While a single driver sits behind the wheel, it’s the towering mountains of data and strategic teamwork that ultimately propel the car to the finish line.
In today’s digital age, drivers rely heavily on data from every conceivable direction — from engineering strategies in the control room to real-time tactics on the track — to remain competitive.
“Without data, we can’t even get the car to move, let alone race,” tells Brian Johnston, head of IT Trackside at Aston Martin F1, to NetApp, its data partner.
“F1 teams generate a huge amount of data, gathered from simulation back at the campus, as well as on track. Every time the car completes a lap with the team, the simulation and actuals need to be correlated,” adds Clare Lansley, AMF1’s CIO.
On top of this, there’s also the media coverage that each race and team receive. “All this data needs to be tagged, analysed, stored and leveraged for competitive gain — all of which relies heavily on IT to enable and do so at lightning speed,” she explains.
Lansley underscores that Aston Martin Aramco F1’s strategy is deeply rooted in data — lots of it — and therefore, careful organisation and scaling are crucial. “The digital world is founded on data and lots of it,” she notes.
“Analytics, machine learning, and now, artificial intelligence all require access to vast volumes of data. Businesses are keen to leverage this data, transforming it into a strategic asset to drive innovation, enhance efficiency, and ultimately secure a competitive edge.”
Simultaneously, F1 teams must adhere to the stringent FIA budget regulations, spending no more than $140 million annually to maintain fairness and competition.
This emphasis on cost-effectiveness, coupled with the need for sustainability, led AMF1 to select NetApp as its data management partner.
NetApp’s partnership integrates its comprehensive technology with FlexPod (its data centre solution with technology giant Cisco) and cloud computing firm VMware, to effectively handle all of AMF1’s data needs.
“We need both on-prem and cloud to give us the flexibility with capacity and computer capability where we need it,” says Lansley. “NetApp was the obvious choice for helping us build a race fabric to be competitive.”
A pivotal part of this partnership is the secure and cost-effective data storage while making it accessible to drive performance.
Since its return to the grid in 2021, AMF1, with over 600 team members, has outfitted each car with more than 300 sensors. These sensors constantly collect metadata, including weather conditions, timing, torque, and driver performance, fuelling race-winning designs and real-time trackside analysis.
“Demands such as this increase in data are driving the need to rearchitect infrastructure,” Lansley notes. “Users want performant, resilient solutions that can run queries simultaneously with instantaneous scalability to ‘burst’ capacity as required.”
Key to maintaining its competitive edge is ensuring the infrastructure is secure against cyber threats, which drives the need for data centres to be rearchitected and modernised.
Plus, as Piero Gallucci, vice president and general manager, UK & Ireland at NetApp, puts it, F1 is surprisingly sustainability-focused, intending to reach net zero by 2030.
He explains that with NetApp’s intelligent data infrastructure, extracting any ‘dark data’ (invaluable data), AMF1 can optimise the energy costs of data storage.
Lansley further explains, “We look at how and where data is being stored and use tiering to optimise storage solutions, which include ‘cold’ offline storage where it’s not draining power 24/7.
We also use renewable energy; the new Aston Martin Aramco Technology Campus building has 1,936 solar panels on the roof, which makes a considerable, sustainable contribution to our power consumption.”
Choosing partners aligned with sustainability is a priority for Aston Martin F1. “Our work with NetApp allows us to meet sustainability goals, giving us greater control over our temperature and power monitoring so we can better manage our energy consumption,” Lansley concludes.
This commitment ensures that while the team races toward victory, it upholds its responsibility to the environment — pushing the pedal to the metal with a conscious effort towards sustainability.
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