2 Seconds and Cloud Security: Understanding the F1 Data Challenges
- By Sheila Lam
- January 17, 2022
For F1 racing team Williams Racing, the need for speed is not found only on the grid but at every milestone from car design and driver simulation to data flow and business transformation.
Speaking at a webinar organized by the SME & Start-up Committee of the British Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong recently, William Racing’s chief information officer and Williams group IT director Graeme Hackland shared the company’s digital challenges, which were not far different from many Asian firms — just faster and more furious.
Building an extreme data-driven business
With the 2021 season ended, Hackland said it was all hands on deck to deliver a new car for next season. The design and manufacturing teams were operating at their maximum to work on the aerodynamics computation and engineering to deliver a new car for the first test.
“Everyone is back to base focusing on next year’s car, getting it delivered, and getting it to the first test,” said Hackland. “We are very much driven by these kinds of events — the first test, the first race, the first European race.”
William’s IT needs change throughout the year. Hackland noted that the company is currently at its peak demand for computation power to work on computational fluid dynamics (CFD), build virtual wind tunnels, and develop models. But during the racing season, with 60% of the workforce traveling worldwide for races, the demand for collaboration and communications tools outweighs the need for computation power.
Hackland said F1 racing has always been a data-driven sport. He noted that the Williams’ museum housed a car made in 1979 that was the first team car to win a race. It also was the first one with a data logger.
“Back in 1979, that’s how long F1 has been using car data,” said Hackland. “It has always been a data-driven sport, and it’s one of the things that attracted me 25 years ago.”
What’s different is the scale and size of car data. Hackland said in 1997 when he first started working in F1, the car data from a race was stored in a single 1.4MB floppy disc.
“I think we generate the same amount of data before getting into the first corner now. Data growth has been huge,” he said.
The cost of two seconds
When the stakes are high in F1 racing, two seconds could mean a world of difference.
Hackland said each pit stop takes around two seconds, but any slight miscalculation causing a three-second pit stop could cost the team losing a couple of places. He added that each team could improve the speed of a car by two seconds throughout the entire season.
“If you are spending USD145 million under the cost cap, at least half of that is going to be spent on those two seconds. It’s significant; it’s huge,” he said.
To make this two-second difference, Williams relies on data. Hackland said the car data volume was pretty small. Each car is installed with about 300 sensors, generating about 800GB in a race weekend, mainly from the drivers and team's video and audio records. But he noted that the data size adds up when analyzed with weather data, biometric pressure data, and competitors’ car data.
Different types of data are also collected during a race weekend. For example, in Friday’s practice sessions, the focus is on aerodynamics data. During Saturday’s qualifying and Sunday’s race, tire pressure and temperature data are collected.
According to Hackland, part of Williams’ digital transformation initiatives enabled the team to make the right decisions at the right time with data. Thus, the data flow must be seamless and secure, from the CFD and simulation to car testing and race day, then back to manufacturing. He said cloud computing plays a critical role in that flow.
Using the cloud for regulations
When Hackland suggested using the cloud to run critical services in 2014, board members at Williams were skeptical. But it turned out to be a wise decision, particularly with the introduction of a cost cap in 2021.
F1 racing, like banks and healthcare, is highly regulated. The newest one was the cost cap which limited spending on car performance to USD145 million in 2022. There is also a restriction around the use of data within and outside the team.
“For three months, we tripled the computing power we need. We could never afford to meet that (with the cost cap),” he said. “What cloud offered was the elastic capacity.”
Cloud supports the spike in computing power that Williams needed without breaking the bank and F1 cost cap. Nevertheless, it is not risk-free. Hackland noted attacks in the cloud were found, and with the help of its security partners, it was able to respond to it.
The increasing targeted and clever phishing attack is another headache. He said one phishing attack targeted a new employee within 24 hours after the person started.
While many IT leaders see humans as the weakest link in security, Hackland disagreed. “I think it’s an absolute mistake,” he said. “My colleagues are my first line of defense and last line of defense.” He felt that his colleagues could identify any abnormality and possible attacks with the proper education.
Cars vs. drivers
In the world of F1, one never-ending debate is whether cars or drivers are essential.
“As an IT bloke, I reckon it’s 50/50,” he said. “You’ve seen many times, the best driver in an awful car could achieve more than what the car can do.”
But moving forward, Hackland noted drivers need to be more tech-savvy. He noted that one of the contributing factors to the success of Valtteri Bottas is his apprenticeship at Williams, working at the wind tunnel, model making, and manufacturing.
“The current generation of drivers are really interested in the data. Many of them do engineering at school, in addition to driving. It is an advantage,” he concluded.
Sheila Lam is the contributing editor of CDOTrends. Covering IT for 20 years as a journalist, she has witnessed the emergence, hype, and maturity of different technologies but is always excited about what's next. You can reach her at [email protected].
Image credit: iStockphoto/ALLVISIONN