AT&T Williams F1 Team Gets Lenovo Supercomputer

Lenovo has given the AT&T Williams F1 team a tech upgrade in the form of what it calls a powerful new supercomputer that aims to optimize the aerodynamics of the team’s Formula One cars.

Chief Operating Officer for AT&T Williams, Alex Burns said, “Aerodynamics plays a critical role in determining how competitive we are for each of the race circuits we visit.”

Burns explained that since the downforce and drag varies between different circuits, the aerodynamics at Monaco differs significantly from Monza. “The increase in supercomputing power from Lenovo will give us the capability to examine a greater range of design variations between races, which will increase our development rate, bringing more performance to the car sooner,” he said.

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The supercomputer is being used for operations in Computational Fluid Dynamics has a peak performance of eight teraflops and is four times more powerful than the team’s previous solution, the company said. Performing billions of calculations that simulate airflow around a virtual model of a three-dimensional, on-track racing car, this process will help determine how the smallest change in components and placement will affect drag and downforce. And with Lenovo’s supercomputer, the AT&T Williams team will speed up the process of aerodynamic simulation by a claimed 75 percent.

“The tremendous increase in power delivered by the Lenovo supercomputer will allow us to perform the same tasks we do today in a quarter of the time,” Burns said.

The team uses the supercomputer to examine numerous aerodynamic variables, such as surface geometry, wheel turbulence and track surface. For example, the team can analyse the effects of adjusting the curvature of the car’s surface, with the goal of improving the generation of downforce and the reduction of drag. The aerodynamic simulations are being done in combination with experimental techniques in the team’s two wind tunnels. Computer-generated tests will allow the AT&T Williams team to focus on building promising solutions for testing in the tunnel and on track.

This agreement is an extension of the relationship between Lenovo and AT&T Williams. The team uses Lenovo PC technology in every facet of its business, from ignition to inventory.

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