Steve Riley, head of IT operations and repair administration at Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Crew, displays on a job properly finished. Having labored for the racing crew for nearly a decade, the place he established the IT foundations for stellar success on the observe, Riley might be happy with his achievements. Nonetheless, regardless of these successes, there’s all the time one other race to win.
“Like each different perform, IT performs a component in how the crew comes collectively to ship wins,” he says. “A few of our inputs may be extra apparent than our contribution in different areas, however each part within the vehicles is manufactured on a platform that we’ve helped ship.”
Riley’s division supplied the IT methods and companies off the observe that helped the crew win an unprecedented eight constructors’ championships in a row between 2014 and 2021. Whereas the previous few years have been tougher, the crew continues to push the boundaries to ship race-winning outcomes.
To know how IT performs an enabling function, Pc Weekly spoke with Riley on the firm’s state-of-the-art know-how campus in Brackley, Northamptonshire, within the build-up to the 2025 British Grand Prix at Silverstone. Whereas the crew is targeted on the present season, the challenges the organisation faces will ratchet up once more subsequent season, when a brand new set of F1 rules will redefine the game. As soon as once more, IT will play a key function.
“That’s one factor we converse to our new starters about – don’t really feel that since you’re in IT, you’re indirectly contributing to the end result of this race. A few of your function may be contributing to the race that’s taking place this weekend. A few of it may be functionality that’s going to assist ship efficiency in 12 months,” says Riley.
“However IT contributes to the end result of races, seasons and championships. And I all the time take pleasure in speaking with our new folks about that contribution as a result of it’s one thing that isn’t fairly as entrance of thoughts generally.”
Delivering dependable methods
Riley shortly found the important contribution IT makes to F1 when he joined the crew in early 2016. A lifelong motor racing fan, he’d all the time saved a watch open for senior management alternatives within the sport. Having beforehand labored as a service supply supervisor for NBCUniversal Media in London, he jumped on the probability to work in F1.
“It sounds easy, however in the event you’ve acquired a talent and also you’ve additionally acquired a ardour, why wouldn’t you attempt to put these two issues collectively?” he says. “I’ve been right here almost 10 years now, and time disappears faster than just about wherever else.”
One rationalization for that notion is the large quantity of labor that Riley and his organisation have accomplished.
“Once I joined the crew, we have been at a comparatively early stage in our IT maturity journey,” he says.
“Like each different perform, IT performs a component in how the crew comes collectively to ship wins. Each part within the vehicles is manufactured on a platform that we’ve helped ship”
Steve Riley, Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Crew
“Once you take a look at the organisation from exterior, you suppose that every thing associated to know-how in F1 goes to be on the prime of the sport. I used to be shocked and reassured as a result of I might see that I might make an impression after I joined. There was loads of work to do. And since then, we’ve been on that journey.”
Riley says the definition of worth for his IT organisation is all about boosting efficiency. Again in 2016, this focus was a difficult idea for his IT crew to grasp. Because the significance of know-how and information to F1 has elevated in the course of the previous decade, the IT division has recognised its contribution.
“The journey we’ve been on has been round leveraging the information we now have, making strategic choices primarily based on that perception, after which persevering with to construct and develop the crew to the place we’re as we speak,” he says, reflecting on the dimensions of contemporary IT operations in F1, the place his division coordinates data-enabled know-how provision throughout a 24-race calendar.
Embracing regulatory change
Riley says efficiency works hand in glove with effectivity. Mercedes, like different F1 groups, should function throughout the sport’s value cap, a spending restrict that controls racing spend. This 12 months’s cap is $140m, overlaying growth and in-season operating prices.
“We now have a restricted set of sources, so we have to exhibit that each funding we make delivers worth,” he says.
“We’re actually in conditions the place we are saying, ‘Nicely, can we need to put money into new know-how, or can we need to put extra money into the efficiency of the automobile?’ It’s these sorts of selections that exhibit the worth of investments we make.”
When Pc Weekly spoke with Riley and his colleague, IT director Michael Taylor, final 12 months, they defined how the tech crew focuses on operational effectivity. Twelve months later, that’s nonetheless the case, however the IT organisation has additionally been busy refining its method.
“We’ve been doing quite a lot of work on our storage platforms and community to generate as a lot reliability as we are able to,” says Riley.
“The efficiency of the know-how that we’re rolling out – and we’ve acquired some nice tech companions that help us – implies that by this means of upgrading, roll-outs and retiring older equipment, we’re producing extra time for ourselves.”
