How F1 teams are turning to AI to improve performance on the track

WOKING, England — Inside McLaren’s massive tech hub, artificial intelligence isn’t something that’s being shouted from the rooftops.

However, the 60-year-old motorsports giant is an avid user of technology behind the scenes.

At the McLaren Technology Center (MTC), located in Woking, England, the company explained how it uses AI to improve its chances on the Formula One track.

“We’re an organization that has used traditional machine learning technology products for a long time,” Dan Keyworth, McLaren’s director of business technology, said at a press briefing at the MTC in October.

Using machine learning, McLaren is able to base its decision on probability, which in turn helps train its AI models, according to Keyworth.

The racing company showed numerous examples of technological innovation at the MTC. They range from real-time data monitoring in their secret mission control room, to the use of “digital twins” (3D digital versions of physical objects) of real cars that allow teams to model conditions that the current vehicles have to perform.

Keyworth said there are three main areas where McLaren is applying AI in a big way: improving car performance, day-to-day operations and marketing.

He added that AI generative tools offer new capabilities for F1 teams, including the ability to run in-depth simulations of certain possibilities that could occur during races.

That could range from working out an ideal time that a car should spend in pit stops, to decide which tires to add on the vehicle when replacing an old set.

“What AI allows us to do from a generative perspective is actually play out more of those real scenarios and go, ‘What’s going to happen?’ ” Keyworth said.

Some of these scenarios are starting to lead to “pretty accurate” results — to an “almost scary” degree, he added.

Various F1 teams have been exploiting modern advances in technology for years – from cloud computing to AI and machine learning.

Aston Martin Aramco, for example, boasts the use of so-called “data lakes” – massive data storage centers – and machine learning technology to learn from vast volumes of data to predict patterns and improve decision-making.

Clare Lansley, Aston Martin Aramco’s Chief Information Officer, says machine learning algorithms can crunch data on tires, weather and track conditions, and use predictive analytics to optimize decisions.

In one April blog posthe said that the speed at which these developments have occurred is “truly impressive”.

“By adopting this technology, we are going to be able to free up many engineers to be able to focus more accurately on the performance of the cars,” he said.

Another F1 team implementing AI to improve their performance and track strategy is Red Bull Visa Cash App RB.

Peter Bayer, CEO of RB, he said earlier this year that the Italian F1 team uses AI to compete down to “hundreds and thousandths of a second”.

Speaking at an event with the company’s software partner Epicor at its factory in Faenza, Italy, Guillaume Dezoteux, RB’s head of vehicle performance, said AI can help inform teams when it comes to planning, since “it means you don’t have to run. 100 simulations”.

Keyworth noted that none of the innovation going on at McLaren would happen without the help of IT tools and equipment from partners such as Cisco and Google.

“Connectivity is probably the lifeblood of the sport,” he said ahead of the Oct. 27 Mexico City Grand Prix race. “Without him, nothing starts. No car can be on the track safely.”

A key component behind McLaren’s ability to keep data flowing to its teams in real time are its so-called mobile data centers.

These are miniature server rooms that are flown to different races around the world to keep the digital components of the operation online consistently.

“These mobile data centers are flown alongside the famous F1 cars at each race location and brought online remotely to enable real-time data storage and processing” by MTC’s Chintan Patel, head of Cisco technology for the United Kingdom and Ireland, he told CNBC.

Another area where AI is adding benefits is marketing, according to McLaren’s Keyworth.

For fans and partners, he said, McLaren is always trying to “enrich the journey and the experience, and make our fans feel more connected.”

With AI, McLaren can better target fans located in emerging markets for F1 such as the United States, where the sport has grown in popularity – for example, personalizing information to fans at certain times of the day.

Meanwhile, when it comes to using AI on the business side of things, Keyworth said, the main area of ​​improvement the company sees is in “making everyone’s life richer, slicker, faster, more efficient”.

“It’s not a job replacement — it’s a ‘laborious’ replacement,” he said. “You want to unlock your team to do the things you hired them for — not to work through the overhead that lives in their role “.