The role of technology in making Formula 1 the pinnacle of motorsports

“Lights out and away we go!” Fans around the globe will soon hear these iconic words along with the roar of the engines as the 2024 Formula 1 season kicks off later tonight. The Bahrain GP is the first of the 24 races in what is the 75th season – yes that’s how long the motorsport has been around with a legacy stretching as far back as the 1946 Turin Grand Prix.

For years, Formula 1 has been known for its relentless pursuit of speed and precision and has made automotive enthusiasts hail it as the pinnacle of motorsports. From Alfa Romeo’s Giuseppe Farina whizzing past the chequered flag at Britain’s Silverstone circuit, beating Juan Manuel Fangio back in 1950, to today, F1 has transcended the realm of a mere competition – and has emerged as an ode to human ingenuity and its technological prowess.

Technological prowess. That’s what we’re here to talk about. In the heat of the competition, many of us may not have taken a moment to reflect on the meticulously crafted technologies that make a race the sheer spectacle that it is today. And technology is what makes the sport what it is. As the 20 drivers get set to kickstart the season, there’s no better time to take a look at some of these technologies.

Unveiling in-car tech

F1 cars today are a far cry from those of the yesteryears. Gone are the days of the screaming, naturally aspirated engines, and terms like traction control, launch control, and steering-mounted paddle shifters being virtually unheard of. For years, the teams had no way of tracking their cars’ metrics during the race itself, or communicating with and monitoring their drivers, until and unless they pulled in for a pit stop, retired or finished the race.

These days, an F1 car boasts over 250 sensors onboard, which make it possible for pit crews and engineers to monitor the metrics of their cars as well as drivers in real-time. You’d be amazed to hear that over the course of a single race weekend, a standard F1 car will generate anywhere up to 3TB of data.

These onboard sensors are divided into three main categories – instrumentation, monitoring, and control – and can be magnetic, optical or laser-powered depending on their functions. Just some of these sensors, crucial to an F1 car include, but are not limited to the following.

Temperature sensors

They relay engine, gearbox, and brake pad temperature data in real-time, and even friction between different parts.

Accelerometers

They measure the G-forces generated while cornering or heavy braking.

Tire sensors

These measure tyre wear, grip, temperatures, and pressures, which help a team decide on its pit strategy during a race.

Ultrasonic fluid flow sensors

These monitor the flow of fuel into the engine, which has a direct bearing on the car’s performance during a race.

Transponders

It is used to keep track of lap times, since a simple stopwatch just isn’t enough to time the cars going at such high speeds. They transmit data to timing loops, set about one centimeter inside the actual track, with wires running the entire length and breadth of the circuit. Every time a car passes over them, they register the car’s transponder and transmit a unique ID to a decoder that logs the time of the day. This gives technical teams an accurate picture of where the car is at any given point, as well as how far ahead or behind a driver’s opponents are.

Beyond the wheel: Monitoring driver health during races

Formula 1 is as much about the drivers as it is about the cars. During a race, these drivers push themselves to the very edge of human endurance, in a bid to save precious milliseconds. The average F1 driver will experience as much as 6G – force six times their body mass – while cornering or braking. They can even lose up to three kilograms of body weight by the end of a race.

ALSO READ: Wearable tech is transforming the way we care for ourselves

Such strenuous conditions make it all the more important to constantly monitor a driver’s health during a race. An F1 driver’s suits consists of an undershirt, called the Vital Signs Monitor, as well as sensors sewn into their gloves. These biometric sensors can track everything from a driver’s body temperature, heart rate, and stress levels, blood oxygen levels, to the G-forces they are subjected to during acceleration, braking as well as cornering.

Rapid relay: Communications and data transmission

Now, the most important bit. How is this all this data transmitted to the team in the pits? Well, each car is equipped with a shark fin antenna that relays all the data to antennas placed across a track, at regular intervals. These antennas, in turn, transmit the data to the team in about 300 milliseconds!

Based on this data, teams can alter their strategies during a race, and relay them to their driver via radio. This is made possible through a control unit located in the cockpit of the car, which consists of an encoder, a decoder, and a speaker. The driver can also adjust the volume of the radio or turn it on or off entirely if they’d like to focus entirely on the job at hand.

