How Motor Racing is Dependent on Technology

A day at the races always delivers an entertaining and exhilarating atmosphere that certainly leaves a lasting impression for many.

The professionals behind the wheel may be experts in gaining spectacular speeds and drifting through tight corners but it’s not just their driving skills that win them the race. They also rely heavily on a team of IT experts that specialise in statistical analysis and driver performance to provide extra support and guidance.

Like any business, data can help influence decisions and provide insight. This insight is 100% essential in motor racing and can help the driver before, after and during a race. Not only can analytics and data taken on the track help the driver’s preparation and performance but it can also provide the whole team with future innovation on the engineering and technology behind the motorcar.

Founded by Sam Hignett and John Stack, Jota Sport is a successful, Le Mans winning Motorsports team that are based in Kent that competes globally. Their racing teams also rely on technology and data to help provide back-end, front-end and track-side support. The on-board data systems can help maintain, monitor and check everything involved with the car’s performance as well as spot any potential issues or faults.

Performance stats include the speed the driver is reaching, the timing of braking and accelerating and other key stats that can help improve driver and motorcar performance. Onboard sensors can send the data remotely in real time to track-side support to help influence decisions during the race.

Gary Holland, Team Manager at JOTA further explained the technology behind motor racing:

“Technology is at the forefront of everything we do in Motorsport, from the fuel we use to the systems that are constantly measuring the cars performance; through to getting the most from human performance; we always have a number of factors in our mind; does it make the car quicker? Does it make the human more efficient ( both time and energy are considered here )? Do we get more, or more accurate data to analyse? All of these factors are very simple when looked at in an everyday ‘normal’ working company.

A good example of this is race strategy, we not only analyse our own strategy and tyre performance, weather and other factors, but we also do the same for all of our competitors. The most efficient way of doing this is with the use of technology and specifically computer applications.

In order to be efficient, we cannot have hundreds of people doing these jobs when a computer can do a lot of this work. Of course, we still have the human aspects, drivers, engineers, pit stop crew etc, but where possible, it is essential to eliminate the human error as humans act differently under great pressure when sleep deprived; as in Endurance Racing.”

Technojobs are sponsors of the Jota Sport racing team who won the Le Mans 24 hours in 2014, the world’s biggest endurance race. In 2016, Jota Sport will be using their brand new race car, the Oreca 05 Nissan LMP2 Sportscar. The Oreca 05 is a jewel of technology and precocity and its driving team will include the likes of Roman Rusinov, Nathanaël Berthon and Giedo van der Garde.

The first race of the season will be at Silverstone during the 2016 FIA World Endurance Championship on 16^th April. You can find out more about the event here.