Five new TV data graphics coming to Formula 1 coverage

Henry Valantine
Formula 1 camera crew PA

Formula 1 camera crew PA

Rob Smedley has revealed that five new analysis graphics will be introduced in Formula 1 TV broadcasts in the upcoming weeks.

The former Ferrari race engineer took up the role of F1’s director of data communications in 2020, and a new partnership with AWS has seen more graphics and analysis available to fans during live race coverage,which began last season.

One insight unveiled this year has been the braking performance graphic, putting cornering speeds of two drivers against each other two see where one is losing time compared to one of their competitors.

Having developed additional graphics, Smedley hopes that showing data previously unavailable to fans will add to the spectacle at home.

“The other graphics that are coming up this year, which point towards car development and car data, and competitors’ race strategy, all the key pillars that we’re trying to bring to light,” Smedley told reporters, as quoted byRacingNews365.

As for what the five new graphics actually represent, Smedley hopes the new insights will further add to the fans’ knowledge of the intricacies of the sport.

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“Car Exploitation is the next one that we’re going to be bringing to everybody’s screens in just a couple of weeks, or a couple of events,” he said.

“这将告诉我们如何和every driver is really pushing his car to the limit. Regardless of where the lap times are, we get behind it with the data through what we’re able to do, the algorithms and the models that we’re able to build with AWS. We’re getting behind the actual lap time, which tells us part of the story, but doesn’t tell us all the story, because you don’t know how each and every driver is exploiting the car. This next graphic is going to be able to tell us that.

“A great one that I’ve really enjoyed working on has been Energy Optimisation, a graphic that is going to bring these intricate Formula 1 power units to life. And when we look at all the different components, that’s going to contain a real data story there.

“Then we’ve got Launch Analysis, the start of the Grand Prix. If you’ve ever actually been there and you’ve witnessed it, is something which is absolutely visceral, as these 20 absolutely monsters of cars all take off for that 500 metre, or 700 metre, or even one kilometre, run down to Turn 1.

“By bringing in computer vision, this is really exciting for me. This is the first time in our partnership that we’re going to bring in computer vision to look at the lines and the trajectories that the drivers are taking. I think that’s going to be really exciting.

“We’ve got Pit Lane Performance coming up. So how was the driver performing the pit lane?

“One thing that we all know about as Formula 1 fans is that it takes two seconds to change four wheels and tyres on a Formula 1 car with the pit crew, but what is the driver doing in the pit lane and we want to be use these data analytics to be able to unpick that.

“Finally the Undercut Threat, also pointing towards the strategy. Back in 2019, we put out Pit Battle Forecast where we started to look at this, this really complex virtual pitstop scenario where one car pits and the other car stays out.

“We’ve got this thing called an undercut and that was language that people like me working in Formula 1 for 25 years understood. It’s not a language that everybody understands.

“But now through these graphics, it’s part of the fans’ common parlance. We’re going to bring that story to life before that event happened. So we want to know what the undercut threat is. And again, bringing in another part of the story to life.”

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