Precision in the pits: Real-time data analysis and strategy adjustments

Now that we know how data is transmitted, it’s time to see how it is analysed to create new or alter existing race strategies. This is where data analysis software comes into play, and most F1 teams today use a software called ‘RaceWatch’.

RaceWatch provides engineers with all sorts of data – ranging from timing, positions of the cars on the track, tyre, engine, and transmission performance on the car, fuel flow, and telemetry, as well as weather data, and live video feeds from the track and onboard cars.

What’s more, it also provides insights into traffic management and pit-stop strategy. The software employs machine learning for live modeling. This helps engineers make accurate predictions for every race scenario and modify their strategies on the fly.

Mastering the track, beyond the track

You might think that an F1 driver knows every track and doesn’t have to do much between races. But despite having driven down these tracks hundreds of times, these drivers still have a lot of prep work before the first practice session on a track. This work is usually done at the team headquarters and training center, and is as much a high-tech affair as the real race.

Augmented and Virtual Reality

There are several technologies used for drivers to familiarise themselves with their cars, and the tracks they are to drive on. First off, there are augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) headsets.

These headsets give a first-person perspective to the drivers, helping them memorise tracks. Drivers must also figure out which line to take going into and coming out of each corner on a track, to save off precious milliseconds from their lap times during a race.

Simulators

The Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), the governing body of Formula 1, has introduced several stringent regulations around track testing of cars during a season. Therefore, to understand their current cars better, each F1 team’s driver training centers have their own simulators.

Using these, drivers can get a sense of what their car feels like to drive in real-time and alter its settings according to what a given track demands. Moreover, simulators also allow for preparing for other scenarios – including day and night cycles, different weather conditions, and so on. It doesn’t end there either. Simulators also tend to help drivers understand just how demanding a track can be on their own bodies as well.

Digital Twins

There is another trick F1 teams have up their sleeves for driver training. When drivers do get to test their cars on a track, they can compete against a ‘digital twin’.

It is essentially a virtual recreation of a real-world object (or space), that serves purposes such as simulation, testing, and training. F1 drivers, on the track, can race against a digital twin of their car, which sets a benchmark time that they attempt to match, or beat.

Beam me up: Unraveling Formula 1’s broadcasting technology

Watching a race track-side is no doubt the ultimate dream for many, but the next best thing is to watch the live telecast on your favourite device. As per FIA, the 2021 Formula One season saw a cumulative viewership of around 1.55 billion globally. For each race, average viewership stood between 80-85 million. Ever wondered what all goes behind bringing the high-speed action to audience around the globe?

Over 100 members of F1 TV’s production crew are at the circuit during a race, beaming up to 120 concurrent video feeds from a temporary 375 sq. m. media headquarters, also called the Event Technical Centre tent, to Biggin Hill. Biggin Hill is where Formula 1’s production arm is based.

These feeds are then shared with broadcasters around the world, who then bring it to fans like us, on our smartphones, TVs, laptops, or tablets. During a race, an Event Technical Centre will relay as much as 500TB of data to the folks at Biggin Hill, which is then relayed the world over. This data includes not just video feeds, but also live race analytics including each team’s car’s metrics, positions, weather conditions, and a lot more.

Role of Tata Communications in Formula 1

Here’s a fun fact. The company enabling the transmission of data from the race to audiences at such incredible speeds is Tata Communications. The information technology company signed a deal with Formula 1 in 2022, to become the official broadcast connectivity provider for the sport.

The company provides transmission of over 100 video feeds and 250 audio channels every race weekend, from the track to Biggin Hill. Incredibly, all this is done in under 200 milliseconds!

It has managed to single-handedly reduce F1’s freight costs for equipment by about 34 per cent annually. In other words, Tata Communications’ involvement has also managed to make the sport a little kinder to the environment.

As Formula 1 heads into its 75th season, it is clear to see how big a role technology plays, and how it has evolved at a pace far more rapid than we can perhaps comprehend.

From in-car sensors to strategy adjustments in the pits, every aspect of the sport showcases human ingenuity at its finest. And as audiences worldwide prepare to tune in, to witness the edge-of-the-seat action that each race sees once again, Formula 1 continues to captivate and inspire, proving itself as the epitome of the fusion of speed, skill, precision, and innovation.