F1 racing has taken to the clouds
The digital world has been with us for some time now. It is a big part of our lives, including auto racing.
In big-league racing, the pit crew consists of more than just a few members changing tires and filling fuel tanks.
There is a stand behind every pit that includes a group dedicated to collecting race car data, deciphering this data, and making race strategy.
And nowhere is this more obvious than in F1 racing. With cars matched so evenly in power and handling, timely race strategy now plays a critical role in success.
While F1 teams employ gaggles of race engineers whose purpose is to collect data and then analyze it during a race, the McLaren team has gone to the next level with digital technology.
In the past, McLaren would collect data and send it along with video back to its headquarters in England.
But due to the expense and time lag, the team now employs cloud technology in transferring and employing data.
McLaren is also able to integrate archival data easier and develop racing simulations for a race quicker.
Randeep Singh, head of race strategy at McLaren, said in a report in the British racing journal Racecar Engineering that the new data transfers have helped significantly.
“Regulations restrict the number of engineers we can have at a race track,” he said.
“Relying on NTT Communications network, we can share valuable content such as video footage in real time, enabling us to make better calls.”
NTT is a Japanese firm that has worked with McLaren since 2016.
With the help of NTT’s Enterprise Cloud product, 25 per cent more simulations can be processed than previously, and this includes not only McLaren’s performance on the track but data from rival teams as well.
And if there is a computer melt-down at the race track, everything is still available through the cloud.
He added that 10 years ago McLaren would produce about 100MB of data during a race weekend. That amount has increased to one terabyte. The actual race car is equipped with more than 400 sensors, with 200 sensors on the battery equipment.
Welcome the Hellephant
Here’s something for drag racers tired of building their own engines.
At the SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) show in Las Vegas, Fiat Chrysler America (FCA) has introduced a new crate engine.
The engine will be known as the Hellephant.
Never a company to be subtle, this new 426 cubic-inch hemihead engine produces 1,000 horsepower and 950 lb-ft of torque.
This unit is an all-aluminum engine block, complete with supercharger, water pump, throttle body, fuel injectors, and coil packs.
It will be available in Canada early next year, and will be handbuilt in Michigan.
No price has been announced, but with an outlay for the present 707-horsepower Hellcat crate engine at about US$20,000, this
new upgrade will surely be costlier.
The name of this monster is an extension of earlier Chrysler engines used in racing. Chevrolet started this unique nomenclature with its small-displacement V8, known as the “mouse motor” and Chevy’s big-block became known as the “rat motor.”
The bigger (in cubic inch displacement) Chrysler hemi engines acquired the name “elephant motor,“so the name ”Hellephant” continues this tradition.
Bits and pieces
Verizon IndyCar team Schmidt Peterson Motorsports has announced Swedish native Marcus Ericsson will drive one the team’s Honda-powered Dallaras. The 28-year old Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 team driver will move to IndyCar after the finish of this year’s F1 season. Ericsson will join regular James Hinchcliffe of Oakville, and Brit Jack Harvey will continue with his part-time ride with
the team. Schmidt Peterson also noted it is keeping a ride open for Robert Wickens of Guelph who suffered multiple injuries in a crash this year at Pocono and is presently in a Colorado rehab facility... Another racing team with Canadian involvement has also signed a new driver. AIM Vasser Sullivan, with a base in Woodbridge, announced that Jack Hawksworth will drive one of the two Lexus RC F GT3 race cars that AVS will campaign in the GT Daytona (GTD) class of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The British driver has experience in openwheeled racing, and spent the last two seasons driving for the now-defunct GT3 Racing ...The IHRA (International Hot Rod Association) says Summit Racing Equipment will return as the drag racing sanction’s title sponsor for 2019 ... London’s Mark Sammut was honoured at the recent ISMA (International Super Modified Association) awards night. Sammut placed Cloud London's Mark Sammut receives the Jim Shampine Memorial Award.
fourth in points for 2018 and won the Jim Shampine Memorial Award. Fellow Canadian ISMA racer Mike Lichty was third.