© XPB Images & Red Bull
TELEMETRY, WHAT FOR?
Basically, F1 telemetry serves three main purposes. The sensors are here to monitor the car, check it is running smoothly, and take the most appropriate decisions based on the data collected. For instance, should engine temperatures increase too much because the driver is in the dirty wake of the car in front, engineers can warn him to back off for a few laps until the components cool down.
Other examples: If the team notices the brake discs overheating, they can inspect the ducts at the next pit stop to check whether a piece of debris is stuck in it. If there is a sudden drop in water pressure, the engineers will tell the driver to shut down the engine to avoid damaging it beyond repairs.
Ensuring optimum reliability is not the only field of application for telemetry. Teams also use it to analyse the car’s level of performance, both for immediate purpose and mid-term development.
While graphs and charts do not offer the same feedback as the drivers’ reports, they help highlight an understeering or oversteering car, or analyse how the car handles riding the kerbs for instance. Force India chief race engineer Tom McCullough sheds the light on how telemetry can help drivers improve their performance.
“After every run, Nico [Hülkenberg] and Sergio [Perez] have an overlay of their last lap,” he told F1i. “So, if three quarters of the lap are identical to their team-mate, but one quarter is poor, we will zoom in into the poor sector and put that on the screen, and say ‘OK Turn 18 you brake late or early, try this combination of sequence.’
“But the driver can also take the initiative and say to the performance engineer: ‘on Lap 3, between Turn 6 and 7, I used a different gear, can you have a look at it?’ And the engineer can say ‘yes you are quicker’ or ‘actually no you are slower’; or ‘the same’: very quick information.”
Thanks to telemetry, engineers systematically compare what team-mates are doing (lines through corners, acceleration, braking points, gear selected, DRS activation). That way, they can tell their driver where he can find more pace. While imposed by the team, this open-book is sometimes not whole-heartedly welcomed in a performance-based business where one’s team-mate is one’s first rival.
Paradoxically, telemetry became a source of frustration in the early part of the current campaign following the FIA’s fresh clampdown on radio communications. Engineers could see what their drivers were doing but could not advise them on how to respond to a potential issue.
©Red Bull
