safety systems, range management, integration facilities and logistical support for whichever launch companies operate from the site.

Shetland’s extreme northern latitude provides a specific orbital advantage. Direct access to polar and sun-synchronous orbits makes the location ideal for Earth observation and reconnaissance payloads, avoiding populated landmasses through an open corridor over the Atlantic.

Provided the site achieves a steady flight cadence, it stands to support weather monitoring, maritime tracking, defence assets, small-sat constellations and swift payload replacement.

What Does “Assured Access To Orbit” Mean?

The phrase gets thrown around loosely, so a bit of precision helps. Assured access to orbit comes down to having guaranteed launch options on standby for whenever satellites need to go up, get replaced or shift position in a hurry.

This isn’t total national self-reliance, and the strategy makes no claim that it is. The approach combines a domestic hub at SaxaVord with German and allied partnerships, continued reliance on European Space Agency launches, alongside funding for space domain awareness, satellite comms and in-orbit servicing.

The numbers in the technical annex tell the real story. Of the total £226 million earmarked for assured-access measures through to 2030, SaxaVord receives £30 million, while £39 million goes to ESA programmes in French Guiana and £148 million flows into European space-transport initiatives. The distribution shows a pragmatically diversified approach, prioritising domestic capability alongside proven allied networks rather instead of total self-reliance.

The goal isn’t to launch every domestic payload from British soil, but to eliminate single points of failure so external challenges or diplomatic squabbles can’t freeze UK space operations.

What £30 Million Won’t Do

A reality check on the terminology is important, given how loosely “sovereign” is applied in tech coverage.

This cash injection won’t finance a home-grown British rocket, establish complete supply chain independence or replace existing ties with ESA and the Guiana Space Centre. Far from cutting ties, the policy specifically embeds SaxaVord into global alliances. A more accurate understanding is that the UK is building physical launch infrastructure on home turf, while continuing to host foreign rockets, operators and payloads.

Turning £30 million of taxpayer cash into a thriving commercial hub requires more than just poured concrete and mission control screens. The site needs rockets that reach orbit reliably, competitive launch fees, manageable insurance rates and a high enough launch frequency to offset fixed costs. Laying down the pads builds the field of dreams, but it doesn’t guarantee the business will come.

How This Compares To Europe’s Existing Launch Capacity

Matching the volume of Europe’s major launch sites isn’t the goal here. The European Space Agency handles its heavy lifting out of French Guiana, backed by deep industrial supply chains across France and Germany.

SaxaVord brings a different set of advantages to the table: an ideal northern trajectory for polar satellite constellations, dedicated access for smaller payloads and nimble scheduling that massive multi-tenant rockets struggle to match. It hands the UK an operational anchor in orbital logistics, even if the launch vehicles themselves arrive from abroad.

The strategy’s backing for ESA programmes makes the overarching ambition straightforward. SaxaVord serves as an added layer of regional launch capacity instead of being a direct rival. In short, Britain isn’t constructing an end-to-end national space programme in isolation. It’s establishing a strategic launch site on home soil to own a section of the infrastructure, while continuing to rely on allied rockets across the continent.

Whether that setup proves commercially viable, or turns into an expensive piece of northern scenery, is a test the initial £30 million backing can’t settle on its own.

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A leaked photo appears online; someone posts a rumoured specification and then a launch date gets announced, suddenly people are counting down to a product they can’t even buy yet. There’s usually always someone online who apparently has a friend of a friend at the company and somehow knows everything except when to stop posting.

The Hype Starts before The Product Arrives

Tech launches barely ever begin with a product suddenly appearing on a shop shelf. Companies usually build up to them through teaser campaigns, social media posts, launch announcements and carefully timed reveals. Apple has turned its product events into regular fixtures in the technology calendar and a company like Nothing has built a lot of its identity around teasing upcoming products and giving people small pieces of information before the full reveal.

Then there are the leaks, which can keep a product in the news long before the company officially announces it. Not every leak is deliberate and plenty of them are rumours that never amount to much.

A leaked image or specification can give people something to discuss and speculate about before there is even an official product announcement. According to Nothing, more than 200,000 people signed up to a waitlist for its first phone before it went on sale, showing how much interest can build before a product is actually available.

Why Anticipation Keeps People Talking

Once people know a product is coming, every new detail gives them another reason to talk about it. A leaked image can lead to speculation about the design; a rumoured specification can spark arguments over whether the new model is actually better and a confirmed launch date gives people something to count down to.

This creates a useful cycle for the company because technology websites can cover the latest developments, while creators make videos and comparisons, social media users share their opinions and potential customers keep seeing the same product appear in different places.

Weeks or even months before a product reaches stores, consumers may already have seen its design, heard about its features and watched other people discuss it online. By the time the product is available to buy, the product can already feel familiar even though they have never used it.

This means that there is plenty time for companies to be able to build anticipation and awareness before the product officially launches. According to research from Nielson, advertising exposure can influence brand recall, giving companies another reason to keep products in front of consumers before they buy.

Waiting Becomes Part Of The Campaign

The build-up can continue even after a product has been officially revealed. Pre-orders, waitlists and limited availability can make buying a new gadget feel less like an ordinary purchase and more like an event. Reviews usually appear before general release as well, which gives people another reason to watch videos and read comparisons while they are still waiting.

By launch day, you can know the camera specifications, processor and battery capacity of a new phone before you’ve decided what you’re having for dinner. But that constant stream of information serves a purpose; each new detail gives people another opportunity to think about the product and decide whether they want it.

The Launch Is Only Part Of The Campaign

None of this means that a promoted product will definitely succeed – a device can generate enormous excitement and still disappoint once people actually get their hands on it.

What the build-up does provide is more time to create awareness and keep a product in the conversation. Instead of having one launch day to capture attention, companies can create a series of moments that lead towards it.

