TeamViewer and the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team: Driving the industry forward
Manage systems and machinesYou might have already heard that TeamViewer partnered with the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team in 2021. But what does this partnership mean in practice? How does TeamViewer help the Formula One and Esports team increase their performance, efficiency, and competitiveness? This article tells you more about all the exciting opportunities TeamViewer offers the teams.
Whatever you might hear about Formula One, chances are high that people are not talking about performance but about peak performance. You do not hear about drivers saving seconds but milliseconds, and people don’t call it engineering but instead the pinnacle of engineering. Undoubtedly, Formula One has reached a state that goes beyond racing: It sets the benchmarks everyone must compete against. Not only on the racetrack, but also when it comes to technology, as many innovations that improve our everyday lives were first developed to help teams thrive in the fierce competitive environment of Formula One racing.
Toto Wolff, Team Principal and CEO of Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team, may have found the most fitting name for Formula One: He calls it the fastest laboratory in the world. And TeamViewer is a vital part of it, helping the Team leverage technology against the high demand of the race.
Even before our partnership started in May 2021, the Mercedes F1 Team used TeamViewer’s remote access capabilities during the COVID-19 restrictions when remote working became mandatory.
Today, the Mercedes F1 and the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Esports Team and TeamViewer closely work together to help them become even better, faster and stronger – on and off the track as well as in the virtual world.
Augmented Reality for the win
Augmented Reality (AR) is an innovative technology that already has many practical applications: TeamViewer’s AR solutions for example employ Augmented Reality technology plus smartphones or wearables like smart glasses to bring immersive experiences to users. With their help, it is easy to show people a lifelike 3D model of the Mercedes F1 Team’s newest racing car that they can explore on their own – as seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton did in 2021 with the Mercedes-AMG F1 W12 E Performance. This also enables newcomer George Russell to get a fresh perspective on his steering wheel and demonstrate its various functions vividly.
But Augmented Reality offers an abundance of other possibilities. Remote Support with Augmented Reality could potentially help improve the teams’ performance, as already demonstrated in this use case: With the help of smart glasses, TeamViewer connects a remote expert to the field service personnel right on the track. The expert now sees everything in a live-streaming video call. Using 3D markers, whiteboard drawings, audio or text instructions, and shared files for reference, they visually guide the technician on-site to the best solution.
Driving success through remote collaboration
Still, TeamViewer’s core feature of providing secure remote access and control to computers, machines, and devices from anywhere is the central playing field for TeamViewer within the operations of Mercedes F1.
One thing that is essential to any business is supplying quick and reliable internal IT support. With TeamViewer, the Team ensures excellent remote IT support across the entire organization. While this may not sound as important as building the race car itself, the reality looks otherwise: Downtimes due to IT issues can impact the work of crucial employees considerably and thus impair the output and performance of the whole team. With TeamViewer, these IT supporters can immediately offer help from any place in the world.
In fact, TeamViewer remotely supports employees across many of the Team’s operations. This means that the respective staff can work from home, or anywhere they want and still access and control their computers at the Brackley factory — and with that, all the complex software and resource intense applications they need for their tasks, such as CAD systems. The same goes for third-party suppliers, who can also establish a connection to the team’s servers from wherever they are.
Reducing the need to visit the factory in person was of course of utmost importance during the Covid-19 pandemic. But remote access remains relevant today, as the team is always committed to reducing their CO2 emissions due to travel.
TeamViewer additionally allows the Test & Development team to connect to the lab any time they want. This lets them monitor and control the progress on their phones or laptops from home. As tests sometimes take eight to ten hours, this represents a massive improvement for the developers: These tests can now be run overnight, which means that the machine is not tied up during the day and free for even more trials. All this has considerably improved the speed and efficiency at which tests are run.
Lastly, and maybe the most important part for fans: Formula One’s rules limit the number of technical team members permitted trackside on race weekends to 60. But the expertise of everyone is needed during the race and one idea from a colleague abroad could boost the car’s performance once more. TeamViewer therefore helps the Mercedes F1 Team maintain the essential connection between the track team and the designers and engineers back in the UK – fast, secure and reliable. This provides a significant competitive advantage, as every minute saved can result in points won.
Taking Esports to a New Level
Mercedes F1 doesn’t only race on real tracks made of tarmac, one team has also successfully conquered the digital world: Equipped with the best available hardware, the drivers of the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Esports Team are constantly trying to improve their skills and performance in their virtual races – just like the drivers in a Formula One race do. And just like on an actual racetrack, mere milliseconds can make a winner. That is why it’s so important that the Esports engineers can help the drivers immediately should a technical problem like connection issues or pop-ups arise during the race. TeamViewer allows the engineers to access the drivers’ PCs remotely, even when the team members are not in front of it. During the set up for a virtual Grand Prix, they solve any glitches in record time, enabling the drivers to always perform their best later.
Full Speed into the Future
Today, TeamViewer is the de facto support platform across the team’s entire operations: We keep everyone always connected, from IT support and developers to the team on the frontline. This way, we make sure that the Mercedes F1 and Mercedes Esports Team continue to set new benchmarks for racing. TeamViewer is one of the secret ingredients for ensuring the teams’ competitiveness on the racetrack and beyond and guaranteeing their technological peak performance.