For most people F1 is about the cars, with their loud high revving engines and smell of ultra flammable fuels or the celebrities and drivers who live the ultimate playboy lifestyle. But don’t assume that F1 is all about mechanical components or picking up hot chicks while swigging from a bottle of Dom, as the IT world has well and truly infiltrated this hallowed domain.

LEnovo, the 3rd largest computer company in the world is the sponsor of the AT&T Williams F1 team and when they flew down to Albert Park in Melbourne more than just a few CPU muscles were flexed in the pursuit of a win. Judging by the numbers it seems computers have more than just infiltrated F1, they are well and truly running the place.

For the Australian Grand Prix, 25 tons of air freight and 7 tons of sea freight are required to get the team up and racing. Of this, IT equipment forms an impressive 3 tons. Two dedicated IT people will travel to Melbourne to set this all up but surprisingly it’s a process that will take just 24 hours – a great deal of the preparation work having been done back at base beforehand.

Information technology is an essential element of any Formula One team and AT&T Williams is no exception. It permeates all areas of the business, from the high visibility global arena of the 17 races a year to the day to day manufacture of parts and the administrative running of the company.

Alex Burns, Chief Operating Officer of Williams F1 explains, “IT is fundamentally important in Formula One; our business is all about the design, development and operation of racing cars and we use IT in every step of the process.”

“At the factory, we use IT extensively in the development of the aerodynamics of the car, in the design of the wind tunnel model parts, the operation of the tunnels themselves and in the computational analysis of airflows. We also use IT in the mechanical design of the car and for the rapid manufacture of new parts.”

“When we get to the track we establish a complete network infrastructure in the garage that is used to load data to and from the race cars and to communicate the output of the many sensors on the cars to our engineers, both at the track and back at our headquarters in the UK.” He said

The team currently uses approximately 300 desktop PCs and 140 notebooks in all areas of the business from engineering applications such as data processing to test areas such as CAD data visualisation. Most visibly, Lenovo’s IT expertise will be intrinsic to the cars’ performance on track starting at Grand Prix in Melbourne.

The race team uses approximately 30 ThinkPad60p notebooks across all areas of race team performance. They are used by the team’s data engineers and form an essential part of the ignition process. They are also used in vehicle dynamics, systems engineering, control of fuel rigs and strategy communications from the pit wall to the garage. Electrical, engine and hydraulics technicians also use them. Engineers use them. Marketing use them. And without them, the 5/20GB of telemetry data generated at an event could not be processed or read.

“Formula One provides an exciting platform to build Lenovo awareness in key markets worldwide, and to showcase our products and their reliability. This is a sport where cutting-edge technology is essential. We are honored to join AT&T Williams and are motivated to work with the team, its partners and the sport in building the Lenovo business and Formula One" said Alan Munro, Chief Executive Officer, Lenovo Australia & New Zealand.

Obviously Lenovo has the right idea and is striving forward to better both their own products as well as one of the mainstay teams in Formula 1. Keep an eye out for them as the F1 season progresses to see if their IT edge will give them success on the race track.

‘Did You Know’ Facts about the AT&T Williams team and Lenovo technology

• AT&T Williams needs high-performance, reliable, robust PC support from Lenovo for about 400 workstations -- approximately 130 notebook PCs and about 270 desktops
• An F1 car produces enough aerodynamic drag that on braking over 1G is due to the drag alone 
• The AT&T Williams team typically has five or six F1 cars in production each season
• Lenovo computers will typically be processing over 7 terabytes of data each season, or slightly more than 1 terabyte per car
• About 1 gigabyte of telemetry data per hour is downloaded to a Lenovo PC at the end of a race
• A Lenovo notebook PC helps start the F1 car
• A typical race version of an AT&T Williams car has about 120 sensors monitoring vehicle performance
• The roll hoop in a Williams race car can withstand 12 tons of weight, that's the equivalent of balancing 12 road cars on top of the roll hoop
• At top speed a tyre rotates 50 times per second
• A wet F1 tyre is capable of dispersing 10 litres of water per second
• The visible suspension components of the car are all carbon composite in construction
• The steering wheel is a complicated piece of electronic equipment: its buttons and switches can be used to select over 100 different modes of operation of the various electronic systems on the car
• Seats are custom-made to fit each driver so that they are properly supported during the extremely high cornering and braking forces that they experience
• AT&T Williams transports around the globe and sets up in the garage at the circuits more Information Technology and Communication equipment than most large organisations set up permanently in their branch or regional offices
• AT&T Williams employs about 500 people, 80 percent of whom are involved in design, manufacturing and race operations  
• At hot races like Malaysia, a driver can lose over 3 litres of water in sweat during the race
• A driver can change his on-board computer settings via switches on the steering wheel
• 1990 was the first year PCs were used at the circuit.