The marketing doesn’t necessarily begin when the product is available to buy. In many cases, it starts weeks or months earlier. The wait is not just the period before the product arrives; It has become part of the product launch itself.

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And for good reason. At the moment, Britain is focused on investing heavily in sovereign technology capabilities, by means of its £500 million Sovereign AI Fund, among other things, while policymakers on the sidelines are still questioning whether the UK has become too reliant on a small number of overseas technology providers. Geopolitical instability seems to be at an all-time high these days, from the Russia-Ukraine war to the US-Iran conflict (to name a issues), making many previously reliable relationships and partnerships seem a little less strong than they once did.

In light of current circumstances, the focus has shifted to control. That is, control over who owns the infrastructure that powers public services, where the technology come from and what happens if access to it becomes restricted during a geopolitical dispute.

Concerns Around Tech Dependence Are Growing

According to new polling from Merlin Strategy, concern about foreign control of critical infrastructure is widespread across the UK. The survey of 2,011 adults found that 85% would be concerned if a foreign government could restrict Britain’s access to infrastructure it relies on during a future conflict or international crisis.

Further to this, around 65% of respondents said they would feel unsafe about overseas-headquartered companies owning technology or data relied upon by the armed forces and border security, while 63% expressed similar concerns about policing and law enforcement systems. Undoubtedly, these concerns reflect growing scrutiny of the UK’s reliance on large international technology providers.

According to Politico, earlier this year, the House of Commons Science, Innovation and Technology Committee warned that the UK’s dependence on a small number of US technology companies could represent a strategic vulnerability, emphasising a concern that many people have already been worried about for quite some time. In particular, several MPs highlighted the growing role of Palantir, a US-based data analytics company, in the public sector, describing the company’s increasing presence as an “unacceptable point of weakness”. The committee also warned that Britain may not always be able to rely on allies for access to critical technologies, calling for a clearer national AI sovereignty strategy.

With a US President and government behaving incredibly unpredictably, constantly lashing out at other foreign powers (both friends and enemies) without much warning, the concern is not without warrant.

Technology Has Become A National Security Question

Dearlove’s warning reflects a growing belief among policymakers that critical technology infrastructure now sits alongside traditional defence assets as a matter of national security. “Foreign states, including China, have their fingerprints all over our critical national infrastructure, and that means we’re exposed. For the sake of Britain’s national security this cannot continue,” he said.

“The UK needs sovereignty over the technology and hardware that underpins its public services or it risks overseas actors taking control of them at will.”

Former Chair of the House of Commons Defence Committee Tobias Ellwood argues that the threat landscape has fundamentally changed. “Britain’s enemies no longer need to bomb a power station to damage the country; increasingly, they can attack or disrupt the technology that keeps it running,” he said.

Ellwood believes the challenge isn’t necessarily foreign technology itself, but rather the absence of alternatives. As he explains, “We cannot build everything ourselves, nor should we. But when it comes to the systems essential to keeping Britain running, we must have a sovereign fallback.” Essentially, it’s probably not a great idea for Britian to have all its eggs in one basket.

His warning highlights a growing concern among security experts that dependence on overseas providers could leave critical services vulnerable to political decisions made beyond Britain’s control. “A political decision taken thousands of miles away could restrict access to technology on which our economy, public services and national security depend,” he added. And that is of great concern to a nation that prides itself on its independence.

What Does This Mean For UK Startups?

For the UK’s technology sector, the debate presents both a challenge and an opportunity. Successive governments have talked about backing British technology businesses, while Prime Minister Andy Burnham has pledged to use public procurement to support domestic firms. Defence Secretary John Healey has also promised to buy British “not if possible, but by design” across areas including defence, AI and technology.

If policymakers become more serious about technology sovereignty, it could create significant opportunities for British startups operating in cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity, AI, data management and digital public services.

The reality, though, is that replacing global technology giants is unlikely to happen overnight. The UK’s public and private sectors remain deeply integrated with international providers including Microsoft, Amazon Web Services and Palantir, and changing that is going to be a systemic project that’ll take a great deal of time, effort, money and collaboration to achieve.

Thus, the question isn’t just about whether Britain can become completely independent, but more about whether it can build enough domestic capability to avoid becoming dangerously dependent. At least for now. Indeed, as AI becomes more and more deeply embedded into government systems, public services and national infrastructure, that question is likely to become one of the most important technology debates of the decade.

In fact, in many ways, it already is.

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Artificial intelligence has generated no shortage of ambitious national strategies. The harder question is what happens when the technology leaves the data centre.

How does AI improve a production line, optimise an energy grid or manage a complex logistics network? How does a promising technology become something that can be manufactured, deployed and sold at scale?

These questions provide a useful way of looking at the next phase of relations between Germany and the United Arab Emirates.

President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s state visit to Germany this week comes as the two countries to put technology much closer to the centre of a partnership historically built around trade, energy and investment. The agenda now encompasses artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, semiconductors, digital infrastructure, robotics and other emerging technologies.

The logic is not difficult to see.

Germany remains one of the world’s strongest industrial economies. Its advantages lie not simply in research or invention, but in the dense ecosystem that connects engineering companies, manufacturers, universities, specialised suppliers and the Mittelstand. That capacity to turn technical knowledge into reliable industrial processes is particularly valuable as AI moves beyond consumer applications and into factories, transport systems, energy networks and physical infrastructure.

The UAE approaches the same technological transition from a different direction. It has made digital infrastructure and artificial intelligence central to its economic diversification, alongside a wider effort to attract capital and companies into advanced manufacturing, technology and other new-economy sectors. It also offers access to investment capital and a pivotal geographic position linking European companies with markets across the Middle East, Asia and Africa.

That creates a potentially useful division of strengths: Germany can provide industrial and engineering depth, while the UAE can contribute capital, infrastructure, connectivity and the ability to help emerging technologies scale.

