WOKING, England — Artificial intelligence isn’t something people are shouting from the rooftops at McLaren’s sprawling technology center.

However, A 60-year-old motorsport giant is an avid user of behind-the-scenes technology.

At the McLaren Technology Center (MTC) in Woking, England, the company explained how it is using artificial intelligence to improve its chances on the Formula 1 track.

“We are an organization that has been using traditional machine learning technology products for a long time,” McLaren business technology director Dan Keyworth said at an MTC press conference in October.

Using machine learning, Keyworth said McLaren is able to make decisions based on probabilities, which in turn helps train its artificial intelligence models.

The racing company showcased numerous examples of technological innovation at the MTC. They range from real-time data monitoring in secret mission control rooms to using “digital twins” of real cars (3D digital versions of physical objects), allowing teams to model the conditions the actual vehicle needs to perform.

Keyworth said McLaren is heavily applying AI in three main areas: improving vehicle performance, day-to-day operations and commercialization.

He added that the generative AI tools provide new capabilities for F1 teams, including the ability to conduct in-depth simulations of certain possibilities that may occur during a race.

This might include figuring out the ideal amount of time the car should spend at a pit stop, and deciding which tires to add to the vehicle when replacing old tires.

“From a generative perspective, what AI allows us to do is actually play out more realistic scenarios and ask, ‘What would happen?'” Keyworth said.

He added that some of the scenes were starting to produce “pretty accurate” results – to the point of being “almost scary”.

Every F1 team has Taking advantage of modern technological advances over the years ——From cloud computing to artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Aston Martin Aramco, for example, touts the use of so-called “data lakes” (massive data storage centers) and machine learning techniques to learn from large amounts of data to predict patterns and improve decision-making.

Aston Martin Aramco chief information officer Claire Lansley said machine learning algorithms can blend data from tires, weather and track conditions and use predictive analytics to optimize decisions.

in a April Blog PostsThe speed of these developments is “really impressive,” she said.

“By adopting this technology, we will be able to free up multiple engineers to focus more on vehicle performance,” she noted.

Another F1 team deploying artificial intelligence to improve on-track performance and strategy is Red Bull-owned Visa Cash App RB.

RB CEO Peter Bayer said earlier this year The Italian F1 team is using artificial intelligence to reduce race times to “hundredths of a second.”

Speaking at an event at the company’s software partner Epicor’s Faenza factory in Italy, RB’s head of vehicle performance Guillaume Dezoteux said AI could help inform teams when planning because “it means you don’t need to run 100 simulations.”

Keyworth pointed out that any innovation within McLaren would not happen without the help of partners such as IT tools and equipment Cisco and Google.

“Connectivity is probably the lifeblood of the sport,” he said ahead of the October 27 Grand Prix in Mexico City. “Without it, nothing would have started. No car could safely drive on the track.”

A key component behind McLaren’s ability to keep data flowing to its teams in real-time is its so-called mobile data hub.

These are tiny server rooms that can be flown to different tournaments around the world to keep the digital component of the operation online at all times.

Chintan Patel, chief technology officer of Cisco UK and Ireland, told CNBC, “These mobile data centers fly to each race location along with the famous F1 racing cars and are remotely networked to enable real-time storage and data processing of MTC.”

McLaren’s Keyworth said another benefit of AI is commercialization.

He said that for fans and partners, McLaren was increasingly trying to “enrich the journey and the experience so that our fans feel more connected”.

Using artificial intelligence, McLaren can better target F1 fans in emerging markets such as the United States, where the sport is growing in popularity, for example, by delivering personalized messages to fans at specific times of day .

Meanwhile, when it comes to using AI in business, Keyworth said the main areas of improvement the company is seeing are “making everyone’s lives richer, smoother, faster and more efficient.”

“It’s not labor replacement – it’s ‘effort’ replacement,” he said. “You want to free up your team to do what you hired them to do — not take on the overhead of their role.”