The Technology Behind Formula 1 Racing 175
swandives writes "The Australian Grand Prix F1 event is being held in Melbourne this weekend (27-28 March) and Computerworld Australia has interviewed the technology teams for BMW Sauber, McLaren Racing, Red Bull Racing, and Renault about how they run their IT systems and how technology has changed the sport. Each car has about 100 sensors which capture data and send anywhere up to 20GB back to the pits during a race. The tech guys arrive a week before a race to set everything up — the kit for BMW Sauber weighs close to 3200 kilograms — and when it's all over, they pack it all up and move on to the next event. Good pics too."
Re:All we need (Score:3, Interesting)
It's like overclocking with liquid nitrogen instead of watercooling. Speed costs money; how fast do you want to go?
US Participation (Score:2, Interesting)
Why don't yanks take part in F1?
I thought you loved racing cars about.
Re:Great! Now we can call it something else! (Score:3, Interesting)
F1 doesn't even air on US network TV, it's cable/satellite only. And even then the commentators are constantly making inane comparisons to NASCAR.
Re:Great! Now we can call it something else! (Score:5, Interesting)
That's why the F1 has been crippled and regulated to the point where basically all the teams have been reduced to whatever the poorest team can muster. Only so-and-so many engines, so many gearboxes, these tyres HAVE to be used, etc...
Coupled with the inability to overtake sensibly anywhere on the curve-heavy courses most races are won and lost in the pits. Who chooses the right tyres, who gauges the weather best, who chooses the right moment to refill and change tyres... the driver is basically reduced to getting the best position during qualification and make sure the car somehow survives the race with its engine hopefully intact enough that it lasts another race, because it can only be changed after the next race because that costs us 10 places in the grid and we don't have a chance anyway in the next but one race...
C'mon, what's that got to do with race car driving?
Re:Was held This weekend (Score:3, Interesting)
a look a virgin's 100% CFD (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Great! Now we can call it something else! (Score:3, Interesting)
They are? Last I checked they were no more insistent on this than footballers, rugby players and swimmers were. They are doing a sport, so people tend to call them sportsmen, that's about it. This isn't chess we're talking about.
And for sure you did suggest that F1 drivers weren't physically fit and weren't doing any sporting activity. Or was 80% of your comment just an off topic ramble about something totally unrelated?
Re:Great! Now we can call it something else! (Score:2, Interesting)
Holy crap. How can you say the quality of the broadcasts is fantastic when 1 hour of game takes 3 hours to broadcast? Last summer I started watching English Premier League football (soccer) on Saturday mornings, and the contrast is incredible. Once kickoff happens, there are no breaks in coverage before halftime. None. The clock starts, the cameras roll, and there are no ads, no breaks, just game time. Fifteen minutes for halftime, and you're back at it. No breaks until the game's done. A 90 minute + maybe 8 minutes of added time game takes about 2 hours to broadcast. Then comes Sunday and the NFL. You watch a play, maybe two, and we're gone for commercial. There's only 5-8 seconds of actual gameplay per play (not counting snap counts, I mean actual movement), most of the non-commercial time is spent being bombarded with meaningless analysis/stats or watching that goddamn stupid robotic football player strike poses while they plug the halftime panel. There's covering a sport, and then there's the NFL broadcasts.
Re:What do they do with the data? (Score:5, Interesting)
I do data acquisition/telemetry/electronics with endurance racing teams in ALMS and other series. While we don't have quite the infrastructure that F1 teams have, we do collect quite a bit of data. In the car, there is a data acquisition system consisting of a combination display/logger, which also collects data from several other components on the car via CAN network. Data can be logged at speeds up to 1000 Hz for detailed analysis once the car is downloaded in the pits. This data is also broadcast via telemetry while the car is on track. The Engine Control Unit has it's own logging capability as well, which collects engine parameters and traction control data. We also collect video whenever the car is on track.
The data we collect is used for several key purposes.
