From predictive analytics to personalized fan experiences, data and AI are powering the next generation of motorsport, says Rohit Agnihotri, principal technologist at Infosys, and Dan Cherowbrier, CTIO of Formula E. When the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship launched its first race through Beijing's Olympic Park in 2014, the idea of all-electric motorsport still bordered on experimental. Batteries couldn't yet last a full race, and drivers had to switch cars mid-competition. Just over a decade later, Formula E has evolved into a global entertainment brand broadcast in 150 countries, driving both technological innovation and cultural change in sport. Gen4, that's to come next year, says Dan Cherowbrier, Formula E's chief technology and information officer. You will see a really quite impressive car that starts us to question whether EV is there. Formula E's digital transformation, powered by its partnership with Infosys, is redefining what it means to be a fan. "It's a movement to make motor sport accessible and exciting for the new generation," says principal technologist at Infosys, Rohit Agnihotri. From real-time leaderboards and predictive tools to personalized storylines that adapt to what individual fans care most about--whether it's a driver rivalry or battery performance--Formula E and Infosys are using AI-powered platforms to create fan experiences as dynamic as the races themselves. Technology is not just about meeting expectations; it's elevating the entire fan experience and making the sport more inclusive, says Agnihotri. AI is also transforming how the organization itself operates. Historically, we would be going around the company, banging on everyone's doors and dragging them towards technology, making them use systems, making them move things to the cloud, Cherowbrier notes.

This research aims to investigate professional racing drivers' expertise to develop an understanding of their cognitive and adaptive skills to create new autonomy algorithms. An expert interview study was conducted with 11 professional race drivers, data analysts, and racing instructors from across prominent racing leagues. The interviews were conducted using an exploratory, non-standardized expert interview format guided by a set of prepared questions. The study investigates drivers' exploration strategies to reach their vehicle limits and contrasts them with the capabilities of state-of-the-art autonomous racing software stacks. Participants were questioned about the techniques and skills they have developed to quickly approach and maneuver at the vehicle limit, ultimately minimizing lap times. The analysis of the interviews was grounded in Mayring's qualitative content analysis framework, which facilitated the organization of the data into multiple categories and subcategories. Our findings create insights into human behavior regarding reaching a vehicle's limit and minimizing lap times. We conclude from the findings the development of new autonomy software modules that allow for more adaptive vehicle behavior. By emphasizing the distinct nuances between manual and autonomous driving techniques, the paper encourages further investigation into human drivers' strategies to maximize their vehicles' capabilities.

Peugeot Sport has signed a multi-year partnership with the global leader in digital transformation Capgemini to provide the Peugeot 9X8's FIA World Endurance Championship programme team with advanced digital tools. Peugeot Sport is poised to make its return to topflight endurance racing this summer and will capitalise on Capgemini's data and AI applications expertise to take the performance of its revolutionary hybrid Hypercar forward, both in the simulator and on the racetrack. This new partnership also embodies the commitment of both companies to the energy transition. Pooling the capacity of Peugeot Sport and Capgemini's digital tools will enable the team's engineers, drivers and mechanics to deepen their understanding of the 9X8, while also accelerating and boosting its competitive potential as software development becomes a key factor given that the car's hardware specification will be frozen for a period of four years in keeping with the FIA World Endurance Championship's Hypercar regulations. With Peugeot Sport at a crucial stage in the car's development, this fundamental technological support is a sign of how motor racing is evolving.

This episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast features an interview with the physicist Maria Schuld, who is a senior researcher and software developer at Xanadu – a Toronto-based quantum technology company. She talks about the challenges and rewards of implementing machine-learning systems on quantum computers. Also on hand is the author Kit Chapman, who chats about his latest book Racing Green: How Motorsport Science Can Change the World. He explains how the myriad technologies developed to make racing cars faster and safer have already benefitted society – and how they could help us combat climate change.

This post was written by Will Owen, BD Associate, at Valkyrie. Until the 1980s, cars were all mechanical. Computers were too large and slow to be useful on race cars, so the driver was the only source of "data" for the racing engineer. As amazing as drivers are at "feeling" the car, it's tough for any driver to recall objective measurements about how the car performed in a session when they are busy focusing on driving. Once electronics became small enough, they started becoming critical to operating car systems, such as fuel management and engine timing.

