Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) > Case Studies > Aston Martin Red Bull Racing Chases Milliseconds to Lead the Race

Aston Martin Red Bull Racing Chases Milliseconds to Lead the Race

Customer Company Size

Large Corporate

Region

Europe

Country

United Kingdom

Product

HPE SimpliVity
HPE Synergy
HPE Apollo 6500 Gen10 System
HPE Nimble Storage
HPE Moonshot

Tech Stack

HPE OneView
HPE InfoSight
Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops

Implementation Scale

Enterprise-wide Deployment

Impact Metrics

Productivity Improvements
Innovation Output

Technology Category

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Computing
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Storage Services
Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration
Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Data Management Platforms

Applicable Industries

Automotive

Applicable Functions

Discrete Manufacturing
Product Research & Development

Use Cases

Predictive Maintenance
Manufacturing System Automation
Real-Time Location System (RTLS)

Services

Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services
Data Science Services
System Integration

About The Customer

Aston Martin Red Bull Racing is a Formula 1 racing team that competes in over 20 races each year. The team consists of over 850 members who work tirelessly to make changes that can shave vital milliseconds off their car's performance, which could be the difference between winning or losing the next race. Each Formula 1 circuit is different, with its own challenges and characteristics, and the car is customized for each race location. Between races, the team has just days to make changes, simulate, manufacture, and test new designs. A typical F1 car can go through some 30,000 changes throughout the season and from week-to-week, this can involve 1,000 design elements. The team needs a robust technology infrastructure in place to make them agile, efficient, and business-like, both on and off the track.

The Challenge

Aston Martin Red Bull Racing, a Formula 1 team, is in a constant race against time, not just on the track but also off it. Each Formula 1 circuit is different, with its own challenges and characteristics and the car is customized for each race location. Between races, the clock is ticking to create new designs and adapt the car for the next circuit. An F1 car can go through some 30,000 changes throughout the season and from week-to-week, this can involve 1,000 design elements. The result is a constant evolution of change in the design process, all of which needs to be simulated, manufactured, and tested. With a typical year consisting of more than 20 races, Aston Martin Red Bull Racing needs a robust technology infrastructure in place to make the team agile, efficient, and business-like, both on and off the track.

The Solution

Aston Martin Red Bull Racing has a strict development cycle for every component and HPE technology plays an important role in each step. HPE Synergy hosts the team's mixed workloads, including Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) software applications, Oracle databases, and SQL Server based applications. The solution replaced the team's legacy blade enclosures and rackmount server estate at its factory headquarters. This system used in conjunction with HPE OneView provides an agile, scalable approach to infrastructure deployment allowing resources to be quickly and easily re-allocated where required, enabling the team to meet changing needs. This highly capable infrastructure supports mission-critical car development processes. At the factory, 80% of the team's business-critical applications run on HPE SimpliVity. This not only includes systems used to design, manufacture and race the car, but also communication tools such as email and unified communications. HPE InfoSight uses advanced analytics to predict problems before they occur and this ensures that the HPE SimpliVity estate operates at peak performance levels and with very high availability.

Operational Impact

Improved response to CFD data as workloads are run directly from the data center.
Reduced IT management overheads.
Improved overall graphical visibility and rendering capabilities.
Increased network speeds due to 100 GB connectivity and communication speed between applications and storage.
Increased storage capacity by 3.2X, reducing the cost of discs.

Quantitative Benefit

Greater than 50% reduction in time needed to post-process critical race data workloads.
Compression of data storage volumes from 42 TB to 5 TB due to deduplication.
Increase in system responsiveness by 79% compared to its legacy infrastructure.