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Formula One cars generate 3 TB of data over a race weekend

Racing cars around a track has come a very long way since the days of almost no brakes, a free-for-all starting line-up and whizzing by in open tops without any head protection on. As cars evolves, technology plays an ever-increasing role too – not only in development, but also in racing analytics.

According to enterprise software company SAP, racing generates huge amounts of data that can be analysed and dissected to give the Formula One teams a better understanding of how the cars perform and what needs to change.

But how much data? Well, for a team like McLaren, whose star drivers for the 2014 season is former world champion Jenson Button and Grand Prix rookie Kevin Magnussen, that amounts to 1.5 GB of data for each car per race. But a race weekend is much more than just what is broadcast on television on Sunday, as there are practice laps, warmup and the likes.

For an entire weekend of Formula One racing, 3 Terabytes (10 GB per car over a race weekend) of data is generated. Sensors are placed all over both cars and is used to measure the tiniest of details, changes and even temperature. The data is sent back to the team in the pits, which allows them to monitor the car’s health in real-time.

If you fancy yourself a fan of the McLaren team, and especially its P1 hypercar, you could win access to see not only the P1 but also the McLaren MP4-12C and 650s in action during a track day in Kyalami in October.

McLaren is one of the partners for this year’s Rogue Rally, which is an epic 2 800km race from Sandton to Cape Town. All you have to do is snap a pic of one of the cars competing on the road during the event from 21st September to 27th September, and post it to Twitter while tagging @SAPGearsUp.

[Image – CC by 2.0/andrius.v]

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