Her Excellency Lana Nusseibeh, the UAE’s Minister of State, put the ambition plainly in remarks in Berlin: “The aim is not just to exchange technology, but to build together.”

That distinction matters.

International technology partnerships can easily become exercises in selling products into one another’s markets. A more ambitious model would involve joint development: connecting researchers and universities with companies and investors, developing commercial applications together and building businesses capable of expanding beyond either country.

Artificial intelligence is probably the clearest test case.

Germany has considerable expertise in robotics, automation, precision engineering and complex manufacturing. The UAE has invested heavily in AI capabilities and digital infrastructure and has set itself the goal of becoming a global leader in artificial intelligence by 2031. Bringing those strengths together makes most sense not in another general-purpose chatbot, but in industrial AI: machine learning and automated systems applied to manufacturing, heavy engineering, energy, transport, logistics and supply chains.

This is also where technology policy begins to merge with industrial strategy.

For Germany, the challenge is not a lack of technical expertise. It is maintaining industrial competitiveness while manufacturing becomes more automated, software-intensive and capital-intensive. AI and robotics offer productivity gains, but deploying them across an economy dominated by sophisticated physical industry requires investment, experimentation and the ability to integrate new digital tools with existing machinery and processes.

For the UAE, the challenge is almost the inverse. The country has built an increasingly sophisticated digital economy and wants to deepen its domestic industrial base. Partnerships with German manufacturers and research institutions could help translate investment in AI and emerging technologies into more physical industrial capability.

There are already signs that the relationship is moving in this direction.

At GITEX Europe in Berlin in 2025, a UAE delegation brought Emirati technology companies and start-ups working in areas including AI, climate technology, digital health, smart cities and industrial innovation. The exercise was significant less for its scale than for the model it suggested: direct links between the two innovation ecosystems, allowing Emirati technology companies to enter Europe while giving German businesses another route into Middle Eastern and wider regional markets.

Start-ups could become an important part of that relationship. Germany has excellent technical universities, research institutes, established industrial companies and a mature innovation ecosystem. The UAE has developed a strong environment for venture funding, attracting international talent and scaling companies regionally. Connecting those systems creates opportunities in fields ranging from cybersecurity and health technology to smart cities and climate tech.

Cybersecurity demonstrates another dimension of the same argument. As factories, energy networks and logistics systems become more digital, protecting industrial technology is increasingly inseparable from deploying it. Cooperation between the UAE Cyber Security Council and Siemens already includes plans for a joint centre focused on operational technology cybersecurity, the systems that control critical infrastructure and industrial processes.

Clean energy belongs in the technology story too.

Hydrogen, battery storage, smarter electricity grids and industrial decarbonisation all depend on engineering and technological deployment as much as energy policy. Germany brings industrial technology and a large market seeking lower-carbon solutions; the UAE combines energy expertise with capital and an increasing presence in renewable power. The potential is therefore not simply for one country to supply energy to the other, but to develop technologies, manufacturing capacity and supply chains around the transition.

The state visit is intended to give this technological relationship more structure. Her Excellency Nusseibeh said the two countries would establish a dedicated framework for deeper cooperation on technology and digitalisation, bringing these areas into the core of the bilateral relationship. The objective, she said, is to connect “researchers, universities, entrepreneurs and investors” and turn ideas into scalable businesses–an ambition which could make technology far more than another area of expanding UAE-German cooperation, but rather an organising principle for the next phase of the two countries’ relationship.

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That wheel does way more than just steering the car – it’s the driver’s main control point for a huge range of systems, with switches, dials and displays allowing them to adjust how the car behaves without taking their attention away from the track. Driving an F1 car involves a lot more multitasking than it might look from the grandstands.

More Than Just Driving

Modern F1 drivers have a huge amount of control over how their cars behave once the lights go out. Some of that comes through buttons, switches and rotary controls built into the wheel itself. Other information comes into the cockpit through the dashboard and team radio. The drivers are able to make changes as the race goes on rather than having to rely on the settings chosen before leaving the garage.

Some adjustments are about getting more performance from the car, while others help the driver deal with changing conditions. They’re also having to keep track of information coming from the car and the team while staying focused on the circuit.

1. The Steering Wheel

An F1 steering wheel is closer to a control panel than the steering wheel you’d find in a normal road car. Rather than being a simple wheel for turning left and right, it’s a compact control panel covered in buttons, switches, rotary dials and paddles.

The paddles behind the wheel handle gear changes, while other controls allow drivers to adjust settings such as brake balance, the differential and aspects of the power unit. The display built into the wheel also gives the driver information they need while racing, including speed, gear and various car and system data. Formula 1 has described the modern steering wheel as a collection of controls for everything from brake bias and the differential to power-unit settings.

It’s less a steering wheel and more a control panel that the driver happens to steer with as well. Considering they have to operate all of those controls while racing, it’s probably one of the most complicated steering wheels you’ll ever see.

2. Brake Balance

Brake balance, also known as brake bias, refers to how braking force is distributed between the front and rear of the car. According to Formula 1’s F1 Glossary, drivers can adjust this balance while driving.

As the car’s fuel load and tyre condition change, the driver may need to alter the balance to keep the car behaving as expected under braking. Too much braking force at the front can make the front tyres lock up, while too much at the rear can make the car less stable under heavy braking.

3. Differential Settings

The differential controls how the two rear wheels behave relative to each other, especially when the car is turning and putting power down. Drivers can adjust the differential from the cockpit using controls on the steering wheel. It’s one of many car settings that can be changed without bringing the car into the pits.

Changing the setting can alter how the car responds through a corner and as the driver gets back on the throttle. A driver looking for more rotation may want a different setting from one trying to keep the rear of the car stable on a corner exit.

