THE WINNING
COMBINATION
The legend
of the Silver
Arrows
The Mercedes-Benz Silver Arrows acquired their name in the
European Championships in 1934. The story goes that engineers
began scraping the white paint off the Mercedes-Benz W25
to reduce its weight and increase its speed. This revealed the
silver-coloured aluminium body – and a legend was born.
Mercedes-Benz made their debut in Formula One™ in 1954.
With the French Grand Prix as the team’s first win, they went
on to achieve three more victories, earning driver Juan Manuel
Fangio the 1954 Drivers’ Championship.
Victory in the 2014 FIA F1® World Championship marks
the creation of the first of many new legends. Compared
with the engineering advances of the past, innovation today
takes very different forms – but it is still a key ingredient in
the winning performances of the MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS
Formula One™ Team.
Tata Communications supports the team with cutting-edge
connectivity and communications solutions, ensuring that
they can not only continually innovate but also accelerate
race performance to Championship-winning levels, every
race weekend across every race location worldwide.
“Tata Communications’
global network and
team have proved
to be key ingredients
in supporting our
performance. We share
the same ambition:
to constantly strive
to achieve the best,
through technology
innovation within
Formula One®.”
Toto Wolff
Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport
Partnership
that leads to
the podium
As winners of the 2014 Constructors’ World Championship,
and with driver Lewis Hamilton as 2014 Formula One™ World
Champion, the MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS Formula One™
Team has dominated the podium.
The drive to succeed is also at the core of the partnership
between the MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS Formula One™ Team
and Tata Communications.
Tata Communications is the Official Managed Connectivity
Supplier to the team, and the superior solution they provide has
given the MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS Formula One™ Team:
• 3x faster connectivity than before
• global live data transfer capability in under
a quarter of a second
• fast rich data transfer from over 150 car-mounted
sensors to the team’s factory – and vice versa.
So it’s not just the man behind the wheel who has put the
MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS Formula One™ Team on the
podium. It’s also the team behind the scenes.
KINGS OF
THE ROAD
From the first turn of the wheel in pre-season testing, there
was never any real doubt that MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS
Formula One™ would lift both 2014 championship titles.
The team produced one of the most dominant machines
in the history of the World Championship, a fact more than
borne out by the statistics.
16
MOST
WINS
IN A SINGLE SEASON
The champion’s win took Mercedes clear
of 1988 vintage McLaren and the 2002 and
2004 Ferrari squads in the list of singleseason victories. 2014 produced more
than half the 29 wins in Mercedes’ world
championship history.
11
MOST
ONE-TWO
FINISHES
IN A SINGLE SEASON
Nico Rosberg’s feat in leading home Lewis
Hamilton in Brazil didn’t just set up a final
day decider, it also eclipsed the Ferrari
duo of Michael Schumacher and Rubens
Barrichello from 2002 (9) and the Ayrton
Senna Alain Prost pairing at McLaren in 1988
(10), albeit with more races in the season.
Data from “The James Allen on F1” website – www.jamesallenonf1.com
18
94.73%
MOST
POLE
POSITIONS
IN A SINGLE SEASON
The highest percentage score in the stats
list is an all-time record jointly held with the
2011 Red Bull squad and includes just a single
blemish – the pole for Felipe Massa in Austria
when Mercedes at least had the consolation
of providing the pole-sitting power unit.
978
86.24%
LAPS IN
THE LEAD
OUT OF 1134
Perhaps the most impressive single statistic.
Red Bull, the next best team, led a grand
total of 73 laps. Remarkably, World Champion
Lewis Hamilton led just 12 laps more than
Nico Rosberg across the balance of the
season including the last 12 of the season.
19
CONSECUTIVE
RACES ON
PODIUM
...and counting following a complete season
on the podium. It puts Mercedes third in all
time list, although they have some way to
go to match Ferrari’s total of 53. Mind you,
the Scuderia has contested 781 more races
than Mercedes’ 108.
701
81.51%
POINTS
OUT OF A POSSIBLE
860
As report cards go, there will be little
trepidation about handing this one up
to Daimler Chairman Dieter Zetsche.
The next best team, Red Bull, were fully
297 points adrift, with a meagre 46.97%
return from their title defence.
12
FRONT
ROW
LOCK-OUTS
Further illustrating just how evenly matched
the Mercedes driving strength is as well
as the significant advantage enjoyed by
their machine. This feat includes dominating
the front of the grid for the final eight races
in a row.
39
RACES
IN THE
POINTS
Mercedes are fifth in the all-time list behind
second place McLaren and Ferrari, who
provide three of the top four totals including
top spot on 81 races in a row. Mercedes’
current points gathering run stretches back
to Michael Schumacher’s seventh place finish
at Brazil in 2012.
REAL-TIME
VIDEO, REAL-TIME
ADVANTAGE
The 2014 F1® USA Grand Prix was another first for the
MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS Formula One™ Team –
and not only on the track.
The race in Austin, Texas, was the first time ever that the
MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS Formula One™ Team transmitted
live HD-quality video from trackside to the team’s UK factory,
via the Tata Global Network.
