FOUNDER OF DRIVEN AVS & RACEDATA.AI
Josef Karaburun
Born in 1995 in Istanbul, Josef Karaburun is an entrepreneur, mechanical engineer, and lifelong motorsport enthusiast. Like many children, he grew up obsessed with cars, spending countless hours playing on the carpet with toy cars and dreaming about racing. His passion turned serious when, at just four years old, he started watching Formula 1 🏁 — growing up idolizing legends like Schumacher, Raikkonen, Alonso, and Hamilton.
By 2012, Josef had already entered the competitive world, representing his high school team in the Shell Eco-marathon Europe and securing second place in their category. He later pursued mechanical engineering at Middle East Technical University (METU), choosing his path based on where the world’s top F1 engineers had studied.
His journey led him to Italy 🇮🇹, the heart of motorsport, where he joined Università di Pisa’s Formula Student team. Over two intense years, Josef raced and led the team across Italy, Germany 🇩🇪, and the Czech Republic 🇨🇿, even achieving a first-place finish. After the pandemic paused his racing activities, he spent two years in the defense industry, funding his next move: building his own motorsport-focused company, Driven AVS 🚀.
In 2024, Josef founded RaceData AI, driven by a simple but powerful realization: telemetry analysis is essential for improving racing performance, but it is often overwhelming and inaccessible for many drivers. Having faced these challenges firsthand, he set out to create a solution that makes telemetry easy, approachable, and useful for racers at every level.
What Josef is most proud of today is how RaceData AI, built with limited resources but immense passion, has already impacted thousands of racers' journeys around the world. His ultimate dream? To see RaceData’s innovations not only help simracers but also reach the highest levels of real-world motorsport — and maybe even Formula 1 someday.
Josef believes that the lines between simracing and real racing are blurring fast. Future drivers who start building their telemetry skills today with RaceData AI will have a massive edge when they step onto real circuits 🏁 — and he's here to make sure they are ready.
WHO WE ARE
Meet the Team
RaceData is powered by a dynamic team of experts in software, design, and marketing. With a shared passion for motorsports and innovation, we build smart tools that help racers perform at their best.
YAGIZ MERTOL
CTO
Overseeing tech stack and architecture to enhance performance
and scalability.
RUSSELL BARNES
MARKETING
DIRECTOR
Leading brand development and driving growth through customer engagement.
CANSU CETIN
DESIGNER
Two-time A' Design Award winning product and interface designer, shaping user experiences.
FURKAN GUNDUZ
SOFTWARE
DEVELOPER
Building the web platform that turns raw race data into clear, actionable insights.
DENIZ BAYRAMOGLU
SOFTWARE
DEVELOPER
Developing the software that powers real-time data capture from the sim.
JOIN OUR TEAM
Do you want to work with us?
Become a part of the RaceData AI team and let's grow this platform together. Send an email to support@racedata.ai with a short introduction along with your CV. Our team will take care of it and get back to you.