F1 teams spend millions on their simulators—what makes them different?

3 ms

Warne started Dynisma after working for both McLaren and then Ferrari, after realizing that an ultra-low-latency simulator was possible. “I was able to prove, just with pen and paper, and then with simulation, that we ought to be able to get this kind of delay down, around 3 milliseconds,” Warne said. The first prototype, built when Dynisma was still a one-person operation, used hobbyist-grade electronics and motors to prove the concept. “Rather than using the industrial computers and [programmable logic controllers] and control systems we use today, the first system was developed using an Arduino and Raspberry Pi and a whole bunch of other consumer electronics,” Warne said.

High bandwidth is another must, and it’s an area where we see a big difference from flight simulators. “They move very, very slowly, and they’re interested in doing sustained bank angles, whereas we’re doing a very different problem,” Warne explained. “It’s all about being in a vehicle that’s stuck to the roads, and all of the vibrations that come from every bump that you get in the road, also from engines, etc, tires vibrating, all of these sorts of higher-frequency vibrations get transmitted in a car up through into the driver’s seat,” he said.

“The biggest thing with simulators has always been the fight to make the tires feel like a tire, even though you don’t have tires. And that’s a very critical thing for the driver to feel the displacement of the suspension, the tire moving under the rim. That’s such a very distinctive feeling for the driver. So right now a lot of work is put into that,” said Simon Pagenaud, sim driver for the Cadillac F1 team.