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Formula 1 is a perfect fit for AI (Artificial Intelligence). Not only is the sport an enthusiastic early adopter of new technology but it is also heavily data-driven, and AI thrives on data: the more, the better. 

The volume of data coming off the modern F1 car is far too much for a human to assimilate, but AI can rapidly take everything in and see the whole picture, discounting nothing. We’re still a sport dominated by human performance – but through our use of Dell Technologies’ AI Factory, we ensure those humans are better informed and better prepared than ever before. 

As part of an ongoing series with Dell Technologies, our Official Innovation Partner, we’re exploring how AI is revolutionising our ever-evolving use of data. This week, we’re looking into the future of AI in motorsport… 

Through the course of this series, we’ve talked about the exciting ways in which AI has helped McLaren develop into a World Championship-winning team, but undoubtedly the most exciting thing about AI is its potential. That can be encouraging, or it can be daunting – but it’s never boring.

Here at McLaren, we lean more towards the former. Racing is a data-driven sport, and through Dell’s AI Factory, we harness AI to extract more knowledge out of the data we have and to reach conclusions quicker, or to perform some combination of the two. Consensus around the team is that we’ve only just started to scratch the surface of AI’s potential. 

“Today, a Formula 1 car is built by our intelligence – but that means it’s also limited by our intelligence,” muses Head of Data Science Andrew McHutchon. “It’s limited by the ideas we can come up with, and limited by the data we’re able to absorb and pass on.  

“AI is a potential way to extend that. It’s a tool, and like any tool, it makes you stronger and able to do things you wouldn’t otherwise be able to do – but instead of augmenting strength or dexterity, it augments our thinking. This allows us to unlock designs we would have never considered, and gain understanding from the car we otherwise would never have seen.” 

Improving our use of Dell Technologies’ AI Factory

To a certain extent, our AI tools teach themselves: the more data they have, the more accurate their analysis becomes – but this is a human endeavour and, as such, it isn’t purely about the tech. At McLaren, the way we use Dell Technologies’ AI Factory continues to evolve, as we provide the tools with more context.  

“We’re seeing AI use grow exponentially at the moment, and a lot of that is down to us gaining more clarity on how to use it,” says Andrew. “It’s one thing to have these amazing tools, but you need to work out how to best embed them in your day-to-day workflow. 

“Today, we tend to have ‘crafted’ AI analysis, where the tools are set-up to provide answers to a specific question. Where we are going is much more general: developing the tools that will tie together more data sources, where today there are disparate bits of data. It will be able to answer any question – or perhaps even predict the question before you ask it.” 

Human vs machine

Most of our uses for AI today involve freeing-up engineers to do the more interesting parts of their jobs, while AI crunches numbers on their behalf and accelerates design processes – but everyone’s favourite sci-fi idea is the notion of AI driving the car.  

For clarity, this isn’t about robot racing (which already exists) or a sophisticated form of racing game. In those, the NPCs (non-player characters) tend to be endowed with perfect knowledge of grip levels and racing lines.  

Instead, it is about utilising AI in a way that can help to augment driver performance. A genuine AI driver will drive more like a human – affected by the same constraints a human has in feeling the tyres interact with the tarmac, and the car yaw and slide around on the track. It has potential to be a powerful learning aid.  

“Think of it more like chess,” says Andrew. “AI can beat grandmasters now, and so grandmasters use AI as a tool. They'll spend hours interacting with AI to learn new strategies, new ways of playing, and then unveil those against a human in tournament play.  

"We’re not yet at the point where we can have AI drive an F1 car faster than an F1 driver, but in the future, we could use it to train our drivers. Maybe they’re struggling with a particular circuit or even a particular corner. AI will eventually reach a level where it can teach them lines and improve their confidence. This is a sport where confidence is a critical component of driving quickly – but it’s tough to raise confidence when the only opportunity to race is at a Grand Prix weekend.” 

The shape (and pace) of things to come

The pace of development in our AI models is rapid, derived from a combination of learning, training and advancements in hardware. “We've seen over the last few years that AI has improved with scale,” says Specialist Data Scientist Jude Hunt. “The models themselves are getting even bigger and one of the big drivers is the hardware itself. Dell Technologies are helping us a lot, GPUs are getting faster and faster, and we’re able to hook-up larger systems with more memory and support that scaling a lot easier.  

“This helps with training the models themselves, but also with running them in the first place, out at the edge. It’s not just one type of data anymore: we’re also working with multi-dimensional data - images, audio, video - rather than just telemetry. Everything is becoming more interlinked. This integration gives us a more holistic view of our performance.”  

That said, not everything is about going faster – the future has more potential than speed alone. “Maybe you need to do it really fast – or maybe it’s something else,” says Andrew. “Perhaps, rather than something that lives on the cloud, it must run on a lightweight device such as someone’s phone, for which you will need a smaller model. You might have those different pressures, which means you have to develop a different model in a different way.” 

The list of ways in which we expect Dell’s AI Factory to influence our future racing efforts, and what that influence may look like, is… endless. At times in 2024, the Championship battle came down to hundredths rather than tenths of a second, sometimes even thousandths. That could easily become the norm, and when it does, leveraging any tiny advantage AI can provide might be what gives our engineers and drivers the edge.  

“At McLaren we see there is a great future for AI in F1,” says McHutchon in summary. “It can easily become a Championship-decider.” 

As Official Technology Partner of the McLaren Group and McLaren Formula 1 Team, Dell Technologies brings its expertise as an innovation catalyst empowering McLaren to accelerate AI outcomes. Find out more here.