Rules changes plus the global nature of the sport have made Formula One racing increasingly dependent on telecommunications services to compete, a New York Times article says.
Carriers like AT&T (NYSE: T), Telmex (NYSE: TMX) and Vodafone (LSE: VOD.L) are both sponsoring teams and providing technology solutions such as videoconferencing to work around cost-cutting measures imposed by racing regulators.
"Formula One teams used to send as many employees as they wanted to every race around the world. But regulations now limit the number of technical and other crew that they can bring to the races," the article said.
To keep on-site crews in touch with the rest of the team, AT&T, for example, has implemented a robust telecommunications infrastructure for its sponsored team to allow for fast information exchange in the midst of races.
Teams can download hundreds of gigabytes of data during races, the article says, as the cars are fitted with numerous sensors that monitor temperature, pressure, speed, wheel position, etc. The real-time data allows technicians at both the garage and at the factory to quickly make adjustments.
For more:
- see the New York Times article
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