BrrrakeF1 - The Tech Behind the Most Exciting Racing on the Planet

[Music] hi my name is Blake keny former form one performance engineer and I'm here for my first Rolex 24 at Daytona I've spent my entire career working with race car data and over the last 2 years I've been deep diving into analytical topics about Formula 1 but this year I decided it was time to dig into the world of sports car racing so Bosch Motorsport invited me out to the Rolex 24 to understand how data is changing the World of Sports Car Racing so the thing about Daytona is the speed you've

got the highspeed oval you've got to have the cars completely trimmed out make all the compromises as well for the infield so as a team you've got to be way on top of the setup as the officiating body or as imza you have to be on top of scrutineering and making sure everybody's complying with the regulations and as a driver at these kind of speeds and performance levels you've got to be absolutely locked in so I think the first question I've got is somebody personally new to sports car racing a

nd you're telling me you're going to sell it to me why should I be excited about sports cars uh I mean it's sports car racing this the thing so first and foremost is racing and I love all types of racing single seat stuff stock car rallying and I guess a little bit with sports car stuff you know it's not just one group of cars that all looks the same the unique thing about our sport is we have multic classes on the track so it would almost be like having Formula 1 Formula 2 and Formula 3 on the

track at the same time so when the race is going on there's actually three races going on at the same time and in the protype class you're going to be flying by GT guys I mean we do races that are 100 minutes long that are sprint races are intense at Long Beach or 24 hours like we have here at Daytona you're never out of traffic whether you're in a GTP LMP or a GT car you there's always something going on you never have a clear lap and I think that's what's so cool for the drivers you know it's

24 hours of just Mayhem but also for the fans because and The Spectators because there's always something happening it's an interesting journey and in the cars you know we get to drive different cars different manufacturers as a sports car driver we're not sort of locked in like Formula 1 where you get stuck in the same manufacturer for for 10 or 15 years we can sort of jump around and it's quite a cool Journey just to see everyone has a different approach to their racing and what they do and it

's quite interesting that often so different but they arrive at the same result if you take GTP for example the cars are all built to a similar set of regulations but they all sound different they all look different that's awesome like what what's your experience now in in the GTP class and how complex the cars are so the new GTP it's brand new class to sports car racing the most highly technological fastest sports cars we've ever had racing in in IMA so you know there's an Ever evolving develop

ment in sports cars so it's not just what's going on on track and that's something that the teams and the drivers get involved with and is that exciting for you to be a part of that process it is fun I enjoy it I enjoy the challenge the technical challenge as much as the actual sporting Challenge on track I mean I think all the drivers to an extent have to be a bit nerdy now like you have to be involved with the hybrid systems and the regen the deploy how it's affecting the diff is massive in th

ese cars uh but even the the guys that are from a generation where they didn't have all those tools they're learning it you know they're getting involved cuz they have to from an engineering perspective you're going to hear four different bits of feedback and four different driving Styles and guys who want four different race cars it's a lot to learn and adjust to you can definitely Drive the path very much the wrong way so you need to be careful with what you say from the driver perspective you

always just give your point of view but help the engineer to kind of figure out that compromise how you go about working with your crew and your team to get the most out of that is just as important as steering the thing and pressing your two pedals driving around the track one of the cool things we talk about the complexity of these new GTP cars is the electric braking system that you've got one of the one of the pieces of Bosch Hardware that's standard to all the GTP cars how do you feel abou

t that and that as a a tool that you get to play with well this is it it is a tool because we've obviously got this hybrid system that is working mainly for the forward propulsion of the the vehicle you know to gain us efficiency to gain us power but it also acts in Reverse so under braking this is where we generate regenerate the electricity and it creates a braking effect on the car so and you can mix how much of the hybrid system is actually disor Car Plus how much the actual hydraulic system

and the carbon Brak are so and and actually how you set the car up for a corner under braking is in any sort of motorport braking is a massive massive aspect cuz it's it's the first thing you do that sets up the hole of the corner that's it's where you find or lose the lap time and more often you lose it yeah to finally hit the brakes in the correct way and the correct point is the hardest thing in in driving so then how you set the brake system up around this and all the electronics around hav

ing these systems help you um it's a big part of GT when you walk through the padic it's pretty obvious that Bosch have a huge presence here and if you think about it it completely makes sense that Bosch is working with him because Bosch is already working with all the manufacturers on their road cars so now we're taking a lot of this technology expanding audit and integrating that into im's system to make the series what it is today in the past one of the most difficult things that racing organ

izations face was there was no standardized consistent highquality data to measure car performance and that's where Bosch comes in whether you've got the super high-tech lmdh car or the road derived GT3 cars Bosch is kind of at the center of everything across sensors loggers and even Control Systems having the same supplier in these critical Data Systems makes it possible not only for all these cars to race on a fair playing field in imsa but also across the world in the World Endurance Champion

