In The Driving Seat Of F1 Technology Innovation

Cutting Edge Sport curator Mehul Kapadia, managing director of Tata Communications’ Formula 1 business, discusses the technology and innovation behind the sport…

F1 is about much more than the gripping battle of man and machine we see on TV. It’s an incredible story of persistence, imagination, and co-creation through technology innovation. As the managing director of Tata Communications’ Formula 1 team, I have the privilege of seeing up-close the enormous technical set-up that enables each race to take place, given Tata Communications’ role as the official connectivity provider to Formula 1.

Tata Communications’ primary role is to connect each Grand Prix location to the company’s global fibre-optic network, the largest in the world, in order to provide up to seven million simultaneous users of Formula 1’s official website with real-time content.

Despite having several years in the sport under my belt, I still find each season more thrilling than the last. That’s because we are never standing still, but constantly looking for ways to innovate and to form new partnerships in the world of Formula 1. With Formula 1 travelling to up to 20 locations in a season, often just a week apart, Tata Communications has to set up the equivalent of an entire town’s network infrastructure in two days and dismantle it all in three hours – a process that would traditionally take two to four weeks.

In the pursuit of delivering F1 fans an ever more immediate and immersive experience, Tata Communications  undertook a trial at the 2014 Singapore GP practice session delivering live footage to Formula One Management’s technical headquarters in the UK over our network in 4K quality, which creates a picture with four times as much detail as 1080p full HD.

Although this first ever live 4K feed of an F1 event through fibre-optic technology was not broadcast to viewers at home, it demonstrated the ability to transmit broadcast content worldwide and manage it in ways that is not possible via satellite link and ultimately opened up the possibility of Formula One Management sharing select specific live video feeds with fans on the website.

Tata Communications has also sought to use and develop its technology with other partners in the world of Formula 1, and in 2013 we became official connectivity supplier to the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula 1 team. Tata Communications’ technology brings the team three times faster connectivity between the Silver Arrow cars, pits at race locations and the team’s UK headquarters.

Data captured by 150 wireless sensors in each of the cars and dozens more around the track, relayed to team engineers, enables the team to capture information that helps drivers and pit crews to make adjustments and enhancements that increase speed and help ensure safety.

To help accelerate innovation in the sport further, Tata Communications introduced the F1 Connectivity Innovation Prize in 2014 in which tech-minded individuals demonstrate creative responses to two challenges for a $50,000 prize. The details of the first challenge for 2015 were unveiled by world champion Lewis Hamilton and David Coulthard (pictured above alongside Mehul Kapadia and the rest of the judging panel) in June, and the details of the second challenge will be out in August.

As the nail-biting season progresses, I look forward to giving you a sneak peek behind the technology-fuelled world of F1, and showing how the innovations seen in F1 could transform not only the world of sports and broadcasting, but also the world of business.

Information on the 2015 F1 Connectivity Innovation Prize can be found here