Mercedes-AMG makes Grand Prix history using HPE-powered data insights

[ComputeExperts]

Facing a shortened Formula One racing season in 2020 due to COVID-19, the Mercedes-AMG Petronas team partnered with HPE to manage the half a terabyte of data that two racing cars produce per weekend. Optimizing every single point of billions of data was the goal so the team could secure its seventh consecutive double championship.

Informing crucial decisions

Much of Mercedes-AMG Petronas’ data itself is generated trackside, so the team needed an edge to cloud solution to make the real-time decisions in the field that could make or break a win. For that, Mercedes-AMG deployed a mobile data center based on HPE ProLiant servers and HPE Edgeline EL4000, a converged system that delivers enterprise-grade compute and management capabilities at the edge. The compact and rugged infrastructure processes parallel telemetry, strategy, and video-intensive applications to support communication with the drivers.

Accelerating development

The team runs millions of simulations generating up to 50 TB of CFD data per week back at the factory, as well. Using the data from every millisecond of race performance, engineers look at ways to improve for the next racing circuit. Running on HPE Apollo 6500 Gen10 System, this process now takes one day instead of three.

In addition, the team recently upgraded its high-performance compute cluster to HPE Apollo using AMD processors so the aerodynamics department can rapidly refine race car design. Driver Lewis Hamilton says, “The quicker we can run simulations, the quicker we can get an answer and apply changes to a car.”

Machine learning (ML) was also integrated into the team workflow for large image analysis—a complex process that was previously done manually. Using ML has saved 90% of the process time, delivering better data accuracy, too.

To speed those IT services along, HPE Synergy was chosen to be the digital platform at the center of the factory. It powers the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team’s private cloud, and provides staff with automation and orchestration tools to run infrastructure operations as code. This enables faster resource deployment and reduces operational overhead and bottlenecks.

Maximizing value

But as innovation speeds along at the factory, technology advancements at the racetrack also happen non-stop. To keep pace, HPE Pointnext experts and HPE Datacenter Care are on deck to continuously finetune and evolve Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team’s data platform.

For a team that aims to shave one tenth of a second off of their time with each race, the data-driven insights generated from their HPE edge-to-cloud platform in 2020 secured a historic victory for driver Lewis Hamilton, who broke the record for most F1 wins, making it 95 career wins, as well.

And the plan is to keep setting the pace and reigning as F1 world champions.

“Formula One has always been on the forefront of technological development,” says Toto Wolff, Team Principal and CEO of the team. “And with partners like HPE, we are able to accelerate our development to an even faster pace.”

To learn more about our evolving relationship, please check out:

HPE Press release: June 13, 2018.  https://www.hpe.com/us/en/newsroom/press-release/2018/06/mercedes-amg-petronas-motorsport-partners-with-hewlett-packard-enterprise-to-accelerate-performance-through-new-technology-solutions.html

CRN article: June 18, 2019.
5 Keys To HPE’s Innovation-Fueled Formula 1 Partnership With Mercedes-AMG Petronas (featuring Antonio Neri interview)

YouTube video: February 2019.
The Racer’s Edge: Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport and HPE Edgeline Systems 

Enterprise.nxt article: June 10, 2021. https://www.hpe.com/us/en/insights/articles/mercedes-amg-petronas-formula-one-team-proves-the-value-of-the-e-2106.html

Meet HPE blogger Lauren Engebretson. 

Lauren is a seasoned marketing manager responsible for creating bold and comprehensive marketing strategies that bring customer-focused ideas to market. Lauren brings extensive technical experience from several roles in product management and product marketing across HPE hardware, software, and Infrastructure-as-a-Service solutions over the past 15 years. She blogs about customer success stories focused on business and IT outcomes that have been enabled by compute technology.

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