Tata Invites Motorsport Fans To Find New Uses For F1 Data

The first challenge of Tata Communications’ F1 Connectivity Innovation Prize will invite entrants to find new ways to use the vast amounts of data generated by the sport for the benefit of teams, drivers and spectators.

Tata Communications hopes to attract the “brightest minds” to the first of three challenges that comprise the $50,000 prize and says the scope of the task has been left deliberately wide so entrants have more freedom in how they interpret and visualise F1’s various live data feeds.

Ptential uses include a new kind of on-screen graphic for television audiences, a new data screen for the teams, or a webpage for Formula1.com. The first challenge has been launched to coincide with the British Grand Prix this weekend and the remaining two tasks will be revealed before the Italian and US Grand Prix later this year.

F1 Connectivity Innovation Prize

Participants must win one of the three challenges to be successful, and their work will be judged by a panel featuring 2008 World Champion and current driver for Mercedes Lewis Hamilton, his boss Paddy Lowe, F1 CTO John Morrison, Tata’s managing director of its F1 Business Mehul Kapadia and former F1 driver and current Sky Sports commentator Martin Brundle.

“It is undoubtedly the case that a wealth of predictive information about proposed race strategy and current car performance can be derived from the session timing information,” says Morrison. “We are looking for a mechanism to choose specific parameters, produce the calculations and display this information in an exciting and innovative way. Obviously a mechanism to continuously update this information as the race weekend unfolds is a major part of the challenge.”

Communications are becoming increasingly vital to F1, with a number of teams partnering with networking firms to ensure that they can instantly analyse data from their cars in the hope that this can give them an edge over their rivals.

Tata, which also provides connectivity to all 19 circuits on the 2014 race calendar, is able to provide Mercedes with a 128Gbps connection that transfers the data from the car anywhere in the world to the team’s base in Brackley within 0.244 seconds.

“I live by the data screens during the live track sessions,” claims Hamilton. “I for one will take a very personal interest in proposals that show additional analysis and create new information.”

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