It probably sounds like a small adjustment, but being able to change how the car behaves without coming into the pits gives the driver another way to respond when conditions change.

4. Energy Management

The 2026 regulations have made energy management an even bigger part of driving an F1 car. The new power units place a much greater emphasis on electrical power, with the electric motor contributing a significantly larger share of the car’s overall output than before. The FIA has also made adjustments to the 2026 energy-management rules during the season, including changes to how much energy can be recovered and how much electrical power can be deployed.

Drivers now have to manage when electrical energy is recovered and when it is deployed. Using too much at the wrong point in a lap can leave less available later, while saving too much can cost performance when it could have been useful.

5. Team Radio

The cockpit might be physically separated from the rest of the team, but the driver still has to be in constant contact with the pit wall. Team radio connects them with the engineers on the pit wall, who can give the drivers information about strategy, tyres, traffic and changing race conditions.

Drivers also use the radio to report what they’re experiencing in the car. They might flag a problem, describe how the tyres are behaving or give the team information that isn’t visible from the pit wall.

This means an F1 driver has to listen, process the information and respond when necessary without losing concentration on the circuit ahead. As Zhou Guanyu explained to F1, the race engineer acts as the driver’s “voice” while they’re on track, bringing together information about the car, its power unit and race strategy.

6. Tyre Management

Tyres are one of the main things an F1 driver has to manage during a race. Temperature, wear and grip can all change how the car feels, so drivers have to really pay attention to what the tyres are doing and adjust how they drive accordingly.

Teams have access to detailed tyre data and can pass useful information to the driver over the radio. The driver can then change their approach on track, whether that’s managing their pace to protect the tyres or pushing harder when more grip is available. It’s not just a case of putting fresh tyres on and forgetting about them until the next pit stop.

There’s A Lot Going On Behind The Wheel

I don’t think we realise how much of the job happens between the corners – the driver is constantly responding to what the car is doing, making adjustments and taking in information from the team. None of it looks quite as dramatic from the outside because the driver still just looks like they’re sitting there driving.

Then you remember they’re doing all of this while trying to put together a perfect lap. There’s no pause to check what a setting does or think through the next decision. They have to know the car well enough for those reactions to become second nature, which makes the whole thing even more impressive when you consider how quickly everything is happening.

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Discovery begins on a phone, frame selection may involve a live camera, prescription information can move securely between systems and a lens laboratory can translate a digital order into a highly individual product.

This is more than the story of another high-street category moving online. Spectacles sit at an unusual meeting point of healthcare, fashion, precision manufacturing and personal identity.

A jumper that is slightly loose can still be worn; lenses made to the wrong specification may cause discomfort and are not fit for purpose. The technology therefore has to achieve two things at once: remove needless friction and preserve the safeguards that make optical care trustworthy.

The wider commercial backdrop is already digital. Office for National Statistics data show that internet sales accounted for 27.6% of retail sales in Great Britain in May 2026. That figure moves from month to month, but the direction of travel is clear: online retail is no longer a specialist channel. Consumers now expect broad choice, transparent prices, delivery updates and straightforward returns. Eyewear businesses are being measured against that standard while handling a far more technical product.

There is also a human need behind the market. The World Health Organisation estimates that at least 2.2 billion people worldwide have a near or distance vision impairment and says that in at least one billion cases the impairment could have been prevented or has yet to be addressed. Technology cannot replace trained clinicians or solve unequal access by itself. It can, however, make information, selection and fulfilment less expensive and more convenient.

From Catalogue To Guided Digital Shop

The first generation of online eyewear shops largely reproduced a paper catalogue on screen. Customers could filter by colour or price, but still had to imagine how a frame would look and feel. Contemporary platforms are closer to guided retail environments. Search tools can narrow hundreds of products by width, bridge type, material, colour and face shape. Good product pages show measurements clearly, explain lens choices in ordinary language and allow the customer to compare the total price before reaching the checkout.

This matters because too much choice can be as unhelpful as too little. Recommendation systems can use stated preferences and browsing behaviour to surface a manageable selection. The responsible use of such systems is not to declare that an algorithm knows a customer’s taste better than they do.

It is to reduce repetitive searching while leaving the decision with the wearer. Retailers should also make it easy to reset recommendations and browse outside the suggested range, so personalisation does not become a narrow corridor.

For households balancing cost, time and access, the ability to compare and purchase can be genuinely useful. A rural customer may have fewer nearby frame ranges; a shift worker may struggle to shop during standard opening hours; and a parent replacing a familiar pair may value speed.

Yet convenience should be presented as part of an eye-care journey, not as a substitute for a current prescription or an appropriate sight test. That distinction is central to building a durable online optical brand.

Virtual Try-On Becomes Genuinely Useful

The most visible innovation is augmented-reality try-on. A camera identifies facial landmarks, estimates the position and scale of the face, and places a three-dimensional representation of the frame over the live image. Earlier versions were entertaining but approximate. Better cameras, depth sensing and improved computer-vision models have made the experience steadier and more persuasive, particularly for judging colour, general shape and relative frame width.

Virtual fitting has a longer commercial history than many shoppers realise. Wikipedia’s account of DITTO, an early specialist in the field, describes software that measured facial features and produced images of customers in different frames; the company was founded in 2011 and later became part of a larger optical-technology business. The history is useful because it shows that today’s tools are the result of more than a decade of iteration, not a novelty suddenly produced by generative AI.

Even now, a virtual mirror has limits. Camera perspective can distort apparent size. A screen cannot reliably communicate weight, pressure at the temples or whether a bridge will slip during a commute. Colour also varies between displays. Retailers should describe the feature accurately: it is a decision aid, not a clinical measurement and not a guarantee of fit.

Clear dimensions, helpful photography, human support and a fair returns or adjustment process remain essential.

