When it comes to technology, Formula 1’s single-seater, auto racing cars are always pushing the envelope on instrumentation, data, and real-time telemetry. The ROKiT Williams Racing F1 Team is one of those F1 teams leading the way with cutting-edge usage of the cloud, data, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to turn their cars into true internet of things devices. But this isn’t really new. Innovation is part of the organization’s history.

“[Formula 1] put our first data logger in 1979 on a Formula 1 car,” said Graeme Hackland (pictured), chief information officer of the ROKiT Williams Racing F1 team. “Honestly, it’s been an IoT device since then. It’s not a new thing for F1s. I think we are really experienced. Our electronics group are really experienced in how to protect that data as it comes off the car.”

Hackland spoke with John Furrier (@furrier), host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the Acronis Global Cyber Summit event in Miami Beach, Florida. They discussed the William Racing team’s strategy around the digital transformation, racing innovations, and fan experience (see the full interview with transcript here). (* Disclosure below.)

Data, AI, and virtual reality essential for Formula 1’s future

For Hackland, the competitive advantage for a F1 team like ROKiT Williams is through strategic usage of data, AI, and machine learning. The big question that the organization has wrestled with is how to set up the infrastructure to get operationalized properly into a holistic system — not just loading software.

“If we can do a better job with AI, with machine learning, with the analytic tools that are out there than the other teams are doing, we can beat them,” Hackland said. “It is really important, so we put a lot of time and effort into data analytics, but especially video. Video has become huge for us — and obviously then the data size grows massively. But data and being able to analyze your competitors, analyze your own car, your two drivers against each other — there’s a huge amount of data that we are dealing with.”

What F1 is trying to look at now is automation, according to Hackland. In real time where a human has two or three seconds to make a decision, sometimes the humans are making the wrong decision. Automation and AI can really play a role in that real-time decision making. They’re also thinking about the fan experience and using virtual reality to create connection.

“We want the fan to feel like they’re a part of it. So Williams did a couple of experiments with virtual reality so that you could either be one of the pit crews, so you could be the person holding the gun, feel the car coming in, and changing the tire,” Hackland concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the Acronis Global Cyber Summit event. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the Acronis Global Cyber Summit. Neither Acronis International GmbH, the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE