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F1 champions put their faith in technology
Renault explains how to win the F1 tech race

By Tim Ferguson

Published: Friday 23 March 2007

It might not be as temperamental as a race-car's engine, but keeping the IT running properly can be just as important to the success of a Formula One racing team.

Renault Formula One team's IS manager, Guillaume Jacquemin, told silicon.com: "IT has to be fully reliable to allow the car to run smoothly and the guys to work really efficiently. It's quite a challenge."

The IS department carried out a full refresh of the hardware that the team uses at the track in the run-up to the new season, but there will be many more challenges in store once the F1 season gets going.

He said: "The main problem we've got is to set up the environment [at the track] and that's where our partners can't really help, they just provide the equipment."

What makes Renault's achievement all the more impressive is its relatively low budget – fifth out of 11 teams in terms of spending.

Jacquemin explained: "We try to be really efficient with the money we've got.

The teams and their tech

Check out which F1 teams are working with which IT companies in the pursuit of world championship glory

Renault: Eutelsat, Lombardi, Network Appliances, Stellent, Symantec, Vistagy, Xansa

Ferrari: Acer, Alice, AMD, Infineon, Microsoft, Selex Communications, Tata

McLaren-Mercedes: Aigo, SAP, SGI, Vodafone (title sponsor)

BMW-Sauber: Dalco, Dell, Fluent, Intel

Honda: Avaya, Cablefree Solutions, IBM, Matrix Communications, NCE, PerkinElmer, Pipex, STL Communications

Toyota: BMC Software, Denso, EMC2, KDDI, Pansonic

Red Bull: MSC Software, Platform Computing, UGS

Williams-Toyota: AT&T (title sponsor), Fluent, Lenovo, Philips, QinetiQ

Spyker: 4net, Exact Software, Medion, NavTeq, Trust

"Compared to big teams like McLaren, Toyota or Ferrari, we've got a smaller budget and at the same time we're the world champions."

As well as the team's in-house expertise, it relies on hardware and applications from big names - Cisco, Symantec and Network Appliance, among others – and Jacquemin emphasised the role technology and IT sponsors increasingly have in the sport.

He said: "To me they're absolutely key. If we don’t have the good technology, the good equipment or partners to support [the team], it's almost impossible to be competitive."

Jacquemin said the reason tech companies are being increasingly attracted to the sport is the unique and regular global coverage it provides as the pinnacle of motor racing.

He said: "The awareness provided by Formula One is absolutely massive."

Giancarlo Fisichella puts Renault's 2007 challenger through its paces. Photo credit: Renault F1

Renault feels it has as good package in place for 2007 but is very aware of the impact the departure of double World Champion Fernando Alonso to McLaren will have.

But Jacquemin said the team has a fast and experienced driver in the shape of Giancarlo Fisichella, while it is confident new driver Heikki Kovalainen can handle the pressure of replacing Alonso.

He said: "We are pretty confident to be honest."

silicon.com went along to the launch of the 2007 Williams F1 car last month. See the photos here.