The next step is likely to be a better connection between visualisation and fit data. With explicit consent, facial measurements could help rank frames by likely suitability or flag an unusually wide or narrow fit. Because facial data can be sensitive, businesses must be restrained about collection and retention. A useful principle is simple: collect only what the service needs, explain the purpose plainly and do not quietly repurpose a face scan for unrelated marketing.

The Quiet Revolution In The Laboratory

The cleverest part of online eyewear is often invisible to the customer. Once an order reaches the laboratory, software validates the prescription and selected lens, checks whether the chosen frame can accommodate it and creates instructions for production.

Lens blanks are blocked, surfaced or selected, coated where required, and edged to the precise outline of the frame. Barcode and order-management systems help the correct lenses, frame and customer record travel together.

Modern free-form surfacing uses computer-controlled equipment to create complex lens surfaces at very fine tolerances. This is particularly valuable for progressive lenses, where the viewing zones and transitions must be calculated for an individual prescription and fitting position.

Digital tracing allows the frame shape to be captured and passed to an edging machine. Automated inspection can support technicians by identifying cosmetic faults or confirming dimensions, although trained quality control remains important.

For independent British retailers, cloud-based order systems can connect the website, customer-service team, optical review and laboratory. That reduces re-keying, one of the most ordinary and costly sources of mistakes. It also creates a useful audit trail: when information was received, which checks were completed, when glazing began and why an order was held. Customers benefit through clearer updates rather than vague promises that their glasses are ‘being processed’.

There is a broader operational lesson here. Digital transformation is rarely one dramatic invention. It is the removal of small uncertainties across a chain. A sensible prescription form, an automatic warning for missing information and a well-designed laboratory dashboard may create more value than a fashionable chatbot placed on an unreliable process.

AI: Capable Assistant, Poor Substitute For Accountability

Artificial intelligence is beginning to influence demand forecasting, customer support, product tagging, fraud detection and quality inspection. Computer vision can identify frame attributes from photographs. Language systems can turn technical lens descriptions into clearer explanations. Forecasting tools can help a retailer decide which colours and sizes to hold, potentially reducing dead stock and unnecessary transfers.

Used carefully, AI can give human teams more time for work that needs judgement. A support system might summarise an order history before an adviser responds, or flag an unusual combination of prescription and lens choice for review. It should not make unsupported clinical claims, invent prescription advice or obscure the route to a qualified professional. In a regulated, health-adjacent category, the person or business making a decision remains accountable even when software helped to reach it.

Bias also deserves attention. A frame-recommendation model trained on an unrepresentative image set may work less well across different face shapes, skin tones, ages or accessibility needs. Testing should therefore look beyond average performance. Retailers need a clear fallback when automation is uncertain, and customers should be able to speak to a person without navigating an obstacle course.

Regulation Is Part Of The Product

British optical retail is not a regulatory blank sheet. The College of Optometrists’ professional guidance explains that sales involving certain groups including children under 16 and people registered as sight impaired require professional supervision, while the Opticians Act governs the sale and supply of optical appliances. The exact obligations depend on the customer and product, so retailers need processes that recognise restricted cases instead of treating every basket identically.

A sight test also does more than generate numbers for a pair of lenses. NHS guidance notes that an optometrist checks eye health as well as vision and, where necessary, can refer a patient for further investigation. An ecommerce journey should reinforce the value of routine examinations and make prescription requirements clear. It should also offer an obvious route for customers whose details are incomplete, expired or unsuitable for automated fulfilment.

Research provides a useful note of caution. A 2016 peer-reviewed UK study comparing spectacles bought online with those supplied by optometry practices found similar lens quality and prescription accuracy overall, but participants preferred practice-supplied spectacles and more online pairs were judged unacceptable on certain measures. The study is not a verdict on every current retailer, technology and processes have advanced but it highlights why fit, verification and aftercare cannot be treated as optional extras.

Trust is therefore built in layers: secure handling of health-related information, truthful product descriptions, qualified review where required, clear delivery expectations and a practical remedy when something is not right. These are not merely compliance costs. In online retail, they are core features.

Affordability, Inclusion And The Hybrid Future

Technology can lower some costs by centralising stock, automating administration and enabling laboratories to process orders efficiently. Price comparison also becomes easier. But affordability is not achieved by showing a low headline price and revealing necessary lens charges at the final step.

The strongest retailers explain what is included, distinguish optional upgrades from genuine requirements and help customers understand the trade-offs without pressure.

Digital inclusion matters too. Small text, low contrast or a checkout that cannot be navigated by keyboard is especially inappropriate for an optical website. Pages should work with screen readers, permit magnification and avoid using colour alone to communicate status. Instructions for entering a prescription need examples and validation that is helpful rather than scolding.

Telephone or human-assisted ordering can support customers who are less confident online.

The future is unlikely to be a contest in which websites eliminate practices or practices reject ecommerce. It is hybrid. A customer may have a sight test locally, research frames at home, ask a question by chat, order remotely and visit a partner location for adjustment. Another may discover a frame online and complete the purchase in person. Shared records and consistent service can make those movements feel like one relationship rather than a collection of disconnected channels.

Physical practices have strengths that software cannot reproduce: examination, hands-on fitting, immediate reassurance and community presence. Digital businesses offer range, convenience and scalable information. The most credible operators will combine these advantages and be candid about where each channel is strongest.

A Greener Industry Needs Evidence, Not Slogans

Digital operations can reduce paper, improve stock planning and consolidate some journeys, but ecommerce is not automatically sustainable. Individual deliveries, returns, packaging, lens waste and unsold frames all carry an environmental cost. Equally, a high-street purchase is not impact-free. The proper question is which design and operational decisions reduce waste across the entire product life cycle.

