Breakfast Bytes Blogs

Today, Cadence was named an Official Technology Partner of the McLaren Formula 1 Team, starting a multi-year partnership. With Cadence's innovative computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software, McLaren can investigate optimal designs in a shorter time and with unprecedented reliability.

As it says in McLaren's press release announcing the agreement:

McLaren will use Cadence Fidelity CFD Software, a comprehensive suite of CFD solutions, to investigate airflow. The team will also leverage Cadence’s computational software expertise to tackle design projects that require advanced compute power and precision.

Cadence branding will be carried on the McLaren MCL36 F1 cars from the 2022 Monaco Grand Prix.

So if you watch the Monaco Grand Prix or the highlights that will show up on YouTube soon after the race ends, see if you can spot the Cadence logo. But there's more:

To celebrate the partnership’s launch, Cadence will also be represented on all three Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolets and on the race suit of Arrow McLaren SP driver Juan Pablo Montoya for this year’s 106^th running of the Indianapolis 500, which also takes place on Sunday (although due to time zone differences, you can watch both).

History

McLaren Racing has been involved in Formula 1 for nearly 60 years:

[It] was founded by New Zealand racing driver Bruce McLaren in 1963. The team entered its first Formula 1 race in 1966, since then McLaren has won 20 Formula 1 world championships, more than 180 Formula 1 grands prix, the Indianapolis 500 three times, and the Le Mans 24 Hours at its first attempt. 

If you follow Formula 1, you will know that races are often decided by fractions of a second. This is especially so in the critical qualifying lap that decides the order in which the cars will start, from "pole position" at the front down to 20th position. There are 10 constructors (teams) in Formula 1 and each has two cars and two drivers, so a total of twenty. To quote from the Cadence press release:

In racing, shaving off a fraction of a second per lap can make all the difference when it comes to a podium finish. McLaren will use the Cadence Fidelity CFD Software, a comprehensive suite of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solutions, to investigate airflow.

You may already know that there have been huge changes for 2022. Formula 1 defines the rules that the cars must follow, and then lets the teams work within those rules to build the best cars it can. In 2022, there are completely new rules for engines and, especially, for aerodynamics. If you follow the sport closely, you may also know that teams have a cap on how much they can spend this year. The amount used to be unlimited.

Formula 1 is one of the biggest sports in the world with nearly 2 billion people watching it. it used to be a minority interest in the U.S., though. I think the biggest thing that changed this was the popularity of the Netflix show Drive to Survive, which followed several teams over the last four years. There is a fifth season being filmed this year (and another will be filmed next year). There is no official release date for season 5,  but historically it has been around March to give the racing season time to finish and then time for post-production.

CFD and Formula 1

I knew about the financial cap on teams. What I didn't realize until just recently is that there are lots more caps, even on how much CFD teams are allowed to use. In fact, it is not just CFD, they are limited in how much wind-tunnel experimentation they are allowed to do. So how do you put a cap on how much CFD teams can use? It is basically limited by how much computer power is used, which puts a big premium on computational efficiency. There are nine pages of regulations just on this point, so I'm obviously not going to go into all of them here, but here's a summary I was given.

The key parameter is how much this hardware is used, which is measured in mega allocation unit hours (MAUh), which is a complex calculation of how much computer power was used (and all the details have to be communicated to the FIA. Here are a couple of examples:

Example 1: 200 3GHz CPU core cluster solving RANS for 8 hours

• [200 cores * (5 hr * 3600 s/hr) * 3 GHz] / 3600 = 3 kAUh
• 6 MAUh budget -> ~2,000 runs per ATP

Example 2: 1000 3GHz CPU core cluster solving DES for 24 hours

• [1,000 cores * (24 hr * 3600 s/hr) * 3 GHz] / 3600 = 72 kAUh
• 6 MAUh budget -> ~80 runs per ATP

If you want to dive deep into this, the 112-page 2022 Formula One Sporting Regulations is the place to start. The rules for restricted CFD simulations (RCFD) start on page 93.

Monaco Grand Prix Is this Coming Weekend

So, watch the Monaco Grand Prix, which has practice on Thursday, qualifying on Friday and Saturday, and then the race takes place on Sunday at 3:00pm Europe time (6:00am here in California where I am). In the U.S., it is carried by ESPN, but a lot of official video highlights will show up on YouTube soon after.

A Bit of Fun

And to wrap up, James Corden took his show to visit the McLaren Racing team at the recent Miami Grand Prix:

UPDATE:

A welcome today from Daniel Ricciardo:

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