Renault F1's tech race never stops

The Renault F1 team's IT department is in for a busy time from now until the Formula One World Championship kicks off in Australia in March 2008.

With some major changes in technology being decreed by the FIA (F1's governing body), Guillaume Jacquemin and Graeme Hackland, the team's CIO and CTO respectively, have a lot on their plate.

Hackland oversees the tech infrastructure and the rolling out of systems that Jacquemin's team bring in and develop.

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As well as being involved with the design and building of the 2008 race car, the pair are also responsible for making big changes to the IT infrastructure to adjust to the new regulations.

For the 2008 season, the teams will have to run a common electronic control unit (ECU) which communicates information about the car's systems and performance.

This information is used by the team to make improvements to the car and adjust strategy, while the FIA uses it to make sure no illegal systems are in use.

This common ECU means Renault has had to abandon its bespoke chip - which it has been developing for several years - and change its IT systems as a result.

Speaking at the recent ITxpo in Cannes, Jacquemin explained: "We had to change the back end user applications."

With the huge amount of work involved in running the IT systems of a Formula One team, the extra work has been a challenge.

Hackland told silicon.com: "We're moving masses of data [for the design team] and that's really difficult when rolling out new services."

Another project the team is working on is a new supercomputer which will be used to aid the complex modelling and design processes.

The new computer will be around 20 times more powerful than the team's existing setup and is due to come online for the development of the 2009 race car.

The team has also recently implemented a security system to stop employees writing files to and from their MP3 players to make sure information is kept on company systems.