Technology can help by forecasting demand at size-and-colour level, producing selected components closer to demand and recording material provenance. Better fit information may prevent avoidable returns. Durable hinges, replaceable parts and accessible repair services can extend useful life. Retailers should publish specific evidence such as packaging composition, repair policies or audited emissions rather than relying on broad terms such as ‘eco-friendly’.

Circular models are also emerging: frame take-back, refurbishment, recycling trials and materials made partly from recovered or bio-based feedstocks. None is a universal answer. Mixed materials and very small components make spectacles challenging to recycle, while a frame with a lower-impact material is not sustainable if it breaks quickly. Longevity remains an unfashionable but powerful measure.

Data Quality And Security Are Competitive Advantages

An online optical service depends on information that is both accurate and personal. A prescription may include sphere, cylinder, axis, prism and addition values, while the order can also contain pupillary distance, fitting information, contact details and payment records.

A form that merely accepts any combination of characters is not digital transformation; it is a mistake waiting to enter production. Thoughtful validation should recognise common formats, distinguish a blank field from a genuine zero and ask for confirmation when the right and left eyes appear to have been transposed.

Automation must nevertheless allow for legitimate variation. Prescriptions are not always laid out in the same way, and an unusual value is not automatically an error. The sensible model is risk-based: software catches missing or inconsistent information, then a trained person resolves exceptions. Customers should be able to upload a clear copy or authorise verification where appropriate, while the retailer records which version was used for manufacture.

Security deserves the same practical attention. Optical retailers should limit staff access by role, protect accounts with strong authentication, encrypt information in transit and maintain tested recovery procedures. Suppliers that host customer-service, analytics or laboratory systems need scrutiny too; a polished storefront does not compensate for weak links behind it.

Retention periods should be defined rather than allowing sensitive records to remain indefinitely because storage is cheap.

Transparency is equally important. Privacy notices are most useful when they explain, in plain English, which information is required to fulfil an order, which features are optional and whether images or facial measurements are retained. Consent for a virtual try-on should not be bundled invisibly with consent for unrelated advertising. In a market where products can look similar and prices are easily compared, careful stewardship of customer data can become a meaningful point of difference.

What The Winners Will Get Right

The technology transforming eyewear will continue to improve. Virtual try-on will become more accurate, manufacturing systems more connected and AI more capable of supporting routine decisions. Smart glasses may also blur the boundary between optical appliance and computing device; Wikipedia’s overview of glasses traces how eyewear has repeatedly changed in materials, design and purpose over centuries. Yet innovation will not remove the fundamentals.

Customers want to see well, feel comfortable, understand what they are buying and know that somebody competent will help if there is a problem. Businesses that use technology to meet those needs; not to disguise their absence will earn repeat custom. That means investing as seriously in prescription checks, accessibility, cybersecurity and aftercare as in the front-end experience.

Britain is well placed for this next phase. It has mature ecommerce habits, established professional standards, skilled optical teams and consumers who are comfortable moving between digital and physical channels. The opportunity is not simply to put more frames on more screens. It is to create a joined-up service in which data moves accurately, choices become clearer and professional care appears at the moment it is needed.

The best version of online eyewear will feel less like a technological performance and more like good service: convenient without being careless, personalised without being intrusive, and efficient without losing its human touch.

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Yet gender disparities persist across the sector, with women comprising under 30% of the global STEM workforce and less than 35% of manufacturing roles. The leaders highlighted below are actively shaping this expansion, advancing tactile sensing, embodied AI, swarm robotics, perception research and industrial automation across five continents.

The Blind Spots In Tech

Flashy walking robots and automated factory floors drive the majority of media coverage. Fundamental layers such as touch perception, swarm management and advanced vision processing are harder to turn into viral stories, yet they address the real challenges between a controlled prototype and a dependable field implementation. A machine might spot a target instantly, but without tactile awareness it can’t manipulate real-world objects safely.

Geographic preference widens the divide further. Advanced robotics research coming out of South Korea, Brazil and regional Europe rarely matches the publicity generated in Silicon Valley or traditional Japanese industrial centers. This selection celebrates women in robotics across the globe.

The Top Women In Robotics In 2026

The following profiles a select group of robotics founders and researchers to watch in 2026, spanning tactile sensing, embodied AI, industrial automation, swarm robotics and perception research worldwide.

1. Heba Khamis, CEO and Co-founder, Contactile

Khamis holds a PhD in tactile sensing and co-founded Contactile in June 2019, an Australian company developing sensors that give robots a human-like sense of touch.

Its GAL2 Smart Tactile-Native Gripper is designed to let robots handle delicate or deformable materials with more precision than vision-based systems alone can provide, and its 3D Force Button Sensors have been durability-tested past 20 million compression cycles. Contactile won ARM Hub PropelAir 2.0 in 2026, earning a residency at MassRobotics in Boston.

Touch has historically been the weakest sense in robotics, with most systems relying almost entirely on cameras or motor current spikes as an indirect proxy for contact. Contactile closes that gap by measuring friction and force at the point of contact, giving robots the kind of tactile feedback humans use constantly without thinking about it.

2. Nicole Robinson, CEO and Co-founder, Lyro Robotics

Robinson co-founded LYRO Robotics, an Australian company building AI-powered pick-and-pack robots aimed specifically at transforming the food supply chain. With close to a decade of robotics research behind her, she has first-author publications in Science Robotics, advises Australia’s National AI Centre and lectures at Monash University alongside running the company.

Food processing is a notoriously difficult space for robotics, given the variability of the products involved and the hygiene standards required. LYRO’s use in that space, backed by Robinson’s own research background in computer vision and deep learning, is a genuine test of whether AI-driven robotics can handle the messy, inconsistent conditions that structured industrial settings usually avoid.

3. Alona Kharchenko, Co-founder and CTO, Devanthro

Kharchenko co-founded and serves as CTO of Devanthro, a Munich-based company building Robodies, robotic avatars designed specifically for elderly care.

