[henningo]

Although this article discusses the actual collection and transmission of data, what I find more interesting is how efficiently the vast amount of data is being used in the decision making process for vehicle setup and race strategy. (I strongly believe that data has no value until it is used for analysis and decision making.)

Data coming from the vehicle sensors and other sources are concurrently being used for analysis (by both hundreds of engineers and a wide range of "algorithms") as well as input to simulation models. The results from the simulations means that even more data is being generated even when the vehicle isn't running.

Within minutes, using the data, the different engineering groups (typically responsible for a sub-system, ie. engine, tires, aerodynamics) arrive at conclusions which then the vehicle's race/performance engineers are using to enhance the setup of the vehicle. The results of changes are then fed back to the engineers, and evaluating if the analysis and predictions are correct is a big part of the post-event work.

I honestly can't think of any other industry that carries out this kind of analysis of highly non-linear systems at this scale and speed. The only other industry that I can think of is finance?

Disclosure: I work in motorsports

[Serow225]

This is done during flight test of prototype aircraft (and probably spacecraft as well to some extent, I haven't done that) - the data acquisition system on a flight test plane is incredibly advanced, and the data gets beamed down in realtime to a group of (real) engineers on the ground in the flight test station who analyze the data and communicate back and forth to the pilots again in real time. All in real time, the test pilots will decide what/how maneuvers to do based on learnings captured/analyzed, change the configuration of the aircraft systems/surfaces, intentionally induce failure conditions and faults, ... It's a real ballet between the engineers on the ground and the pilots, when the team is working well together. As you said, post-event debriefing, detailed analysis, recommendations/reports, aircraft changes etc are started immediately when the aircraft lands, to prepare for the next flight. It's very intense, but also very rewarding and a lot of fun.

[CWuestefeld]

beamed down in realtime to a group of (real) engineers on the ground

I assume this is in reference to use of the term "race engineer" in F1.

I can assure you that the sport does use real engineers, and very intensely so. Folks like Adrian Newey would qualify as engineers by anyone's definition, and each team has heaps of MechE's, EEs, software engineers, even materials engineers, back at home base.

[oesmith]

.. not to mention that there's a lot of overlap between aerospace and F1 engineering. Plenty of the engineers (even the trackside ones) started out studying aero engineering.

[henningo]

Yes, that makes sense, thanks for the insight.

[Retric]

Power grid management is of similar complexity and it's a 24/7 job. Everything from current temperature to when TV shows end impacts the grid. Add to that just how expencive peaking power is and the incentives for extremely accurate modeling become significant.

[henningo]

Of course, and I'm sure dealing with the many different data sources (ie. weather and TV listings) makes it even more complicated!

[SoftwareMaven]

Do you know if anything similar is being done in MotoGP? I know the communication with the riders is much more limited, but I'm curious what they can get and send back to the bikes themselves, perhaps communicating via the instrument panel.

[CWuestefeld]

I also find this fascinating, but have never seen any good technical discussion of it. Do you have any pointers?

[walshemj]

the more interesting network side is the link between car and garage - renting a high bandwidth private circuit for sports events is SOP these days and has been going back to the 50's or 60's.