1. Driver performance -- The drivers use a handful of logged channels (steering angle, throttle position, gear, brake pressures, lat/lon G, etc.) to compare laps. With the data, we can overlay laps to compare where time is gained or lost in relation to other laps for a driver or compare to their teammate/co-driver. This helps both drivers to see how things can be done better, which improves laps times.
2. Engineering -- Sensors such as damper (shock) position, ride heights, aero pressures, etc. allow us to quantify what the drivers are telling us. Ultimately, we have to tune the handling of the car to what will allow the drivers to go the fastest. After each outing or session, we'll debrief and they'll tell us what the car is doing in various places around the track. We then use the data to help identify what it is the car is doing physically and what adjustments need to be made to give the driver a better car.
3. Health of the car -- Many channels (temperatures, pressures, amperages, etc.) give us a picture of the health of the car. The car must be reliable and this information can tell us if a component is failing. Even though we can't send data to the car while it's on track, there are ways that we can utilize some of the redundancies built into the systems (electrical systems anyhow) or change other things to help assure the car will make it to the finish.
Re:What do they do with the data? (Score:1, Interesting)
So they can analyse both the car's performance (after the race) and the driver's performance.
There was a segment on TopGear where Richard Hammond took a F1 car around the track.
They were able to say that he hit peak acceleration for 0.5 seconds (or something like that.) They briefly showed graphs that plotted speed, acceleration, etc, real time for his trip around the lap. For drivers in practice sessions, they can look at data like that after the session and work out where they're going to slow, where they can speed up, etc.
In practice sessions, it is not uncommon for them to change aero configurations, tyres, etc. The data lets them compare how the changes impact the performance and loading on the car without just looking at lap times and if the driver was faster or slower.
By collecting all of this data, you're able to determine how many revolutions the engine really does, how the temperature of the engine varies according to the stress, etc. Using that data you're then able to design future engines that meet the load requirements that you know exist in real world conditions. That doesn't mean you can't test but it does get your first round of engineering at least into the right ballpark.
How much difference does this make?
Well, there's all of the weight of the wires going everywhere in the car plus the transmitter to send it back to base. So maybe a couple of extra kilograms? There's also the small antenna mounted on the external surface to transmit that data. All told, I wouldn't be surprised if it was less than 1%.
http://www.racecar-engineering.com/articles/f1/439315/mclaren-electronics-fuels-analysis.html
http://www.asiaone.com/Motoring/Motorworld/Story/A1Story20080924-89835.html
Re:The best in the world (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Great! Now we can call it something else! (Score:3, Interesting)
+1 - as someone who HAS driven a formula race car before (even one not remotely as fast as an F1 car, but still immensely quicker than any street car), I can confirm that it is VERY physically demanding. You wouldn't believe the amount of effort it takes just to keep your head upright. I'm a fairly decent athlete (although not pro caliber), yet before doing a concentrated workout routine, I couldn't go more than about 5 laps before I was just too physically tired to continue safely.
It's a fairly minor workout for your legs (although remember that the brake pedal of an F1 car takes nearly 100# of force to push down, ~15 times a lap for 50 laps), but it is a VERY intense workout for your arms and neck.
Anyone who doubts this - I challenge them to just 5 minutes in a 125cc go kart. Despite having nowhere near the capabilities of an F1 car, you'll still get a sense of the physical exhaustion involved. If you can go 20 minutes (at speed) without special training, I commend you.
Re:Great! Now we can call it something else! (Score:3, Interesting)
Yeah, looks like it's more like 2-3 kg ([1] gives 2-3 l of water), which is comparable to what a professional soccer player will lose in a game [2] (which is only a simulation, but I've heard pro players in interviews mention weight loss of up to 4kg in matches in hot conditions). F1 is physically difficult, no doubt, but I'd expect a weight loss of 2 stone over a couple of hours to be pretty much fatal.
[1] http://www.f1complete.com/content/view/2672/392/ [f1complete.com]
[2] Nicholas, C.W., Nuttal, F.E. and Williams, C. (2000) The Loughborough Intermittent Shuttle Test : A field test that simulates the activity pattern of soccer. Journal of Sports Sciences 18, 97-104.