Tata Communications gives the MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS Formula One™ Team the “speed to lead”

Wednesday, 14 October, 2015
In 2014, the MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS Formula One^TM Team dominated the sport, and the team is having more success in 2015, as it has just been confirmed as the winner of this season’s Constructors’ Championship. For the last two seasons, the team’s success has gone hand-in-hand with its partnership with Tata Communications as its Official Managed Connectivity Supplier.

Mehul Kapadia, Managing Director of F1^® Business at Tata Communications, says, “2013 was an important year of change for the MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS Formula One^TM Team. With new leadership and a new driver, the team was getting ready to meet the challenges of the ever-changing F1^® landscape. Tata Communications’ partnership with the team has powered innovation and delivered a real competitive advantage to the team on the track, with the role of data increasing in importance for F1^® teams.”

Tata Communications has trebled the speed of data transfer for the MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS Formula One^TM Team, enabling real-time communications between the trackside and the team’s factory in the UK. It has also enabled remote operations on a large scale by providing a resilient, intelligent infrastructure for high-speed connectivity.

Paddy Lowe, Executive Director, MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS Formula One^TM Team, says, “Our partner Tata Communications has helped us to successfully work around the challenges of having a limited number of staff at the circuit. This is because on a race weekend we have to analyse real-time data captured from over 150 car sensors and hundreds of channels of information. Tata Communications provides the connectivity that enables us to do this with all the engineers at our UK factory, wherever in the world we are racing.

“The hallmark of a championship winning F1 team is speed and consistency. In a sport where every millisecond matters, we believe that the seamless data access and communications give us a competitive advantage. Without this connectivity and support, the performance of our car would suffer. The team at Tata Communications is truly giving us the speed to lead.”

The MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS Formula One^TM Team has taken its partnership with Tata Communications a step further, now working with the company to encourage innovative new ideas from fans across the globe through the F1^® Connectivity Innovation Prize. The ideas that the competition generates are designed to improve the future development of the sport.

The Grand Prize of the F1^® Connectivity Innovation Prize is a cheque for $50,000 and a bespoke trophy, to be presented to the winner at the end of the season in November. The five runners-up of both challenges will be awarded VIP trips to the final of the 2015 FIA Formula One World Championship^TM, the 2015 FORMULA 1 ETIHAD AIRWAYS ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX.

Mehul Kapadia continues: “The MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS Formula One^TM Team and Tata Communications have a shared vision. We are both dedicated to outpacing our competitors, and innovation is in the DNA of both organisations. Being the partner of the Formula One world champions is a tremendous endorsement of our ability to give businesses globally a competitive advantage, and we are dedicated to building on the great work we have done alongside the MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team^TM so far.”

See a video featuring Paddy Lowe, Executive Director, MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS Formula One^TM Team, here: https://youtu.be/cFXtyu-zuhQ