For many sports fans worldwide, Formula One racing is the pinnacle of all competitive racing. The degree of technology and skill that go into turning one lap in a Formula One race car is unsurpassed in any form of racing. The drivers are the world's best; the racing circuits the most demanding; and the cars are masterpieces of design and form alike. Competition is fierce in Formula One, with teams spending millions of dollars every year to try to gain fractions of a second over their competitors. With such competition teams strive for innovative ways to outperform their rivals.

For 2004, the BMW WilliamsF1 Team took an innovative approach to design by using HP-powered Linux clusters as the basis for building the car, known as the FW26. This innovation alone has resulted in not only a cost savings for the team, but more important, better methods for testing and designing the car. According to Chris Taylor, IT manager for BMW WilliamsF1, "the HP Proliant cluster running Linux has increased the throughput of designs dramatically."

A Trip Around the F1 Circuit

Formula One racing is unlike anything else. Though F1 takes a back seat to NASCAR in the U.S., the worldwide nature of the sport and a huge fan base make an F1 weekend a huge event everywhere it goes. It's not uncommon to have more than 100,000 spectators at an F1 race in any given country, with many more following the action via television broadcast.

Not only is the fan base large, but F1 teams themselves frequently employ hundreds of individuals, from designers to pit crew. Teams will usually carry three or four drivers: two race drivers and one or more test drivers. Race drivers for BMW WilliamsF1 include Ralf Schumacher and Juan |Pablo Montoya, a former Indy 500 winner. Both drivers have been dueling with 2003 champion Michael Schumacher (Ralf's older brother), creating memorable moments on the track, including an incident in the tunnel at the famous Monaco circuit between Juan Pablo and Michael.

The F1 season runs from early March through October with design and testing continuing throughout the year. Development is something that's seemingly never finished on an F1 car. According to Gavin Fisher, chief designer for the BMW WilliamsF1 team, design continues with three phases that coincide with one another, "Race-to-race development of the existing car, the medium lead time development of next year's car, and a long lead development of new concepts and technologies to feed into these processes as they mature."

Formula One races are usually run every other week, with a few exceptions throughout the year. Like development, testing is an ongoing process throughout the year and is performed between many races, with teams trying out new configurations and other changes during the course of the season.

Exact technical specifications are naturally a closely guarded secret, but any observer will tell you that the engine in an F1 car, or "lump" as it's affectionately known within the industry, produces upwards of 900 horsepower at nearly 19,000 RPM to give the cars straight-line speeds of over 210 miles per hour. The bodywork on the car is so refined that the FIA, F1's governing body, has technical rules in place to keep the cars from literally going airborne.

The Secret to Success: A Penguin Under the Hood

Don't tell the drivers, but Formula One is just as much about the technology as it is about driving around the track. Whenever the car is on track it's feeding large amounts of telemetry data back to computers in and around the pits and paddock. The data is analyzed in real time by race engineers to try to gain any advantage possible. For example, the next time the car comes in for a pit stop the engineer might suggest a change based on telemetry data, or they might tell a driver to slow down because of a condition noticed through the data feed. Though it was banned in 2003, teams could use two-way telemetry, which meant that they could alter engine or other settings on-the-fly from a computer in the pit while the car was on track. This two-way telemetry was used by McLaren to keep David Coulthard's car running in Monaco by moving oil from the reserve tank when a leak was noticed.

Since technology is so critical to success in F1, Linux is a perfect fit for the advanced and demanding applications involved in producing a car capable of turning a lap around the track. The HP-powered Linux clusters in use at BMW WilliamsF1 were at the heart of the design for the entire 2004 chassis. The primary role for Linux during design is in the area of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). It was the CFD specialists who advocated the use of Linux for BMW WilliamsF1.

Though exact details of the clusters remain closely guarded, Taylor did disclose that BMW WilliamsF1 uses a "noncustomized version of one of the major distributions of Linux." This is an important point for Linux advocates. One might assume that in such a specialized environment heavy customization and a lot of administration would be required. Taylor indicated that, far from requiring much care and feeding, the clusters are watched only "by a CFD specialist and an IT specialist who maintain the system when necessary, but this is not a full time requirement." HP brings value to the team as well by helping BMW WilliamsF1 assess changes to the Linux kernel when it's upgraded. In addition, to help with the kernel, Taylor points out that "HP also advises us on the benefits and weaknesses of the latest releases and flavors of Linux."

The design of the chassis begins more than 12 months before its scheduled launch date. Fisher walks us through the design, "The design development program for the new car is determined by a blend of focused effort in areas of known weakness, and continued progression of known performance enhancers, e.g,. aero[dynamics], weight saving, etc. In addition, consideration must be given to any regulation changes which are relevant to the coming year."

It is in design where Linux has shone for BMW WilliamsF1. As revealed earlier, the clusters in use at BMW WilliamsF1 have increased the speed with which the designers can work. Taylor tells us just how much of an increase: "[Linux] has given WilliamsF1 the ability to validate aerodynamic design concepts at least six times faster than before the Linux implementation. This is a tremendous benefit and also the capacity [of the clusters] allows engineers to work in much more detail than ever before."

Looking to the Future

Taylor expects the use of Linux to increase at BMW WilliamsF1, stating that "more investment is currently being made in the Linux platforms." This investment will no doubt continue due to the success in implementation and use of Linux at BMW WilliamsF1. The next time you see the HP-powered BMW WilliamsF1 car fly around the track, think about the penguin under the hood.