After going by a few of these refresh cycles, Riley says there’s extra headroom to consider learn how to ship innovation. The IT division will face new challenges on the finish of the season as rules centered on automobile dimensions, energy methods and sustainability necessities will deliver basic adjustments to the way in which groups and vehicles function.
Riley says adjustments to the fee cap as a part of that regulatory course of will imply the crew has extra alternative when it comes to operational expenditure. Beforehand, the enterprise leaned towards capital expenditure investments in sure circumstances, similar to for IT infrastructure. Within the new period of racing, he says methods and companies sourced as operational expenditure from huge know-how corporations might look extra enticing.
“We see the rules not as constraints however as alternatives. We’re the place we are able to uncover openings that different groups can’t” Steve Riley, Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Crew
“That’s the place personal cloud-type options change into extra of a chance for us,” he says. “We see the rules not as constraints however as alternatives. We’re the place we are able to uncover openings that different groups can’t. That’s why we’re totally different storage platforms for a few of our actions.”
Exploiting superior know-how
One essential space of funding is the crew’s driver-in-loop simulator, which replicates the behaviour of an actual automobile in a managed digital surroundings at Brackley. Utilizing the simulator, Mercedes F1 drivers George Russell and Kimi Antonelli can observe driving round race circuits, and the crew can discover potential automobile configurations.
Drivers and the simulator crew work carefully with engineers to check options for real-time points. The race crew is steadily abroad in numerous time zones. TeamViewer’s distant connectivity platform Tensor ensures personnel can log in, monitor outcomes, and make adjustments to the simulator units in Brackley from any location.
Riley says Mercedes F1 is a long-time consumer of TeamViewer know-how. Workers throughout the enterprise use the Tensor platform to remain linked remotely and securely. He says Christian Damm, simulator growth engineer at Mercedes F1, was searching for a functionality that may assist his crew exploit its information.
“We confirmed him Tensor, and he was impressed with the efficiency and the safety parts,” says Riley. “The simulator is among the most delicate areas in our web site, so guaranteeing that everybody who has entry, or stopping anybody who doesn’t essentially want entry on a day-to-day foundation, was a key decision-maker for us.”
Riley says the closeted and aggressive nature of F1 means it’s powerful to know the way a lot of a game-changing benefit is created by the sixth and newest iteration of the simulator. Nonetheless, proof means that this digital twin is an important weapon within the crew’s data-powered know-how arsenal.
“I don’t know what the opposite groups are operating, however I do know we now have a simulator that we might be happy with,” he says.
“It’s a efficiency differentiator for us. There’s all the time cross-pollination in F1, and we now have those that be part of from different groups, they usually’re sometimes impressed with what we’ve acquired.”
Looking for new alternatives
Riley says his IT organisation continues to discover how they’ll exploit TeamViewer’s technological capabilities. “We converse with their growth people most weeks,” he says.
“There are just a few different use instances within the pipeline that we’re getting very near with the ability to implement. And that’s all on the again of the partnership that we now have and the way steadily we’re in discussions about what particular growth necessities can allow totally different areas of our crew to leverage the Tensor platform.”
In relation to different areas of innovation, Riley says the crew continues to discover synthetic intelligence (AI). He acknowledges the AI business has progressed considerably over the previous 12 months. As soon as once more, the aggressive nature of F1 means Riley is reticent to share particulars, but he says Mercedes is dabbling in AI.
“We already use AI in a number of methods to have a look at our efficiency information,” he says. “That’s the stuff that I can’t share an excessive amount of about. Nonetheless, like different organisations, we’re exploring how copilot-type know-how can enhance productiveness. Whereas it’s not proper for everybody, there are roles in our organisation that may profit from a copilot-type help software to work alongside them.”
What’s clear is that Riley and his colleagues will proceed to seek for alternatives to enhance race-day efficiency. Pc Weekly toured the crew’s manufacturing facility at Brackley and its garages at Silverstone to see how technological advances assist Mercedes F1 discover new aggressive edges. Virtually 10 years into his relationship with the crew, Riley stays massively excited by the chance to show information perception into milliseconds of benefit on the observe.
“I’m lucky,” he says. “I get to go to the circuit and spend time with one among my groups that helps the IT infrastructure. It’s an unimaginable privilege to have that entry as a part of your job. I imply, earlier than I joined the crew, I solely dreamt of that kind of factor.”
