Have you ever wondered why a World Rally Championship driver is quicker than one other on a stage? From next season, a few of those answers will come to light because of the championship's recent Command Centre concept.
For a generation of rally fans, Virtual Spectator provided the primary clear opportunity to grasp and compare drivers on a rally stage. The technology created a virtual map of the stage with cars superimposed on one another, a feature of broadcasts within the early 2000s, providing a straightforward method to assimilate the progress of multiple drivers on a stage.
The WRC now plans to bring much more data to TV screens from 2025 onwards, helping to offer greater insight into events, improve rally storytelling and supply teams with more data.
Earlier this 12 months, the WRC revealed plans for its ‘Command Centre’ concept, which saw the WRC promoter work with teams and manufacturers to extract more data from the cars and increase live interaction between crews and their teams via Formula 1-style team radio.
Testing of the system began this summer and has already reached the purpose where it’s being evaluated in WRC events, with Martins Sesks testing the system in an M-Sport Ford Puma in Latvia, while Toyota’s Sami Pajari tested the concept in Finland last weekend.
Sami Pajari, Enni Mälkönen, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1
Photo: McKlein / Motorsports images
“Basically what it’s [system] “All we can do is make the teams, ourselves and the fans back home more aware of what’s going on with these cars,” said WRC event promoter Simon Larkin.
“We want to provide useful data, but we don't want to get to the point where that data can be analyzed by an additional performance engineer or data scientist, because those who have the money will spend it on that. We'll do it in a rational way. We want it to be useful – to keep the cars in the rally, but not to incur additional costs.”
“We want to try to get some data, and we want to have some story.”
What is being developed and the way will it work?
The WRC plans to launch its “Command Centre” from the primary round of the 2025 championship in Monte Carlo, with the team’s data and live radio coverage set to form a part of the international coverage. The WRC promoter has hired former Hyundai WRC team principal Andrea Adamo to oversee the concept’s development.
Over the years, motorsport has grow to be increasingly data-driven, which is now being fed into television broadcasts to assist viewers higher understand the motion they’re watching – for instance, data that shows when a driver is accelerating or braking, or data that helps determine when a driver will have the option to execute an overtaking manoeuvre in Formula 1.
In the WRC there may be currently significantly less data available to transmit, although Rally1 cars have 104 sensors that already generate data monitored by the FIA.
Kalle Rovanperä, Jonne Halttunen, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1
Photo: Toyota Racing
The WRC command centre plans to capture, monitor and share a few of this data with broadcasters and teams. These sensors monitor inputs comparable to engine revs, gear selection, acceleration, brake pressure, tyre pressure, tyre temperature, steering angle, how the hybrid drive is deployed and regenerated. It can even help from a security perspective by recording the force and direction of impacts.
One area that can also be being developed is the power for the system to display details about what tires the crew is using and what number of kilometers the tire has traveled on it, to assist explain tire strategies.
The WRC currently uses a radio communications system that isn’t currently offered to broadcasters. Further development is planned before it launches next 12 months.
The WRC desires to make the information available to groups, combined with crew radio messages, in a way that’s accessible to viewers to assist them understand what is occurring through the stages.
How will the information get to the TV screen?
Broadcasting rally events is way more complicated than track racing, given the distances and terrain the cars cover. Currently, the live feed provided by Rally.TV is transmitted from on-board cameras, helicopter cameras and ground-based camera crews to an antenna on a non-public light aircraft flying over the stages, which takes within the footage.
WRC TV Helicopter
Photo: WRC.com
The ultimate plan is for this recent mass of information from the cars to be transmitted to the plane like the remainder of his vision. As the system is being tested and developed, the cars are being fitted with a Marelli smart antenna and SIM card, a system currently utilized in the World Endurance Championship and Formula E, which is able to transmit data using LTE [a 4G mobile phone network]which is then interpreted and displayed live using computer software.
“This system can give us a clear understanding of what is happening [with the cars]”, explains Adamo. “If you could have a automotive that has stopped somewhere, you understand why.
“It's good for the published because we will immediately understand what's happening. Of course, it's an ongoing process and we’d like to grasp tips on how to create the perfect window to trace not only one automotive, because we might have 10 or 12 or at the same time as many as we can have in the long run.
“The goal is to create a room where we can have different windows and screens for cars with clear pop-up alarms [that will appear on screen] which may tell us immediately if there's an issue with the automotive. Then we will tell the shipper that something's flawed with the automotive and follow it closely to grasp what's happening.”
How will fans and teams profit from the information?
Having access to this live data may gain advantage each fans and teams. The information transmitted from the cars will provide way more information if the crew has an issue, fairly than having to attend for TV crews to interview drivers at the tip of a stage.
Tyre and hybrid deployment strategies will grow to be much clearer to viewers, and in theory, accurate comparisons between drivers at specific points in a stage to grasp why a selected crew was faster or slower may very well be offered to viewers and explained by the analyst. This could provide the WRC with a solution to Sky Sports F1’s Sky Pad incident evaluation – a contemporary and more advanced version of Virtual Spectator.
Sébastien Ogier, Vincent Landais, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1
Photo: Toyota Racing
“With this data you can create interesting stories between stages, comparing the behaviour of different cars on the track,” says Adamo. “You can compare the various ways drivers use the hybrid system, you possibly can understand why one driver was faster in the primary a part of the stage than the others, and in addition how they manage the temperature and tyre pressure, and see the difference in performance.
“Data can help us develop a lot, create stories, inform fans and explain things that we can't understand at the moment because we're blind.”
It’s not only fans who stand to learn, as teams’ access to more live data could help keep their cars within the rallies in the event that they can diagnose an issue from the information and tell their crews tips on how to fix it.
“It would be good for engineers because the driver could fix some simple things,” Adamo added. “For example, when I worked at Hyundai, we had some problems in the past that could have been easily fixed if we knew what was going on. Losing a car because of stupidity is pathetic these days.”
WRC plans to proceed developing the system ahead of its introduction in 2025. A Toyota, Hyundai and M-Sport-Ford automotive is predicted to run the system and a team radio on the Central Europe Rally in October.
