I’m not a motorsports reporter. I’ve attended and written about races in the past, but it’s just never been my thing. No one in my family watched NASCAR growing up, and other types of racing were simply too rich for our blood. Plus, it’s not like they were showing F1 on TV at a time I was allowed to be awake. And yet, I love being at races. Especially Petit Le Mans. And this year, I got to peek even further behind the scenes than usual, leaving me in the unfortunate position of getting hooked on something no team will ever tell me more about.
I am, of course, talking about racing data and how it’s used to inform each team’s strategy. Mercedes was kind enough to invite me to attend the race over the weekend, despite not actually having an official press trip planned. I got the typical media center and VIP access passes that most journalists get when they attend a race, and they did their best to feed me well. Unlike past races, though, when I mentioned being interested in what the data folks were looking at, someone at Mercedes actually introduced me to one of them and asked him to tell me what he was looking at.
Call me a nerd all you want, but I’m sorry, as much as I love seeing loud cars drive fast, data and strategy are far more interesting to me, personally. Granted, this isn’t the biggest surprise. Back when I was in college, I used to follow college baseball closely enough that my roommate (whose future brother-in-law played on our college team) and I got super into pitching strategy. So, of course, it would make sense that I’d get sucked in by what’s essentially the same thing, just a different sport.
Unfortunately for me, there’s only so much even the most generous and trusting racing team can share with someone who doesn’t work for the team. If you’re sitting at Korthoff Preston or Winward HQ worrying that someone spilled your secrets, I promise you have no reason to be scared. Unless I wasn’t supposed to learn which graph tracks the car’s fuel level, in which case, I’m sorry, and I promise I won’t tell anyone else.
How the people looking at the data decide when or why they do something is still a complete mystery to me. Did Korthoff Preston pit at the perfect time because of data, instinct, or luck? Allegedly, it was luck, but is that true or just what they told me because there’s only so much they’re allowed to share? At this point, I want nothing more than to learn everything there is to learn from these folks, and yet, I also know there’s no way they’ll share that kind of information with me unless I somehow trick a team into hiring me. While I’m sure that would be a blast, I’m also not sure, “I like loud cars going fast and used to watch a lot of college baseball,” would be enough to stand out among applicants that are actually qualified for the job.
So there goes that dream. Unless, of course, one of you happens to own a racing team and would be willing to let me talk to the people who make those decisions in real-time. I don’t need to see anything proprietary — don’t get me wrong, I really, really want to, but I already know that’s not happening— and I promise I won’t share your secrets with the enemy, but man, even a crash course in the basics of how decisions are made would be absolutely fascinating. At least to me. I can’t promise anything about anybody else, but surely, at least a few of my fellow nerds would care. I think.
