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IT doesn’t just mean looking after the dozens of laptop computers the team travels with as you might think – it encompasses everything from Force India’s power supplies, TV screens, networking, telephone systems, mobile communications solutions, to aiding the design of cars and powering them at the tracks.
Force India’s Head of Information Technology Adrian Collinson leads a small team of six people that provides a variety of IT services at the factory and wind tunnel in the UK, as well as support to the race and test teams. Working with Adrian is David Lippiatt and Shona Gilchrist who provide factory support; Robert Hardwidge, who provides exclusive support to the race team; Katie Hanna, who looks after the first line help desk; and Jonathan Ruffley, who provides Computer Aided Design (CAD) support. Between the six of them, they look after more than 250 users within the team, which equates to roughly 500 physical desktops, laptops, and servers.
The team uses mainly standard, off-the-shelf computer kit as the backbone of its factory-based systems. The big advantage to this strategy is that parts and spares are readily available, and are considerably cheaper than their custom-made equivalents. For example, virus protection is provided by a standard solution from AVG.
However the race track environment proves more demanding and requires more of a specialised solution, as Adrian explains. ‘We use equipment from a company which specialises in designing and building computer equipment for the military for operating in harsh environments. In Bahrain, the extreme is heat and sand, in Malaysia, it’s humidity.
‘The computers we’re using in the garage are designed to run in these environments. The design of the circuit boards and the cases are such that they can cope with much higher ambient temperatures. The ones in the garage are also coated internally so that they can withstand the carbon dust that is present in an F1 garage. Carbon, being very electrically conductive, tends to damage electrical equipment and in the past we’ve had a lot of instances of equipment failures due to this.
‘We used to have uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) running the garage, which were standard off the shelf units that have physically blown up. A UK-based specialist - UPS Direct - has designed a solution for Force India, using a 19-inch, rack-mounted unit that contains a UPS in an air-conditioned, sealed environment. You can throw as much carbon dust at it as you like. It’s proved phenomenally reliable compared with the set-up we used to use.’
Information Technology is always evolving and changing, even more so in F1 where the rate of development is exponential. As a result teams constantly strive to extract the benefits from new technological developments.
‘Each year, we look at different areas of the garage and ask ourselves, ‘How have we done it? Is it still right? Have we got a budget to change it, or can we find a partner to help us change it?’ “
‘What we try to do when making a change is to ensure it’s as ‘future proof’ as possible. We’re not in a scenario where we can change the kit each year, because we don’t have the budget as a very small team. So if we make a change, we make sure it sticks for three to four years.’
The IT department will also look for communications solutions. Not just verbal communications, but also making sure the data gathered at the track can be relayed back to the factory safely and quickly, plus can be collected in the first place.
‘For our communications, we have a joint partnership between STL and Samsung, who, between them, provide a complete voice communications solution for the team. STL does all the maintenance and implementation, and Samsung provides the actual equipment. At the race track, we used to book separate lines for each event, comprising ISDN lines for all data transfers and five to six lines for voice communications. So, for each event, we’d have to issue a ‘these are the numbers to call’ sheet.
‘Now, we run a Virtual Private Network (VPN – a form of secure networking over the Internet) Suddenly, instead of issuing numbers that differ at every race, it’s the same number off the main factory switchboard. The call is routed through the VPN over the Internet, with our phone system here in Silverstone managing the calls. This means if you’re in Bahrain and dialling a supplier in the UK, the cost of the call is only from the telephone exchange in Silverstone to the final destination. As a result, our communications costs have plummeted.”
‘The job we do isn’t any different from the job the IT people at Ferrari, or McLaren, or Toyota do,’ says David. “The same tasks have to be done. We still have to design and build a car, and test it. It’s just that we do it with less people.”
‘Because of where we are on the grid, we find that we use our money and resources a lot more efficiently,’ adds Adrian. ‘The extra IT resources possessed by the other teams don’t equate to a huge advantage on the track. It has more to do with how you use it: the best fit at the right cost.’
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