Formula 1 boosts viewing experience with new AWS statistics

Credit: Photo4/Lapresse/Zuma Press/PA Images

Ahead of its anticipated July return Formula 1 has partnered with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to introduce six new, real-time racing statistics that will roll out throughout the 2020 season.

The first feature is set to debut during the Austrian Grand Prix with F1 using “Car Performance Scores”, a statistic which isolates an individual car’s performance and allows fans to compare its performance to that of different vehicles head-to-head.

Other statistics, which will be slowly implemented throughout the campaign include High-Speed/Low-Speed Corner Performance, Qualifying and Race Pace Predictions, and Car/Team Development & Overall Season Performance. 

Driver Skills Ratings, which breaks down and scores driver skills, based on the most important factors for overall performance, to help identify the best “total driver” on the track will also be implemented during races.

“Over the past two years, Formula 1 has embraced AWS’s services to perform intense and dynamic data analysis. The F1 Insights we’re delivering together are bringing fans closer to the track than ever before, and unlocking previously untold stories and insights from behind the pit wall,” stated Rob Smedley, Chief Engineer of Formula 1.

“We’re excited to be expanding this successful relationship to bring even more insights to life, allowing fans to go deeper into the many ways that drivers and racing teams work together to affect success.”

F1 and AWS had previously announced six new Insights, including Exit Speed, Predicted Pit Stop Strategy, Pit Window, Battle Forecast, Pit Strategy Battle, and Tyre Performance which will continue to be rolled out during the campaign.  “F1 Insights powered by AWS” will offer fans more visibility into the split-second decision-making and action on the track, as well as behind the pit wall where the team strategists operate.

To create these new insights, Formula 1 will use its historical race data stored in Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), combined with live data that is streamed from sensors on F1 race cars and the trackside to the cloud through Amazon Kinesis, a service for real-time data collection, processing, and analysis. F1 engineers and scientists will use this data to leverage machine learning (ML) models with Amazon SageMaker, AWS’s service for building, training, and deploying ML models.

Mike Clayville, Vice President, Worldwide Commercial Sales at AWS added: “Formula 1 racing mixes physics and human performance, yielding powerful, but complex data that AWS is helping them to harness. Our existing relationship with F1 has already produced statistics that have brought fans into the race paddocks, and our study of race car aerodynamics is influencing vehicle designs for the 2022 season.” 

“This year, we’re thrilled to extend the power of F1 data in the cloud and unlock new insights that help fans understand more of F1’s rich complexity.”

Previous articleDAZN celebrates ‘watershed moment’ in securing domestic Bundesliga rights
Next articleGLMS strengthens sports integrity with operational hub in Canada