As countless case studies published on Computer Weekly have shown through the years, every minute and every penny that a Formula 1 team is spending on research, development and testing is precious and only grudgingly wasted.
In a cost-capped sport that is as much an engineering competition as it is one of driver skill, victory – whether in the drivers’ or constructors’ championships – often comes down to the finest of margins.
This season, the world of F1 is also dealing with a once-in-a-decade overhaul of the sporting regulations that have essentially forced a ground-up redesign of its cars. For some, like Mercedes-AMG Petronas, this has paid off big time. But for Oracle Red Bull Racing, the past few weeks have been rough ones.
The team’s drivers, former world champ Max Verstappen and his new partner Isack Hadjar, may not have much to show for it as they head to Miami for the fourth round of the season, but at HQ in Milton Keynes, its engineers are working flat out and morale is good.
When it comes to testing parts and components in its wind tunnel, a recent engagement with identity and access management specialist 1Password is paying dividends, with the team’s technicians now able to work much more efficiently.
In a world like cyber security, success can be hard to quantify. Sometimes it can even be dangerous to say too much, lest you speak candidly and give a watching threat actor something to go on. But in this instance, Oracle Red Bull Racing can definitively state that after adopting 1Password, it has slashed its wind tunnel recovery time from an hour to two minutes – that’s a cut of 97% – during the test and development process.
But why is that the statistic we’re running with? And how does identity and access management (IAM) technology apply to wind tunnels? It seems an unlikely link on the surface, but Matt Cadieux, team CIO, explains why it matters.
“The guys who are developing and improving the tunnel and its software push boundaries. The models are bigger, the complexity is bigger, and sometimes when you’re running that load for the first time, the infrastructure is not capable enough,” says Cadieux. “Probably once a every few months we have an outage, and it’s largely due to pushing boundaries with our tools and methods.”
