Peter Lee, departing president of Microsoft Science, plans to join the Mercedes F1 team as AI advisor
Confirmed
The takeaway
Peter Lee, who recently announced he is leaving as president of Microsoft Science after 16 years at the company, told Fortune on Oct 12, 2026 that he plans to join the Mercedes Formula 1 team in a newly created AI advisor role, on a one-year contract with an option for a second.
Status
- Claim
Confirmed
- Our reporting
- High confidence
- Importance
- 2 of 5
- Last verified
- 13 October 2026
Your AI and this story
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Key facts
- Role: newly created AI advisor at the Mercedes F1 team; title still under discussion; one-year contract with an option for a second (Lee to Fortune)
- Four goals: AI for physics problems of the car, breaking down organizational and data silos, financial and predictive data models, and advising on how the sport’s regulators might govern AI use
- Lee: ‘I have always wanted to be a racer. When I was young, I grew up racing carts’; ‘I’m in disbelief that they would think of me for something like this’
- Mercedes did not immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment
- Background: 16 years at Microsoft; led AI work in medicine and science (InnerEye; early medical assessment of GPT-4); Time 100 Health list in 2024
- Other Microsoft departures in 2026 listed by Fortune: Ryan Roslansky, Frank X. Shaw, Phil Spencer and Rajesh Jha
- Fortune also notes that James Smith, formerly of Google DeepMind, became chief information officer of the Williams F1 team in June 2026
What happened
Lee led Microsoft Science, the group charged with applying AI to the physical, biological and medical sciences. He told Fortune he will advise Mercedes’ Formula 1 team on AI. He compared racing with medicine: trained people working together “with a deficit of information and having to make highly consequential rapid decisions”.
Why it matters
A senior AI-for-science executive moving to a racing team is an example of AI expertise spreading to industries outside tech, and one more name in a year of senior departures from Microsoft. The date and circumstances of his departure announcement from Microsoft are not in the dataset and were not researched here.
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