The world's first flying race car has completed its maiden flight -- bringing a futuristic new sport one step closer to fruition. The idea: The flying race car is called the Alauda Airspeeder Mk3, and technically, it's an electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicle. That means it lifts off and lands vertically like a helicopter, but is powered by electricity and not fossil fuels. In February, the two companies behind the Mk3 -- eVTOL manufacturer Alauda Aerodynamics and flying race car series Airspeeder -- announced plans to feature the vehicle in an upcoming international series called Airspeeder EXA. At the time of the announcement, the Mk3 was still under development, but a full-scale, race-ready version of the vehicle has now taken its maiden flight -- and a video of the voyage offers a glimpse into the future of racing.

The roar inside a packed stadium is felt more than heard, a kind of whole-body buzz. As the announcer on the PA brings the crowd to a crescendo, techno music pumping and lights strafing our heads, distant figures file onto the stage, sit in front of keyboards and PC screens, and fit helicopter-grade headphones over their ears to shut out the sound of 10,000 people chanting their names. Two years ago I traveled to Katowice, Poland, to make a short video documentary about e-sports. IEM 2018 was the biggest yet, with a million-dollar prize pot and around 100,000 fans turning up to cheer on their favorite teams. This year, those teams played in silence.

Formula E Racing, like its Formula 1 counterpart, relies on speed and strategy to win. But how do you crunch through the reams of data that you can get from an electric race car and analyze it in a way that would help your driver and your racing team beat the competition? And that's why he has partnered with Sanjay Srivastava, Chief Digital Officer of Genpact, to leverage data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) to build a multi-layer platform that turns a mountain of data into actionable analysis. Formula E racing produces different types of data across many fronts. There's a set of telemetry data from the cars, a stream of large data sets that cars produce while they are on the road, and data from competing drivers and their vehicles. Then there's data gleaned from weather, satellite, traffic, and road patterns. All that needs a data analytics system that can interpolate the information as it comes in from all these sources and analyze it in real-time in a way that the driver and the racing team can absorb and act upon instantaneously. But, as Sylvain points out, that's easier said than done, especially since a Formula E race happens in just one day, and every second counts. As Sylvain and Sanjay explain, it starts with knowing how to structure the incoming information so that the driver and engineers can act upon it quickly. That means setting up the correct algorithms, developing an analytical infrastructure that--with the help of AI--integrates all of the different types of data, and synchronizing it to give the driver and engineers the whole picture and predict the likeliest outcomes in any given scenario in order to make the right decisions during the race. That also means creating a user interface for the data that's both comprehensive and instantly comprehensible to the driver. The work that Sylvain and Sanjay are doing has notable implications for business that goes beyond racing. The technologies they are developing will trickle down to make electric cars and sustainable energy better. The analytics tools they are creating can potentially be utilized by other companies to make better sense of data coming from multiple sources in order to make well-informed business and digital transformation decisions and do so quickly, and to manage their resources more efficiently. This transcript has been edited for length and clarity. Michael Krigsman: Formula E Racing involves cars, speed, data, and advanced technologies such as AI and machine learning.

Clearly, Roborace doesn't believe in bad luck. Last week, on Friday the 13th, the company chose to run its self-driving Robocar in front of a feverish crowd at England's Goodwood Festival of Speed. It was only the second time the team had demonstrated its futuristic vehicle publicly, following an unassisted lap in Paris roughly 13 months ago. There was no room for error. The absence of a human cockpit gives the car an unusually low profile.

The Argentinian summer Sun beat down on the Buenos Aires city circuit as the cars approached the penultimate turn. It was February 18, 2017, the Saturday of Formula E's South American weekend, and two cars jostled for first place. The second car, though, was being too aggressive. Nearing the corner's apex, the vehicle misjudged its position and speed. The vehicle slammed into the blue safety walls surrounding the track. As the wreckage crumpled to a stop, a detached wheel rolled freely across the hot asphalt. The scene was eerie: though the marshals were alerted to the smash, the usual scramble to rush paramedics to the scene didn't happen.