Ecclestone holding up F1's use of WiMax

An Intel insider, who wished to stay anonymous, explained that Intel was very keen to see WiMax deployed inside F1 cars.

A BMW Sauber team member - which is sponsored by Intel - also admitted that it would be "extremely useful" to have the ability to receive the larger amounts of data that WiMax could permit.

At present, a typical BMW Sauber car is fitted with 100 sensors on race day (although this can increase to 200 during testing). Using F1's existing radio system, on a racing day the car presently transmits around 4 MB of data per lap.

This information is received in real time by the racing team and is interpreted at the time by around ten engineers. Over an entire racing weekend, the team will receive about 4GB of data by radio.

There was also a hint that more data is collected by the car which is only downloaded when the vehicle enters the pits. The trouble is that - at certain race circuits under bad conditions- the radio signal becomes too weak to be received by the teams.

Obviously no F1 racing team - such as BMW Sauber - can unilaterally install a different kind of radio system (ie WiMax) because it would provide a competitive edge.

So the sports governing body - the FIA (Federation Internationale de l'Automobile) - would have to approve the use of WiMax.

Getting it past the FIA shouldn't be too difficult but somebody would have to install it at all the relevant race tracks. Logically that some-one is Bernie Eccelstone's Formula One Administration company.

So the INQ surmises that the current "discussions are at a delicate stage" - as our source admitted - as they negotiate exactly who picks up the tab for the circuit installation.

Of course, it might be in Ecclestone's favour to agree since - technically - using WiMax would permit better pictures to be transmitted from the racing cars as well. µ

L'INQ
FIA