Mercedes-AMG presents RACE Scout as a new app- based platform for the global motorsport community
AFFALTERBACH, GERMANY – January 4, 2018 – (Motor Sports Newswire) – The expansion of Mercedes-AMG’s involvement in motorsport is also progressing at a digital level. During the first highlight of the season, the Dubai 24-hour race, the performance brand from Affalterbach is launching RACE Scout, an innovative app. The online platform, conceptualised in co-operation with Lab1886, is providing the global motorsport community with an optimal way of intense interaction. As a tool across manufacturers and series, RACE Scout is aimed at all motorsport teams and race drivers and allows for supplying or demanding vacant seats for race activities.
Where and when is which team racing? Who still needs support in the cockpit? Which driver has how much experience and is looking for opportunities to race? And what is the best way for interested team managers and drivers to get in touch with each other? To these and many other questions, the newly developed app RACE Scout will now provide the suitable answers and connections. The online tool, jointly developed by Mercedes-AMG and the innovation laboratory Lab1886 is a unique network that is growing with every new user and is providing more and more opportunities for interaction related to international motorsport.
The new digital tool will be presented in public for the first time at the occasion of the Dubai 24-hour race (12-13 January). During the endurance race, the first drivers and teams can access www.racescout.com to register as prospects and users. For the upcoming weeks, the developers have scheduled an intense beta test of the application together with the first users prior to the official launch in April, 2018, after which the RACE Scout app will be available for iOS free of charge.
The structure of the app is intuitive and includes a variety of useful features. After successful registration, both drivers and teams can create their own profile pages and edit them. Numerous race events, tracks and cars from GT3 and GT4 racing have already been uploaded in the system, which considerably facilitates entry and search functions. Various filter functions enable to search for suitable racing opportunities or appropriate drivers. An integrated messenger service then allows drivers and team managers to start a private conversation within the app and clarify the details about a possible co-operation.
With RACE Scout, teams are getting an effective tool to optimise the occupancy of their own race cars with minimal effort. For race drivers, RACE Scout is providing the advantage of a comprehensive overview of available drives with the prospect of increasing their own seat time during races. The initial target group includes all active teams and race drivers, from amateur level all the way up to professional motorsport and irrespective of the race series, the car categories and the vehicle brands.
Tobias Moers, Chairman of the Board of Management of Mercedes-AMG GmbH: “RACE Scout is an innovative digital element of the successful strategic development of our involvement in motorsport. Thus, we prove that we at AMG are thinking about the future of motorsport in many ways. And as it can be expected from a project that carries Mercedes-AMG’s thumbprint, the goals have been set high: we can really imagine RACE Scout becoming the world’s biggest and most popular motorsport community! In the process, bringing teams and race drivers together is only the first step. At the next levels, the range of functions is to grow continuously. We want to address further target groups such as engineers, mechanics, instructors or also sponsors and organisers. Everywhere in international motorsport where the supply of know-how or services is required, RACE Scout is providing the new central platform.”
About Lab1886
Lab1886 will act as an innovation lab of Daimler AG with its own incubator and, in addition to the latest hardware and software, will provide qualified personnel to expertly assist Daimler employees with implementation. The goal is to move faster from the idea to the product or business model. Lab1886 will work at four sites on three continents: Stuttgart and Berlin in Germany, Beijing in China and Sunnyvale in the USA. Under working conditions similar to those at a start-up, Daimler is placing its faith in swarm intelligence at Lab1886. The ideas of individual employees, teams and business units should be implemented quickly and unconventionally. To do this, Lab1886 will have all the necessary infrastructure and expertise as well as ten years of experience in the implementation of new business models. Within this freedom, employees can work in flat hierarchies and a creative atmosphere.
Source: Mercedes-Benz USA
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