Microsoft and McLaren Electronic Systems seal contract for engine controllers for world Formula One from 2008

It’s part of the FIA’s (Fédèration Internationale de l’Automobile) push to cut costs, increase competition and support green initiatives in F1. The winning bid for standard ECUs and software was confirmed on 5 July 2006, following a meeting of the World Motorsport Council but its’ taken this long to finalise contracts. “With the best interests of motorsport at heart, we have introduced new regulations that will help cut costs while also retaining each team’s ability to compete hard and sustain safety levels,” says Max Mosley, president of the FIA. “The tender process gave us an opportunity to view proposals from different suppliers,” he adds. “We selected what we consider is the most efficient and cost-effective solution for providing ECUs to the Formula One community. We will follow this project closely and look forward to seeing the results in 2008.” MES is now working with Microsoft to develop the ECUs and will then manufacture them for all F1 teams. The ECUs themselves will monitor all aspects of the cars’ powertrains and gather data from some 100 sensors located on each – meaning some 100—500kbps and around 1Gb of information per grand prix race, all broadcast in real time back to the teams’ track-side systems for analysis. It’s all about faster, better vehicle setup and race configuration for the cars, using real time performance information and comparisons with historical data from tests drives, previous races, dyno runs and simulations. The goal for MES and Microsoft now is to enable both Formula One pit-side racing teams and their engineering counterparts to access, share and analyse data in real time, to make quicker and better -informed decisions. They say they’ll do that by integrating latest high-performance computing using Microsoft Windows Vista, SQL Server 2005, 2007 Office etc – for which this is going to be a flagship implementation. “We have been involved in Formula One for 15 years and already work with all the teams,” says Peter van Manen, MES managing director. “Our work with Microsoft allows us to combine MES’ knowledge and experience of providing systems at the highest levels of motorsport with Microsoft’s innovative technologies to deliver the best electronic system possible.” “In all industries, Microsoft’s aim is to provide people with the right technology and the right tools to enable them to succeed in their business, while also keeping costs to a minimum,” says Manuel Simas, director of world-wide automotive industry at Microsoft. “This is exactly what we are offering to all of the Formula One teams. We are very excited to be involved in the development, with MES, of what we believe will be a robust, scalable and easy-to-use system.”