How big data is helping to power Mercedes to F1 glory Posted on : Nov 21 - 2018

Flash storage and advanced analytics allows Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport to hone performance in simulations and out on the track.

Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport has created a big competitive advantage in a sport of fine margins. The F1 racing team, home to recently crowned world champion Lewis Hamilton, is celebrating its fifth successive constructors' title.

That level of success gives Matt Harris, head of IT for Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, an opportunity to reflect on the part his technology organisation has played in the team's winning journey. Harris has been with the team in various guises for two decades, becoming head of IT in August 2009.

"The amount of time I've been with the company probably tells you how great this job is -- the big thing for me is it's always a challenge and it's always different," he says. "We're pushing the boundaries of technology and trying to get the best out of IT. It's the key way we can differentiate ourselves from other teams."

Harris, who spoke to ZDNet at the Big Data LDN event in London, has seen tremendous change at his company and in the sport during his time in F1. He says the team is more like a business these days, albeit one with a very public-facing front. One of the biggest changes during the past five years has been the growing reliance on technology and data.

"IT is integral to everything we do, whether that's for the main car, the race team or the supporting functions," he says. "We have to make sure we're at the top of our game all the time. We can cause the car to stop very easily if IT fails."

When it comes to positively affecting performance, Harris says the impact of the IT department is felt in a more indirect form. The aim is to provide systems that allow people on the team to make accurate decisions quickly.

The team races two cars a year and the unique conditions of each Grand Prix circuit means the cars are modified for each race. Those modifications take place in an iterative manner -- and technology and data are crucial to these changes across all areas of operation, from design to testing and onto racing.

Each car produces half a terabyte of data during the average race weekend, with a further 5 to 10 TB of data produced per week at the team's headquarters in Brackley, UK. With the margin of victory being measured in thousandths of a second, rapid processing and analysis of data is key to victory.

"Data's critical -- without it, we can make very few decisions," says Harris. "That data can be both structured and unstructured. Just because a driver turns around and tells us something, we can't take it for granted -- we prove it with data. We look for the anomalies in data that support configuration changes on the car." View More