Formula 1: The technology behind the Mercedes-AMG Petronas team

Formula 1 racing drivers need to have precise information about their car’s capabilities and the nature of the track, competition strategy and the weather. Team leaders, mechanics, engineers and IT specialists work closely together. “Milliseconds make the difference in the result. Communication between driver and race engineers is crucial; that’s how we deliver performance,” says Steven Riley, who has led IT service management for the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team for eight years. A little bit of communication can’t go wrong.

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To make effective decisions, drivers need information they gather during free practice and qualifying over the race weekend and discuss with their team before the actual race on Sunday. We visited Silverstone, England, at the British Grand Prix to watch the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula 1 Team with drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.

Busy activity and deafening noise

The German automaker’s factory team uses TeamViewer software to provide information to drivers in the garage as quickly as possible during practice and qualifying. Time is not only important in qualifying and the race. Since the 2021 season, the two Friday training sessions have been reduced by half an hour to 60 minutes. In order not to waste valuable seconds, the team leaders in the garage communicate with the drivers via a drop-down screen.

The screens are lowered above the cockpit and the driver receives information without leaving the rocket at the wheels. They run TeamViewer Tensor software. The team leader uses it to show telemetry data, tactical information about the race strategy or behavior in each corner.

He speaks to the driver through headphones. The rest of the crew communicates with each other because things are busy in the garage. The noise is deafening. Dozens of mechanics and engineers are working under tremendous pressure.

Mobile IT for 24 Grand Prix races

Two mobile server cabinets travel with Formula 1 teams to two dozen Grand Prix races around the world. Each racing team brings its own IT infrastructure. The team sets up a WLAN on site through which staff and cars connect to the server. Racing cars are data factories: “We collect seven billion data sets over a racing weekend,” IT director Michael Taylor said in an interview with Heise Online.

During the race, all teams are housed in very small spaces at locations around the world. Like any other corporate environment, WLAN networks are secured. It happens that someone tries to log in to another network by mistake, but espionage hardly plays a role. Such an attempt will result in an immediate fine or even disqualification of the team.

Mercedes-AMG W15: New chassis design

Many racing teams, including Aston Martin, McLaren and Red Bull, gather in southern England and, while McLaren is more like a classic car workshop, the Mercedes-AMG factory looks more like a modern industrial laboratory. In the sparkling clean corridors, various rapid prototyping and fast manufacturing machines run around the clock to make components for racing cars.

The racing team is currently running the W15 – the W simply stands for “car”, the 15 is the model number. After the disappointing Bahrain Grand Prix in 2023, a new design was necessary. In particular, the W14’s gearbox housing and chassis were prone to errors, and the rear axle was unpredictable.

Each year the team develops a new chassis, with changes so large that they are not possible during ongoing operation during the racing season. Engineers are constantly working on smaller adjustments, for example to improve the aerodynamics of the underbody.

Underbody of the W15: ground effects

One focus is on so-called ground effect. For many years, Formula 1 drivers drove on flat surfaces. Racing teams are now installing two separate channels from the side pods to the rear. The air flow underneath the car generates downforce with less drag than wings on top. The vacuum pulls the car onto the asphalt, and the resulting grip propels it through a corner quickly.

The effect is not easy to control. At speeds above 250 km/h it can happen that the bottom part goes too close to the asphalt and the air flow is disrupted. Without downforce, the car comes to normal height, aerodynamic downforce resumes and the car descends. So it bounces up and down. This phenomenon, known as “porpoising”, is particularly unpleasant for drivers. The frequent changes in channels are intended to minimize the effect.

The data base reduces a model of the cars in the wind tunnel by up to 60 percent. On the floor above the factory hall, about 200 industrial designers and engineers are working on analyzing the data obtained from the experiments. Multiple G-force loads on the workpiece are simulated and the design is refined based on the data in CAD programs. “We also have a virtual car, a digital twin,” says IT director Michael Taylor. The mechanical configuration, for example the service life of the tires, is tested in the virtual world.

Autoclave, CNC Milling and 3D Printer

The W15’s chassis and underbody are made of carbon fiber composite. In large pressure vessels, Scholz Maschinenbau’s autoclaves, the components are hardened under high heat and pressures of up to 90 psi. These giant pressure cookers, 3.30 meters long and 1.50 meters in diameter, require 50 days for the complete chassis and 60 days for the lower body to harden the resin in the carbon fiber.

80 percent of the car is made of carbon fiber, but it weighs only 35 percent. Plastic and metal make up the rest. For example, large 3D printers produce custom-made clutch levers for drivers’ fingers. 3D printers are ready faster than autoclaves: levers made on Thursday are already in use on Sunday.

Before use, the components are subjected to stress testing, which often takes place overnight. Technicians monitor from home using TeamViewer software. Such long-term tests were necessary for the gearbox, among other things. In long corners, such as Turn 8 at the Istanbul Park circuit in Turkey, earlier cars would push the oil in one direction for so long that the transmission parts were not lubricated enough and problems arose.

The factory produces metal parts using selective laser sintering (SLS). Fine-grained metal is heated under high pressure, causing the starting material particles to compress and fill porous spaces. For most of the transmission’s 3,769 metal parts, Matsuura’s 25 CNC milling machines are used, milling gear parts from solid metal blocks around the clock with 260 different tool tips on five axes. Manufactured in more than 140 hours, the parts are stronger and more heat-resistant than when milled from a single block.

On probation in the race

During the season, the components, which are manufactured in smaller numbers but still industrially, have to prove their technical capabilities and durability – they cannot be replaced as often as one would like. For the transmission, for example, Formula 1 rules stipulate two groups of components, five of which can be used per season.

Formula 1 divides engines, called “power units” in racing jargon, into seven components such as the combustion engine and turbocharger, four of which are allowed. If a team exceeds the allowed number of components, the driver will be moved back five or ten places on the starting grid.

Mercedes-AMG will have to prove their abilities again at Silverstone on Sunday, July 7. On June 30, Mercedes driver George Russell won the Austrian Grand Prix. It continues in Hungary on July 21.

Transparency note: The author was invited to the race weekend by TeamViewer. TeamViewer covered travel costs. There were no specifics regarding the type and scope of our reporting.

(AKR)