Fail to prepare, prepare to fail. Max Verstappen has won eight Formula 1 grand prix so far in 2024 and each of those victories came after eight billion simulations were run by Red Bull to best predict scenarios ahead of time.
Utilising the partnership with its title sponsor, Red Bull works with Oracle Cloud technology to crunch the numbers to help with strategy, tyre choices and pitstop calls – starting two weeks in advance of every race.
Around four billion ‘Monte Carlo’ simulations are run ahead of a race weekend – nothing to do with the Monaco Grand Prix but instead a principle used by computer simulators, introduced during the Second World War when physicists working on the probability of atomic bomb chain reactions named their simulations after the principality and its number of casinos.
“What I should say is we run four billion simulations before we arrive at track,” explained Jack Harington, partnerships global lead at Red Bull, with the Las Vegas Grand Prix next to get the simulation treatment.
“Then we take the data from FP1 and FP2 and introduce those into the simulations and we will run those four billion simulations again. So in fact, it is about eight billion simulations overall.
“It’s small tweaks each time, so you’re not changing everything in one go. With Las Vegas, it’s interesting because we didn’t have the historical data, so having the ability to run so many simulations means we will be better informed, even if we haven’t got experience in the circuit. So it really plays well into the strength of running on the cloud.”
Such predictive technologies are now commonplace in F1 but with Oracle Cloud, Red Bull has been able to increase its simulations by 25%, with positive financial implications too.
Red Bull Racing pitwall
Photo by: Erik Junius
“Whereas before we had to invest in physical stuff to be able to run these, it’s also much more cost efficient for us as well. So we’re looking at things like the cost cap, being able to run these simulations as and when we need them, access to huge amounts of process,” added Harington.
“It’s a real performance benefit to us. Ultimately, it’s no lie when I say that every race-winning strategy we’ve made since 2021, has been made on OCR (Optical Character Recognition). It is a true partnership; it isn’t a sponsorship.”
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner echoes those sentiments, praising Oracle’s input to Verstappen’s…
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