F1: Artificial Intelligence graphics to be used as a part of 'F1 Insights' in 2019

One of the by-products from Formula One and Amazon Web Services (AWS) joining hands is the wide array of television graphics that would be available for viewing during the 2019 season.

Back in June, it was announced that AWS would be F1’s ‘official cloud and machine learning provider’, and the alliance has since provided the viewers with insights that were previously unavailable.

Speaking during the 2018 AWS Re:Invent conference, F1’s managing director of motorsport, Ross Brawn, explained that high-performance computing and machine learning were two aspects which were used to improve competition and increase fan engagement, respectively.

In order to up the ante, the powers that be at F1 have decided to utilize the services provided by Amazon Sagemaker to extend F1 Insights and deliver a better graphics package.

“For next season we are expanding 'F1 Insights' for our viewers, by further integrating the telemetry data such as the car position, the tyre condition, even the weather, so we can use ‘Sagemaker’ to predict car performance, pit stops and race strategy,” said Ross.

He went on to add that there would be new artificial intelligence integrations into next year’s F1 TV broadcast. Three examples were presented for how the graphics would feature during the upcoming season.

Overtaking Probability

Starting with car performance, the tyre performance would be displayed for each driver, showing whether each tyre is overheating or not.

"We know that somebody is in trouble: his rear tyres are overheating," Brawn elaborated. "We can look at the history of the tyres and how they have worked and where he is in the race, and machine learning can help us apply a proper analysis of the situation.

"We can bring that information to the fans and make them understand if the guy is in trouble or if he can manage the situation. These are insights the teams always had but we are going to bring them out to the fans and show them what is happening."

Overtaking Probability

Another graphic included would be an overtaking probability prediction calculated using live and historical data. Now, if a driver is quickly making headway into the lead of another, we will be able to see the mathematical likelihood of them making a move stick.

"Wheel-to-wheel racing is the essence, a critical aspect of the sport and now with machine learning and using live data and historical data, we can make predictions about what is going to happen,” announced Ross.

"The graphic on the right shows what we expect is going to happen in this event. What is great about this, is that the teams don't have all this data. We as F1 know the data from both cars and we can make this comparison and this has never been done before."

Pit Stop Advantage

Lastly, there would be a display for pit stop advantage, which includes analyzing the data and showing the fans why the decision was made to pit and whether the choice was correct or not.

“The pit stop- it’s a major strategic element of the race. A one stop is mandatory. Stopping at the right time, fitting the right tyre can win or lose the race. Now we’re gonna take all the data and give the fans an insight into why they stopped and when they stopped - did the team and driver make the right call. The info box you see on the bottom is giving the fans that insight that we can build using machine learning,” added Brawn.

On a parting note, Ross also revealed that they would be looking into the effects of modifying track design, race format, and starting grid, among other factors to improve the quality of racing and overtaking.