Formula One’s shift towards leveraging data and artificial intelligence has enabled the realization of enhanced operational efficiencies, ultimately transforming the sport into a more sustainable one despite its reputation for fuel consumption.
The motorsports organization has made significant strides in reducing its carbon emissions, achieving a 13% decrease since 2018. Its efforts are on track to meet the ambitious target of net-zero emissions by 2030, as outlined in its sustainability plan. Its sustainability initiatives saw a vitality pilot successfully launched at the Australian Grand Prix, resulting in at least a 90% reduction in emissions across the pit lane, paddock, and broadcast facilities. The British Grand Prix successfully harnessed innovative energy alternatives, incorporating 2,746 solar panels and hydrotreated vegetable oil fuel for temporary power generation throughout the event.
Chris Roberts, director of IT for the Formula One Group, revealed that they are continuously exploring methods to optimise their operations and reduce freight to subsequently decrease their carbon footprint.
This enables almost all of its IT infrastructure to operate remotely within the UK, for instance. The company’s adoption of eco-friendly methods has significantly reduced the need for shipping 40 truckloads of servers between circuits, thereby minimizing its environmental footprint, according to Roberts, who discussed this development with ZDNET at the Singapore Grand Prix.
Roberts emphasized the importance of securing top-tier expertise and techniques to drive greater sustainability, remarking on this point during a press conference alongside Lenovo executives. Earlier this month, the technology vendor solidified an agreement, expanding its international partnership to provide a comprehensive suite of services, encompassing cutting-edge cellular devices, high-performance computing solutions, and robust backend infrastructure.
Roberts highlighted that the partnership has already yielded a significant outcome, enabling Formula 1 to recycle and repurpose over 800 pieces of equipment. He noted that an impressive 95% or more of the company’s prior hardware has been successfully recycled.
“Ultimately, our goal is to leverage AI-driven predictive analytics to enable environmentally sustainable asset restoration by anticipating the optimal moment for machine recycling or reuse.”
Formula One has started deploying AI-powered gadgets on the track, aiming to leverage the technology and data collected to gain valuable insights that can boost fan experience for its enthusiasts, according to Roberts.
The team processes more than 500 terabytes of data throughout a single race weekend, with the capability to run 24 events per year across 40 weeks.
As technology advances, AI is increasingly likely to be integrated throughout the entire tech stack, including AI-powered personal computers, to deliver optimal value to both the organization and its audience. With over 700 million global followers, the game has achieved widespread popularity.
According to Matt Codrington, Lenovo’s Better Asia-Pacific VP and general manager, the future of AI lies in “hybrid AI,” where the technology is seamlessly delivered across various platforms – whether on-premise, cloud-based, or on edge devices, including mobile and desktop gadgets.
A company’s utilization scenarios and data management will shape the deployment of AI capabilities, according to Codrington. When considering options, it’s essential to take into account crucial factors such as safety, cost, and accessibility.
For James Southerland, head of racing partnerships at Williams Racing, safety is paramount – just as vital as the flow of information that keeps teams like his own F1 crew running smoothly.
The UK-based Formula 1 team has increasingly depended on data analysis to boost the efficiency of its vehicles, according to Southerland, during a press conference with Williams’ cybersecurity partner Keeper Safety preceding the Singapore Grand Prix.
More than 300 information-gathering sensors are embedded in a Formula One car, generating an astonishing 1 terabyte of data each weekend, complemented by video recordings that Williams meticulously analyses to derive valuable insights and continually refine its vehicles, according to the team’s representative.
Any information breach can potentially devastate a corporation, crippling its capacity to optimize the car’s performance, as he emphasized.
As companies explore the potential of integrating AI into their operations, including generative AI, they must also prioritize protecting customer data from unauthorized access, according to Roberts in an interview with ZDNET.
F1 is renowned for having an internal AI working group that brings together experts from diverse fields, including media, software development, and analytics, to explore novel concepts. Additionally, there is a dedicated AI steering committee comprising representatives from legal, risk, and compliance departments. He emphasized that his role entails scrutinizing AI and machine learning projects to guarantee compliance with established guidelines and safeguards, including those related to AI ethics.
Tasks that may raise red flags are likely to be either dropped or revised with a fresh evaluation. Steps are put in place to ensure responsible AI use within the organization, he emphasized.
Each Formula One car produces an astonishing 1.1 million telemetry data points per second, which are instantly transmitted to the pits via F1’s cloud-based system, according to the organization. Historic dataset values are employed in conjunction with long-term information to train and power AI models, yielding insights that inform racing teams’ strategies and provide fans with details on decisions made at the track.
The ‘Various Techniques’ feature provides spectators with alternative scenarios of how races may have unfolded if drivers had made different strategic decisions during their on-track interactions.
