Mercedes F1 forced to fix computer systems at Hungarian GP after CrowdStrike outage

Photo by Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images

The Microsoft, CrowdStrike outage even impacted the F1 world

A major computer outage is impacting the entire planet this Friday, as Microsoft systems crashed due to a failed content update from security platform CrowdStrike. The crash led to flight cancellations, bank systems going down, and even impacted ESPN’s morning broadcasts of “SportsCenter” and “Get Up.”

The outage also impacted the Formula 1 world.

Just as the first practice session was getting underway Mercedes — a partner of CrowdStrike — was forced to manually address their computer systems at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

CrowdStrike and Mercedes have been working together since 2019, and as part of their arrangement CrowdStrike branding appears on the team’s car, and the security platform provides computer services to the team.

Mercedes was able to get things operational for the first practice session and got their Hungarian Grand Prix off to a solid start. George Russell posted the fourth-fastest time in the practice session, while teammate Lewis Hamilton placed tenth:

The Silver Arrows are the hottest team in the sport at the moment, thanks to back-to-back wins over the past two race weekends. Over the last four races they have scored more points than any other F1 team, and they hope to keep that streak going this weekend in Budapest.

And it seems not even a global service outage will slow them down right now.