As the only telecommunications company with a fibre optic
ring around the world, Tata Communications – the Official
Managed Connectivity Provider for the MERCEDES AMG
PETRONAS Formula One™ Team – was already delivering
3x faster connectivity.
Increased bandwidth meant that five strategically placed
cameras could provide a combined unicast live HD feed from
the pit lane and garage to engineers 9,000 miles away.
Greater real-time visibility of the trackside activity enabled
faster decision-making, better teamwork, greater productivity
and higher efficiency from the team – allowing staff in the
UK to feel much closer to the track, and to support operations
much more efficiently.
Matt Harris, Head of IT for the MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS
Formula One™ Team, commented: “Factory-based team
members could see and understand as much of what was
going on trackside as they could if they were there. So they
could be part of the decision-making process in real time.
This was particularly useful during the frantic periods before
the live race sessions. By easing the burden on the trackside
staff to keep their factory-based colleagues informed, it freed
them to focus more on their jobs at the track.”
5
HD video cameras placed at
trackside garage for the first
time, for live broadcast to the
Brackley, UK factory
1
Unicast sent to factory
from 5 cameras
9000
Distance in miles from track to factory
2 ways
Faster real-time data analysis and decision-making
0.244 secs
Time for a signal to circle the globe on the Tata Global Network
LAPPING
THE GLOBE
The correct racing line is the key to setting leading lap times.
Hitting the right line demands fast, real-time strategic decisions,
based on data from hundreds of sensors mounted on the car.
The high speed of data transfer via Tata Communications’
global fibre network – from the car to the engineering team
in the UK factory – means decisions on adjusting the racing
line can be made faster than ever.
In 2014, for example, after just one lap the team advised Nico
Rosberg to make a change to his racing line. This was based
on crucial race information being relayed from Nico’s car to
the pitwall, and then being analysed in real time back in the
UK. The result? The next lap was a full 1/10th second faster.
In a sport like Formula 1® where every millisecond matters,
this gives the team the Speed To Lead™.
CONNECTING THE
TEAM ACROSS
THE GLOBE
On a race weekend, the trackside environment is so noisy,
drivers and technical teams communicate via headsets,
even when they are together in the same location.
During one race practice, 2014 FIA F1® World Champion
Lewis Hamilton was in continuous conversation over his
headset with one of the MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS
Formula One™ Team’s race engineers. All business as usual.
Arriving in the pit and looking round the pit area, Lewis
radioed over his headset: “Where are you? I can’t see you!”
Thanks to Tata Communications’ global fibre network,
the communication was so clear and free from latency that
Lewis didn’t realise the engineer was actually in the factory
in the UK. This seamless communication during crucial race
weekends powers the team with the Speed To Lead™.
“Tata Communications
has shown that there
is a real difference
between a pit lane
service and a global
enterprise-level service.
We are now getting
a superior global
enterprise-level service,
right in the pit lane.”
Paddy Lowe
Executive Director (Technical)
MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS Formula One™ Team
REWARDING
INNOVATION IN
CONNECTIVITY
In a groundbreaking initiative, Tata Communications – along
with Formula One Management and the MERCEDES AMG
PETRONAS Formula One™ Team – launched a trailblazing
contest to award a Grand Prize of USD $50,000 to a winning
individual or team able to successfully respond to one of
three Challenges.
Challenge 2 centred around creating a global digital scrapbook
to celebrate the richness and diversity of ‘The Silver Arrows’
extensive history in the sport. Paddy Lowe, Executive Director
(Technical) of the MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS Formula One™
Team said: “Going into this challenge we were eagerly
anticipating innovative input from fans on how they would like
to see the history of our team celebrated online. I must say the
quality of entries really blew us away and we are excited by
the possibility of some of the ideas coming to fruition.”
Lewis Hamilton, driver for the MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS
Formula One™ Team, commented: “The Mercedes-Benz Silver
Arrows have an amazing history in our sport. The legendary
skills and achievements of drivers like Juan Manuel Fangio and
Stirling Moss in the 1950s are an inspiration to me and, I believe,
provide a rich tapestry for this project to bring our history alive
through the hands of the fans themselves.”
TAKING YOUR
BUSINESS TO
THE PODIUM
The past two seasons have seen Tata Communications provide
3x faster connectivity from the Silver Arrows at Grand Prix
locations to the team’s headquarters in the UK. This transfer
of vital real-time data has enabled MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS
Formula One™ Team to react more quickly to developments
at the track and boost car performance throughout the
racing season.
We have played a vital role in ensuring MERCEDES AMG
PETRONAS Formula One™ Team win the World Championship,
by giving them the Speed To Lead™.
With the same cutting edge communications solution available
to you, your business too can dominate the podium with the
Speed To Lead™.
“At the end of the day,
there are three factors
that matter most:
people, performance
and innovation. Tata
Communications’
connectivity enables
different functions
to come together
to a common goal and
achieve it, over and
over again with the
same level of efficiency.”
Paddy Lowe
Executive Director (Technical)
MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS Formula One™ Team
[email protected]
www.tatacommunications.com/formula1
www.tatacommunications.com/f1prize
@tata_comm
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