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Powerless F1 drivers frustrated by Bahrain F1 software glitch

178 points · 112 comments · llm_nerd

  1. jrflo · · focus · HN ↗
    A question for someone who knows more about F1: Is this firmware shared by all cars? Or some local server at the track the cars connect to? Why is F1 able to control individual cars like this? The article is very light on details as to what exactly is going on...
    1. vsskanth · · focus · HN ↗
      The firmware situation is mixed. The ECU hardware is a standard TAG700 from McLaren. Basically these are software-defined ECUs where you can do whatever. However, FIA has some rules on what you're allowed to modify and has some "compulsory" software in there for monitoring and competition regulatory reasons. It appears there was very limited testing of this module in wet conditions which seems to have affected a lot of vehicles. (I work in Motorsports)
      1. jrflo · · focus · HN ↗
        Wow. I just assumed it wouldn’t be firmware because going from making a fix in 50 minutes to having cars flying at hundreds of miles per hour on that firmware is kind of nuts
      2. xeonmc · · focus · HN ↗
        So basically like the anticheat rootkits used in online games to detect ilicit software controls on the player pc's?
        1. vsskanth · · focus · HN ↗
          F1 vehicles have a lot of actively controlled systems - Engine, MGU, Diff, Brake Bias, Aero etc. Their way of allowing active control but preventing "driver aids" like traction control, torque vectoring is to tightly regulate and give them a box where they can place their controls and what inputs they are allowed to use.
      3. AsmaraHolding · · focus · HN ↗
        McLaren sold McLaren Applied, the makers of the TAG700, in 2021 and it’s now known as Motion Applied.
      4. jcomp · · focus · HN ↗
        Adding to this summarizing my reading from elsewhere: It sounds as if the cause was going too slowly through a sector, and due to to combination of wet conditions and the specific layout of the sectors at Sepang it was triggered for the first time. Since everyone was driving in formation on the formation lap, multiple drivers triggered it.

        Would this be safety-related, something like "going this slowly through a sector indicates a problem, kill the throttle"? Still seems heavy-handed since the cars were moving, if dangerously slowly.

      5. JetSetIlly · · focus · HN ↗
        Is the FIA code available for the teams to inspect, or is it just a binary blob they have to install?
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