vaughan
03-03-2005, 12:12 PM
I was at the Albert Park track today for the leadup to the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix which is being held this coming Sunday and my boss arranged a visit to the Ferrari pits.
Awesome :!:
I noticed an AMD logo on the rear wing of Michael Schumacher's Ferrari so I asked our guide if they used AMDs, Intels or both. He introduced me to the AMD rep and she explained that Ferrari use AMD processors exclusively. Each car is tracked by 4 separate computers using telemetry. These give real-time information about the car's vital statistics, fuel use, average speed, distance covered, distance to empty etc. She explained that the Ferrari factory runs a supercomputer consisting of more than 300 Opteron nodes. There were laptops in use throughout the pits and in a backroom there was a heap of guys working away on their computers. The technology in this place has to be seen to be believed.
I was surprised how clean and organised the Ferrari pit area was. For example, one mechanic was working on a car and as he finished with each tool he cleaned it and put it back in its assigned place in the toolkit with meticulous precision.
The highlight of the day for me was a handicap event where three cars raced: there was a 1 series BMW versus a General Motors Holden V8 Commodore Supercar (Aussie muscle car) versus an F1 car (forget which one). The baby BMW was given about a minute head start then the V8 took off then about 30 seconds later the F1 blasted off. We could HEAR and see how fast it was when the Holden started to brake for the first turn at about the 300 metre mark compared to the F1 at about 100 metres. The F1 makes an amazing sound and handles, well it just handles supurbly. The track is about 5.3 Kms in length and the F1 caught up and roared past the V8 and the BMW on the home straight just before the finishing line.
I wonder how my Ford XR6 Turbo would have gone ... maybe I'd better not!
Awesome :!:
I noticed an AMD logo on the rear wing of Michael Schumacher's Ferrari so I asked our guide if they used AMDs, Intels or both. He introduced me to the AMD rep and she explained that Ferrari use AMD processors exclusively. Each car is tracked by 4 separate computers using telemetry. These give real-time information about the car's vital statistics, fuel use, average speed, distance covered, distance to empty etc. She explained that the Ferrari factory runs a supercomputer consisting of more than 300 Opteron nodes. There were laptops in use throughout the pits and in a backroom there was a heap of guys working away on their computers. The technology in this place has to be seen to be believed.
I was surprised how clean and organised the Ferrari pit area was. For example, one mechanic was working on a car and as he finished with each tool he cleaned it and put it back in its assigned place in the toolkit with meticulous precision.
The highlight of the day for me was a handicap event where three cars raced: there was a 1 series BMW versus a General Motors Holden V8 Commodore Supercar (Aussie muscle car) versus an F1 car (forget which one). The baby BMW was given about a minute head start then the V8 took off then about 30 seconds later the F1 blasted off. We could HEAR and see how fast it was when the Holden started to brake for the first turn at about the 300 metre mark compared to the F1 at about 100 metres. The F1 makes an amazing sound and handles, well it just handles supurbly. The track is about 5.3 Kms in length and the F1 caught up and roared past the V8 and the BMW on the home straight just before the finishing line.
I wonder how my Ford XR6 Turbo would have gone ... maybe I'd better not!