F1 Race Control 3.0: Key Changes Revealed as FIA Launches New System

The events of the infamous AD21 incident saw Max Verstappen win his first-ever F1 World Championship under controversial circumstances. Soon after, the FIA and F1 Race Control introduced a Remote Operations Center (ROC) to ensure no such thing happened again.

First unveiled in Geneva in early 2022, the ROC is now in its fourth year of operation and has just seen its third big update revealed to the public.

Officially named ROC 3.0, the operations system designed to reduce human error in F1 is now based out of Biggin Hill, a town in the London Borough of Bromley. The new center features 14 analysts on race weekends, with some of them working away since the summer break began.

The upgrades also see more than 140 audio and video feeds sending live data from the track to the ROC. Car positioning telemetry and radio communications have also improved, allowing for more clarity for the analysts to work with.

AI-assisted shape recognition, computer vision, and automatic radio messages further help in flagging on-track incidents. Apart from all this, a major benefit of the system will be pre-filtering of nearly 90% of track limits cases, with the remaining 10% needing human interference as they might be too marginal for a machine to call.

The F1 Race Control Has Come a Long Way From Where It Began

Currently working with a team of 14 analysts and world-class technology from a bespoke room, the ROC wasn’t always as decked up. In its inception, the ROC was a team of four people, sometimes bringing in one or two more people, if needed.

Speaking about the center’s early days, Tim Malyon, FIA’s Sporting Director, recalled how they had to repurpose an old meeting room in Geneva that had a “much smaller” video wall.

At the time, even the team had little idea of how to use the technology to their advantage, “and it was something that grew organically.”

As a result, the first six months of the organization revolved largely around ramping up the operations and building trust. While Malyon understands that technology can’t ultimately replace human intervention, the ROC’s role is to reduce the risk of mistakes being made.

The ROC’s primary role remains making sure that race control and the race director can focus on the more critical areas by not having to do things that can be handled elsewhere. Had the ROC been in place in 2021, chances are that the race result would not have turned out the way it did.

The Abu Dhabi 2021 Incident That Gave Way to the Inception of the F1 Race Control

Both Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton drove all year sublimely, and it was only fit for the title fight to go down to the 1,297th and final lap of the year. However, what followed was far from a storybook ending.

Nicholas Latifi spun in dirty air behind Mick Schumacher in Abu Dhabi, and with five laps remaining in the race, a safety car was brought out. With Hamilton not far enough ahead of Verstappen to pit and still keep track position, Mercedes decided to keep him out on the track, with Red Bull taking the opportunity to pit Verstappen for new softs.

However, in doing so, a train of three lapped cars stood in between the two drivers. While the SOP in F1 dictates that all lapped cars must un-lap themselves during a safety car, race control decided there was not enough time to do so, and declared that no car was allowed to un-lap.

But the penultimate lap saw a strange decision unfold, where five lapped cars were allowed to un-lap themselves, and the safety car was brought in immediately, ensuring an entire racing lap was left in the race. If correct procedures were followed, the race would have ended under the Safety Car.

Running on new softs, Verstappen had superior pace and grip, and made quick work of Hamilton to take home his first-ever World Championship. A sour spot for most ever since, many feel that had the ROC existed at the time, the incident would never have happened.

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