Technology is not used to predict race victories, it is used to plan out strategies to come as close as possible to the checkered flag
AT a small media briefing at the Oracle Red Bull Racing (RBR) Team paddocks at the Marina Bay Race Circuit, during test day for the 2022 Singapore Grand Prix, I threw a hypothesis to Zoe Chilton, Head of Partnerships at Oracle Red Bull Racing. It was about the data-driven strategies of the team, and the question was “what if it was Sergio Perez who won here in Singapore, would the data come up with a simulation for that?”
“Technically, yes, there are millions, no billions of possible combinations the data points can extrapolate on and come up with such a scenario. It can be based on a couple of factors and when seen as feasible will be a consideration of the team. For the team, both the constructor’s and the driver’s championship are equally important. This is why for example, drivers know how to act given a specific situation. Data is very difficult to argue with,” Chilton explained as she touched on the nature of Red Bull’s partnership with Oracle and the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), the intelligent platform the team is taking advantage of, not for predicting race results but for planning better race outcomes with much less guesswork.
Checo, is Sergio Perez, co-pilot at the Red Bull Racing’s (RBR) F1 team whose fine performance around the 23 turns of the Singapore F1 Circuit in this weekend’s race gave him P2 after the qualifying in the wet, finishing behind of the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc and in front of former world champion Lewis Hamilton.
Checo took the dive at the start of the Singapore race and snatched first place from Leclerc at turn one. He never gave up the position despite Leclerc’s catching up. He did not give it up even with two safety cars called out and three virtual safety car periods. And did not lose it even with a 5-second penalty for driving too close to the safety car. The race only reached 59 of the supposed 61 laps before the race marshals called it a night at 12:00 am, with Checo crossing the finish line 2 minutes 59 seconds ahead.
There was a time when team bosses would make decisions based on folders of printed information or fact sheets. Then when computerization and automation came in laptops with hundreds or even thousands of worksheets and relational databases were used. Now there is the Cloud and there are AI-based analyzers, but so far none as powerful as OCI and Oracle solutions.
In the last race season, RBR Racing used OCI to run billions of race simulations–25 percent more simulations than without using OCI, with the speed of delivery so quick, it allowed the team’s race strategists timely and relevant inputs to consider. During the season, the systems allow the team to optimize the car setup for each track. The systems also hand over to the team bosses the relevant, chiseled, and focused information to make correct strategic calls, cutting down human guesswork and replacing it with data-driven notifications.
This is the same data that Chilton referred to as “hard to argue with” are urgent, important internal data, generated mostly from the car, through sensors and built in computers. Data involving speed, traction, tire condition, engine performance, transmission shifting, and aerodynamics, are matched with external conditions like track temperature, air temperature, humidity, even wind speed, and direction, as well track incidents that all ultimately affect the way strategy changes. There are track incidents however that can only be recorded and not predicted.
One track incident, for example, at the 2022 Singapore GP was the unprepared drift of Williams’ Nicholas Latifi into the Alfa Romeo of Zhou Guanyu. The clumsy move, as both were battling for 18th place left them both paralyzed and with a DNF card.
RBR however, has fine-tuned building data-driven race strategies.
From its headquarters in the United Kingdom, some 40 race strategists, described by Chilton as “a bunch of cool guys, wearing headphones and sitting in front of their workstations” connect in real-time to the pit wall using OCI to manage as close as possible to a win, the outcome of a race.
The massive amounts of data points collected by RBR could technically create every relevant race scenario based on both historical data and predictive analysis using a combination of available applications on Oracle Fusion, a massive collection of over 900 or so data-driven programs with functions that range from simple database co-relation to high-level artificial intelligence analysis and machine learning.
“Predicting the race result is not the purpose of using all this data,” Chilton said. “What we really want to do is to plan a race well, from end to end. You can never predict the race result but plan to get as close to a win with the things you can control–those are the tires, fuel, engine, brakes, and aerodynamics.”
Another result of this partnership is the Red Bull Racing Paddock–an online-only fan site. It is part of a complete ecosystem that RBR runs on Oracle Cloud. It runs with Oracle platforms such as CrowdTwist Loyalty and Engagement, Responsys Campaign Management, Unity, and other Oracle Marketing solutions.
The site that manages customer interaction, ensures loyalty by engrossing them with content and engaging with each one on a personal level. The strategy is to provide fans with a way of feeling closer to the team. It does this by sharing content that is available exclusively to members and then rewarding members’ ongoing engagement with redeemable points. All this builds a positive feedback loop that further deepens the relationship between the team and fans.
Who courted who first in this Oracle-Red Bull Racing partnership?
“It started off with a sticker here and there, and grew to the realization that Oracle can give Red Bull Racing a data-driven advantage. When Red Bull Racing discovered how much they can do with our technology, that was the marriage. We did it in the Premier League and in Sail GP. That being said, it has already proven, whether in the actual race track or in the virtual paddocks, that technology works to win races, whether on the circuit or in the minds of the fans,” Garrett Ilg, President of Oracle Japan and Asia Pacific.
And how did Checo feel through all this?
“I am so happy to get this victory for me and my Team, it means a lot to me. I haven’t been on the podium the last couple of races but I was always working under the radar and making big noises behind the scenes, so I am super proud of the performance today. Mentally it was tough and you had to stay alert for the whole race. It was super tricky in the conditions out there today and people underestimate how difficult it is to drive in those, going through the final sector was so hard,” the 2022 Singapore GP Champ said.
(All photos in this story are provided by Oracle Red Bull Racing)