Named to Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2023, she has spent eight years building full-stack robotics aimed at real-world implementation, with partners including Charité Berlin, the University of Oxford and Diakonie. An early prototype is part of the permanent exhibition at the Deutsches Museum in Munich.

Elderly care is one of the more socially significant and commercially underserved applications of robotics, requiring machines that can operate safely and usefully around vulnerable people rather than in controlled industrial settings. Devanthro is building specifically with this need in mind.

4. Mar Masulli, CEO and Co-founder, BitMetrics

Masulli is a three-time founder and CEO of BitMetrics, a Barcelona-based company applying AI to improve vision and reasoning capabilities in robots and industrial machines. She also sits on the board of AER Automation and was named to both the 2025 Women in Robotics list and the IFR’s 2024 list of women shaping the future of robotics.

Visual input alone falls short of making a machine practical. The underlying reasoning that translates raw imagery into actionable decisions is the primary challenge in industrial automation, and this specific challenge drives BitMetrics’ core focus.

5. Carla Gomez Cano, Co-founder and CEO, THEKER

Gomez Cano co-founded and leads THEKER, a Barcelona-based intelligent robotics and AI company designed, engineered and manufactured vertically.

THEKER closed the largest Series A funding round of the year in Europe’s intelligent robotics sector, and its full-stack robotic systems are now used on factory floors for top-tier multinationals across fashion, logistics and food.

Taking the vertical route by engineering hardware, software and field integration in-house creates a tougher build, but it gives THEKER complete ownership over solving specific physical tasks instead of forcing off-the-shelf machinery into bespoke roles.

6. Younseal Eum, Founder, AeiROBOT

Eum began her career as a kinetic artist and exterior designer for robots before founding AeiROBOT, a spin-off from a robotics laboratory at Hanyang University launched in 2018.

Her work centres on human-robot interaction, focusing on making robot movement feel natural and emotionally legible. AeiROBOT’s robots include ALICE, a human-proportioned humanoid that can play football and navigate grass, and AIMY, an autonomous indoor guide robot for customer service. She was named to the IFR’s 2026 “Women Shaping the Future of Robotics” list.

Because major industrial groups drive the vast majority of South Korean robotics, standalone start-ups remain few and far between. Eum approaches the sector from a design perspective, giving AeiROBOT a clear edge by prioritising how machines actually feel to work alongside instead of relying purely on technical parameters.

7. Asami Sasao, Senior Engineer, Kawasaki Heavy Industries

Sasao is a senior engineer in the Robot Business Division at Kawasaki Heavy Industries, one of Japan’s largest industrial robotics manufacturers, where she develops control software for industrial robots.

She joined the company in 1991 during the early surge of industrial robot adoption in manufacturing and taught herself programming on the job to help power full factory production lines. She was named to the IFR’s 2026 “Women Shaping the Future of Robotics” list for her long-term technical contributions.

Given Japan’s position as an industrial robotics powerhouse, Sasao’s three-and-a-half decades embedded in a major manufacturing giant show deep, steady technical leadership. Her career highlights the kind of foundational work that operates behind the scenes.

8. Sabine Hauert, Professor of Swarm Engineering, University of Bristol

Hauert OBE is Professor of Swarm Engineering at the University of Bristol, where her research covers nanorobots for cancer treatment through to larger robots for environmental monitoring and logistics.

Her career prior to Bristol involved creating cancer-fighting nanoparticle swarms at MIT and running flying robot swarms at EPFL. An active advocate for science communication, she co-founded Robohub.org as President and serves as executive trustee of AIhub.org, non-profits dedicated to connecting AI and robotics specialists with wider society, with featured pieces appearing across the BBC, CNN, The Guardian and Nature.

As one of the more research-heavy branches of the sector, swarm robotics operates at a distance from everyday commercial use compared with industrial automation. Hauert targets both environmental and medical challenges with her work, complementing her engineering focus with ten years of public outreach that translates technical progress for non-specialist readers.

9. Shuran Song, Assistant Professor, Stanford University

Song holds a PhD in Computer Science from Princeton and a Bachelor of Engineering from HKUST. She was a faculty member at Columbia University from 2019 to 2023 before joining Stanford, where she now leads the Robotics and Embodied AI Lab, building algorithms that help intelligent systems learn manipulation skills from human demonstrations, real-world data and open-source datasets. Her honours include the IEEE RAS Early Academic Career Award, an NSF CAREER Award, an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship and multiple best paper awards at RSS and CoRL.

Open datasets accelerate research across the entire field. Song’s focus on accessibility, both in cost and in openness, reflects a different kind of contribution to robotics than commercial deployment, but one with wide-reaching effects on who gets to do robotics research at all.

10. Kelen Teixeira Vivaldini, Professor, UFSCar

Vivaldini holds a PhD in mechatronics from EESC/USP and completed a postdoc at ICM/USP and the University of Sydney. She has been a professor of autonomous robots at UFSCar since 2015 and is also a senior researcher with the Multi-Robot Systems Group at the Czech Technical University in Prague. Her research centres on using UAVs and standard sensors for monitoring and mapping, developing path-planning systems that maximise the area robots can cover while minimising uncertainty.

Applying autonomous systems to ecological monitoring addresses urgent environmental threats, provided the hardware fits the terrain. Vivaldini creates solutions designed from scratch for demanding conditions instead of simply modifying technology built elsewhere. Splitting her time between Brazilian and Czech institutions underlines how modern research thrives on international knowledge exchange.

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2025 marked a pivotal moment for the gaming industry when a US court ruling forced Apple to let publishers offer in-app transactions directly to their users, bypassing the 30% transaction fee. Within a year, direct-to-consumer (DTC) has already become a booming channel, accounting for around 15% of the $113.3Bn mobile gaming in-app purchase market; approximately $17Bn today.

