This weekend's Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne sees the debut of
a new wireless technology that will allow engineers to adjust
vehicle settings while the cars are powering down the track.
Changes to racing rules by the sport's governing body, the
Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), mean telemetry
systems have gone bi-directional for the first time. One-way
telemetry systems, which tell the engineer the condition of various
aspects of the car while it's racing, have been part of F1 racing
for some time.
However, two-way telemetry allows trackside engineers to
communicate with the driver and make adjustments to the car's setup
during the race.
The Williams-BMW FW24 has been fitted with 80 sensors that monitor
the car's condition, including tyre pressure and wear, engine
temperature and fuel consumption. This performance data, some
17Mbytes of which is generated each lap, is transmitted in real
time to the pit wall as the car passes the start/finish line.
In the pit wall, four Compaq DL380 servers run software developed
specially by Williams F1 to analyse the data, and transmit it to 15
Compaq Evo notebooks and iPAQ Pocket PCs used by the
engineers.
Williams-BMW chief operations engineer, Sam Michael, said
bi-directional telemetry signals let the engineers change
parameters inside the car, "including the traction control, the
differential, fuel, ignition, throttle pedal and gearbox
mapping".
Signals alert the engineers to possible engine failure. "We can
change the parameters to save an engine in trouble," Michael
said.
Williams-BMW drivers Juan Pablo Montoya and team mate Ralf
Schumacher are enthusiastic about the new technology. Montoya said
it would let him see problems with the car and work with the
engineer to solve them.
The team also used a new computing system to aid its Computational
Fluid Dynamics (CFD) testing which, according to Michael, has cut
testing time considerably.
Along with wind tunnel and on-track testing, fluid dynamics is used
as part of the design process to predict the downforce or drag of
various components of the car.
A Compaq Alpha Supercomputer at the Williams team's UK factory is
used to calculate mathematical equations that compute the velocity
and air pressure of the wind as it rushes around a
computer-simulated model of a racing car.
"A program takes us only 10 to 12 hours, whereas it used to take us
two to three weeks to run the tests," Michael said.