From pit lane to mainframe: Globant's Federico Pienovi on how AI Is redefining F1

Gulf Business

6 days ago

Image: Supplied
Few arenas combine raw human grit with technological brilliance quite like Formula 1. The roar of engines, precision manoeuvres, and split-second decisions have long been the hallmarks of this sport. But as the 2025 season charges ahead, a quiet shift is unfolding. Formula 1 (F1) isn't just a battle of horsepower and courage anymore. It's turning into a silent war waged with algorithms, neural networks, and cloud computing. With 1.5 terabytes of data generated per car per race weekend, the smartest team, not just the fastest, holds the edge. Welcome to F1's new era: the code-driven arms race.
Let's put this transformation into perspective. Each F1 car churns out 400GB of data per race, virtually enough to outpace the computing demands of an entire small business in a weekend. These raw metrics include telemetry, essentially the heart and pulse of the car's performance, driver behavior analysis, tire pressure readings, and even real-time fuel consumption models.
The deeper truth? Cars today produce over one million data points per second during races. With teams crunching these numbers mid-race, decisions on vital elements like pit stops, tire changes, and fuel consumption are no longer instinctive, they're informed by cutting-edge technology. When milliseconds dictate outcomes, precision is key, and AI has taken the wheel.
Gone are the days when a race engineer relied solely on experience and intuition to plan pit stops. Today's AI systems evaluate over 150 parameters—from braking consistency and tire wear patterns to more nuanced metrics like driver stress responses to optimise each split-second maneuver.
It's this obsessive command of data that allowed George Russell to squeeze out 97 per cent tire efficiency from medium compounds in 2023. In contrast, Lewis Hamilton achieved a still-impressive 94 per cent, highlighting how AI-guided insights are even differentiating performance among teammates.
Predictive analytics have transformed pit lane strategy. Through simulations and real-time learning, AI effectively answers questions before humans have thought to ask them: When is the exact moment to pit for maximum tire balance? How do fuel consumption rates shift as track temperatures climb? Which corner profile triggers driver fatigue? It's a high-speed game of peering into the future playing out in milliseconds.
Racing simulations beyond the track
Step aside, traditional simulators; digital twins are in the game. These hyper-accurate simulations recreate cars and drivers down to their molecular behaviour, allowing teams to test countless strategies without ever setting a tire on the asphalt. The beauty of digital twins lies in their predictive value. By modelling whole car systems based on environmental inputs – humidity, track temperature, or even wind resistance – teams can anticipate performance shifts before they occur.
In many ways, digital twins embody F1's transformation into not just a sport but a cutting-edge laboratory. The physical car becomes a manifestation of its virtual twin's relentless experimentation. Could this mean the end of the once-revered gut instincts of drivers and engineers? Some followers of the 'old F1' might argue so.
The silent race engineer
Edge computing has emerged as a game-changer in the pit lane. Teams can extract actionable insights with minimal latency by processing data locally during the race, without waiting for cloud-based solutions, teams can extract actionable insights with minimal latency.
Think of it this way: when you're hurtling around a corner at 200 miles per hour, the difference between a half-second delay and instant feedback from the car can mean the difference between pole position and disaster.
As a key player in F1's digital transformation, Globant's Pitwall solution serves one crucial purpose: faster, more refined data delivery. Spectators can tap into real-time feeds of the analytics driving every lap, a digital experience as exciting as the race itself. Our collaboration with Formula 1 mirrors our work in other sports, such as FIFA and the LA Clippers. But our commitment to advancing AI-driven technologies within F1 sets us apart, highlighting how brands are becoming vital to the sport's evolution.
The fan experience is also undergoing a transformation, thanks to augmented reality, predictive analytics, and interactive race streaming. Augmented reality overlays now provide intricate breakdowns of tire degradation and driver stress levels, all in real time.
Fans can witness firsthand the algorithms behind pit decisions, understanding in vivid detail why a driver switches from soft tires to mediums at a critical juncture.
F1 is no longer confined to the track, it's flowing through the screens of millions worldwide.
Code versus courage: Losing the human element?
In this age of endless innovation, a simmering question remains: As Formula 1 becomes increasingly bespoke to AI, is the sport losing its human soul? Purists argue the sport's essence lies not just in technology but in raw courage, the ability to take intuitive risks, to feel the vibrations of the car beneath you, to believe in a gut-driven moment that AI can't quantify.
Yet, others counter this nostalgia by pointing to F1's core appeal: competition. And if competition demands a smarter car rather than just a faster one, this evolution is simply logical. After all, making the driver-machine relationship stronger doesn't dilute the sport, it enhances it.
The millisecond decisions that once belonged solely to drivers and engineers now live within neural networks and predictive models. As the sun rises on this data-driven era, the car that wins isn't just fast, it's smart.
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