The potential for DTC is proven. GDC Festival of Gaming research, commissioned by Appcharge, reveals that early adopters are seeing a median revenue uplift of 35%, with 63% already outperforming app store monetisation. Today, any publisher with an alternative payment system can expect to generate a double-digit margin increase and further benefits of direct selling.

This is a beacon to the wider app economy, such as AI creation, fitness, education, lifestyle, entertainment and other subscription services. With the global in-app market across all consumer apps projected to reach $290Bn by 2030, it’s a multi-billion opportunity for publishers. Brands that haven’t already are scrambling to get started.

But leaving the safe haven of the Apple/Google model might feel risky to app publishers starting out on their DTC journey.

To succeed in the evolving payments labyrinth, app developers must make DTC a strategic priority armed with dedicated senior leadership, a DTC strategy and the right DTC infrastructure. Only then will they make the most of this key channel and take control over where the business goes next.

The DTC Maturity Gap

We’re seeing a reckoning in DTC with a widening revenue gap between leaders and laggards at around 7x. According to the Appcharge report, “innovator” studios are charging ahead with a median DTC revenue share of 35%, compared with “late adopters” at 5%. It’s the same market and players, yet this DTC maturity gap opened in less than 12 months. This means 35% of their total revenue has shifted from traditional billing systems that take 30% fees on every transaction to a DTC vendor that takes around 5%. For large publishers, this represents a huge amount of revenue.

Optimism for DTC growth is indisputable. 67% of publishers expect DTC revenue to grow in 2026, yet only 25% describe their DTC strategy as scaling or mature. Most of the industry expects the channel to grow while simultaneously admitting they’re not ready for it.

It’s a steep learning curve, with only 14% of publishers considering themselves ahead of the industry on DTC while 62% say they’re behind. Publishers realise they need to be in the race, but it’s one that’s already started.

Opportunities And Challenges In Moving To DTC

Top objectives for investing in DTC include increasing revenue (63%), building direct relationships with players (53%), improving monetisation (45%), and reducing dependency on app stores (40%).

Success is proven, with early adopters of the DTC channel reporting rising revenues and expecting sales to continue to accelerate. Direct interaction with users and their data is helping to improve engagement, control pricing, generate personalised offers, deepen relationships, and stay ahead of competitors.

On the flip side, challenges are largely operational, with publishers facing demands the app store model never required. Before DTC, publishers didn’t need to think much about payment processing, global tax compliance, fraud, chargebacks and refunds. The app stores took care of it, as part of their 30% fees. Processing payments outside of these traditional billing systems shifts the responsibility to the publisher, who either has to build those capabilities in-house or use a specialist DTC payments vendor.

Scaling is also a challenge, as is having dedicated teams and the right DTC payments infrastructure. DTC leadership isn’t just a one-department decision. It spans product, payments, customer success, finance, and legal. It requires leadership sponsoring it at the top and pushing it across the organisation.

Beyond ownership, it’s essential to have the right skills in the form of DTC expertise. 54% of studios have zero dedicated DTC employees. Among innovators, the average number is 14. The organisational gap between innovators and late adopters largely explains the revenue gap.

For smaller studios, the main concerns are friction around integration complexity, internal bandwidth and how much this will demand of the team. They simply don’t have the headcount to absorb a complicated implementation.

For enterprise apps, it’s about feature parity. They want the DTC experience to match what they have in-app, with the same offers, the same economy, the same feel. This sets the technical bar high, as understandably publishers want to match the sophistication of their in-game monetisation systems.

The Challenges Of Scaling DTC

Operations is not an easy landscape to move into and make a success of overnight. The moment you take payments outside the app store, you inherit issues the platform used to handle. This might be authorisation logic, fraud prevention management, dispute handling across dozens of markets, and managing tax and VAT across territories. Publishers are now handling these areas directly for the first time.

Therefore, a review of the app payments integrations and journeys must be an initial step in any DTC strategy. DTC owners can then make informed investments and avoid costly missteps that can compromise success. Even more so for first-time DTC strategists, the merchant of record (MoR) model can now replace that infrastructure in a single relationship without the 30%.

Key Features Of A Winning DTC Operation

At a technical level, all apps require different DTC infrastructure. A that’s experienced in handling the tough problems can design a solution that will optimise revenue potential for that specific business. Strategically, some other things must also line up for success.

Here are some consistent features of those publishers doing DTC strategy well:

• Senior ownership – This should be one person who reports to a C-level and is accountable for DTC as a function, not just a project that straddles multiple teams with no clear home
• DTC is embedded in the business operating system – This means sitting within the budget and featuring in revenue projections with annual targets and KPIs. It must be treated as a core channel, rather than being evaluated quarter on quarter as to whether it “deserves” more investment
• The incentive structure is right – The monetisation team, the AMs, customer success, all incentivised by the success of DTC, not just by app store performance. When the people closest to the customer/player relationship have a stake in DTC growth, the whole organisation pulls in the same direction
• There’s committed resource allocation – Not huge numbers, but dedicated time from the people whose decisions actually shape the player experience. DTC touches various teams across the business, such as development, product, and customer success

A Sizeable Market Opportunity

Gaming has been the DTC proving ground for the rest of the app economy. Some of the next wave of brands in lifestyle, food and drink, health and fitness, shopping and finance are already making headlines around their DTC monetisation. This model can work for any high-velocity consumer business with global users and complex tax implications.

As the new world of DTC advantage opens up, it’s a given that publishers will meet complexity with DTC in-app payments. From high-frequency micro-transactions and virtual economies to global customer bases and real-time LiveOps.

For those fast-scaling app publishers already taking advantage of the channel, building smarter operations and tackling DTC mismanagement are the first goals. For beginners, a robust plan and a perfect blend of the right tech and human expertise is the winning formula.

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