Mercedes F1 hopes to gain an advantage through the boost of “Augmented Reality”

The world championship team has announced plans to work with new sponsor Teamviewer to find out what possibilities AR technology offers.

The global software company TeamViewer, which has just become the third largest sponsor of Mercedes in its total portfolio of 300 million US dollars, is working with many industrial partners to provide augmented reality solutions.

Mercedes believes that AR offers the opportunity to improve the speed of problem solving at Grand Prix events, accelerate processes and reduce spending in the era of the cost cap, as fewer employees have to travel to races.

The idea is that the AR systems enable direct live contact between the staff working on the track and the associated employees at the plant, which would provide an important link on the F1 racing weekends.

When asked about the potential advantages of Motorsport.com, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said: “Formula 1 is a sport that travels around the globe. Just as we have our race support room where around 30 people monitor the car, work in the simulator and wind tunnel to improve performance on the track, we have to inspect high-tech parts. like the hydraulic components and gears of the unit.

“I think remote access from the factory through the augmented reality capabilities that TeamViewer offers will give us an advantage.

“The benefits are also that the remote working that we’ve all experienced in the past 12 months also helps us reduce our carbon footprint. We’re going to be able to get fewer people out onto the racetrack, as remote access gives us exactly the same potential to work with our engineers on the track, even when they’re back on track. “

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Oliver Steil, CEO of TeamViewer, said that AR has been of great help in other industries and therefore could certainly offer opportunities in F1.

“In manufacturing, logistics, repair, inspection and health care testing, we have solutions where the employee wears glasses and receives step-by-step instructions about those glasses,” he said.

“For example, if you’re doing a very, very complex inspection of an aircraft engine, you can have someone on call who is a trained engineer but works in a different location – and who works together to solve a problem.

“We have a lot of different use cases. It is now gaining momentum across industries, either to help people perform more complex tasks or to qualify existing workforces. Or you can just have higher quality and a quicker understanding of what worked and how the part flow works.

“It’s what we offer to many customers around the world, mostly large companies, that provide the solution. I think over the years there will certainly be an opportunity to discuss this in the sports arena as well. “

Screens in the Mercedes garage

Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images