ship and the 24 hours of [Music] lar how would you explain what BOS is doing with imsa in not only the GTP class or the Prototype class but also your GTD or your your GT sports cars how are you top level what you guys are doing here at MSA just like everything these days like most people like electronics are a part of your life right and it's super integrated when I explain to people what does Bosch do in racing you know how a computer is essential to your life um so it is to the race car from t

he computer you have to have all the sensing elements to be able to determine like okay what are the calculations that I want to do in order to make a decision that's essentially uh what's going on inside the race car but at a much more detailed level there's a a team working in multiple different disciplines in order to get that data so that stakeholders such as IMA can make decisions in order to make the entertainment on track as exciting as possible but at the same time for the oems that's an

other big stakeholder that they feel like they have a chance that there's a parody there we've got imsa as the officiating body who look after the regulations the performance levels and targets of the cars and you've got the manufacturers who say I'd like to bring my cars to get to the race and you've got the fan point of view where these races 6 12 24 hours coming down to the last lap and that's something I don't think is possible to achieve without what you guys are doing now not to mention th

at manufacturers also have different chassis manufacturers yes not to mention that you have multiple race teams running a given combination of you know engine and and Chassis as well it wouldn't be fair to say that BOS did everything cuz that's not the truth and I think that have have to you have to have a good Synergy in collaboration with EXA exactly you and that's the the word collaboration we had to sit there from the onset with multiple different partners whether it be obviously the race se

ries um the ACO meaning the WC and then imsa here on the state side xar on the gear back side and wae on from the high voltage battery side the amount of collaboration that had to happen um in order for this formula to be pulled off last year one year ago at this racetrack was amazing and I don't think that people understood that um at that time and that's really one of the like the hidden gems of this storyline is the amount of collaboration is that the people that normally hold all the secrets

and all the information tight to your chest you have to play with your cards down to some exent in order to drive the formula forward in order to have a better product on track how technically Advanced are these GTB cars so they've got these hybrid systems they've got the electric braking systems which Formula 1 had that technology in 2014 but they're not doing events like 24 hours of Rolex or the leavon 24 and on top of that we've got this integration of this Bosch unit with all sorts of diffe

rent power units from different manufacturers and that's super interesting because all these engines have completely different characteristics and they've had to dial these systems in to perform across all of these different platforms and last for over 24 hours talk to me about how complex these new hybrid power units are on these cars is that part of the teething issues that you had with the new platform oh it definitely was I mean it's incredibly complex the the whole thing is also complex not

only technically for an individual unit it's also complex because many many different people and companies and even oems are talking to each other and there was a really good relationship we had from the beginning on we were talking to each other we had the problems open on the table and and uh that was something which helped the thing and that we we we came so fast basically to to a good result as you know as I say there's way more sensors on the car than ever before the data can be used in mu

ltiple ways as you say it's uh there's the monitoring for reliability whether it's simple temperatures and making sure that the various things whether it's the hybrid unit the engine the gearbox all that stuff is working within its operational range or or if there's a parameter that's falling away and needs maintenance or is looking like something's in not behaving as it should do so that's the the reliability side and then obviously there's the the performance side as well whether it's through

the drivetrain or all the chassis stuff so as company's big OEM like like B talking to care manufacturers is becoming complicated because these guys are used to separate the developments in between and and uh but that that came on really good at the end of the day this is entertainment for everybody for for us it's our p it's Motorsport but for everybody else this is this is entertainment has that translated well to to good Fair racing I'm sure this is translated very well to the fans as well an

d then as you can see the big crowd we are here and the roar was already packed I've been told unfortunately I have not been here so many years before but I've been told the crowd in the RO was as big as never and and uh iess they all get it with the hybrid with por and all these things it's awesome [Music] well I think in terms of Endurance Sports Car Racing our segment is at perhaps it's Platinum level a lot of people talk about the GTP era in the 80s and 90s as being the Golden Era I honestly

think we're in the Platinum era should pass that 100% I think from a fan standpoint we have a very very open Paddock we have a completely open open grid walk yeah such that families little children can come up see the cars see the teams working up close with really no restriction I can come I can walk I can talk to mechanics I see all sorts of drivers that I've say I know that guy it's it's honestly for me it's shocking how open it is in in a the best way possible well and with 18 total auto ma

nufacturers they want that they're here to of course compete on track but tell tell their Brand Story or tell their name plate story or tell their powertrain story and so it's our responsibility as the series to create a Level Playing Field so that all those different platforms which is great variety can have that chance at the end of the the the race at at the end of 24 hours at the end of 100 minutes no matter which it is they know their cars better than anyone sure to work with us to work wit

h each other to in the end create the best most exciting show for our f whether they're here at the track or watching on television so one of the really cool things about this is they've brought the whole world together you look around and you see W people here if you're at Leon 24 you see IMA people there and everybody's working together to make this common regulation ass set so you can have these cars that are racing in imza they can go over to Europe and across the world and race in World End

urance Championship at iconic events like the 24 hours of the mon it's a complete different ball game here in sports car racing in the next episode we're going to dig a little bit deeper into what is imsa and what is sports car racing and then we'll get up close with some of the systems hardware and processes that make everything [Music] possible