Panasonic World

Panasonic and Toyota in F1 - A Formula For Success

Since the inception of Toyota's Formula 1 team, "Panasonic Toyota Racing", in 2001, Panasonic has been much more than just the title sponsor. Through working together closely with the team Panasonic has also been able to contribute technically to the teams success in one of the most competitive sports in the world.

Toughbooks
To begin with, Formula 1 cars do not just have a turn key ignition like normal road cars - instead a laptop is needed and it's a Panasonic unique magnesium-encased Toughbook-series of laptops which perform this task for Panasonic Toyota Racing. A Toughbook is attached to the car, the engine is initially turned over without a spark such that it generates all the pressures in the various systems and the Toughbook is used to analyse that all is functioning correctly. Once the engineers are satisfied, a "start" signal is then sent from the Toughbook to the car, and the engine fires up. Panasonic's Toughbooks are uniquely suitable for this task as they are extremely rugged to the extent that even their CPUs are encased in polymer to protect them from vibrations and spilt liquids. The use of computers by the team make exceptionally tough demands on the hardware. Panasonic Toughbooks are up to every demand, as they are extremely robust and insensitive thanks to their special construction. That means they meet the basic requirement for tools for vehicle engineers, who always work in varying weather conditions. But the Toughbooks aren’t just exposed to high humidity, extreme heat and rain – they are also confronted with strong vibrations when the cars are started. With 19 races around the world plus test sessions, that calls for a reliable notebook. “From 45 °C and 90 % humidity in Malaysia to 4 °C in the winter test runs in Barcelona, Toughbooks are the perfect hardware under diverse weather conditions. Even the heavy rain in Brazil in 2002, when everything got soaking wet, there was no problem for our Toughbook,” reports Gianluca Pisanello, one of Jarno Trulli’s race engineers.

Batteries
Panasonic's next contribution comes in the form of the battery within the car itself. Panasonic is the world's largest battery manufacturer and is thus better placed than anyone else to develop and produce batteries that will meet the energy requirements of the most demanding and advanced applications, anytime, anywhere and under any conditions. Drawing on its breadth of battery experience going all the way back to 1931, Panasonic has been able to develop a battery for Panasonic Toyota Racing which is approximately half the weight of batteries used in other F1 cars. In a sport where every microsecond counts, producing hard-wearing high-performance components which are as light as possible, like this battery, can literally make the difference between success and failure on the track.

Camcorders
Another area of Formula 1 where every second counts is the pit stop. Though the cars and drivers may be the stars, Formula 1 is possibly the ultimate team sport as without large numbers of designers, strategists, engineers, and mechanics the cars would never be able to take to the circuit. The pit stops themselves are the most dramatic and visual representation of this 'behind the scenes' teamwork and to the casual onlooker may appear to be a bewildering swirl of fumes, thunderous noise, and heat. But within this maelstrom, the team's pit stops are literally running like clockwork. This is mainly down to the old virtues of practise and teamwork - but a new factor is helping Panasonic Toyota Racing reach new heights: Panasonic's high-definition technology. By filming pitstops on Panasonic's top-of-the-range High Definition eCam camcorders and bringing the detail to life on large-screen Viera plasma TVs, the engineers can discover vital details that would have otherwise been overlooked.

Screens
The Panasonic Toyota Racing garage and motorhomes are the most technologically advanced in the Paddock and contain numerous LCD and Plasma TVs. Panasonic Viera LCDs, due to their bright backlights, are used in the pit garage to display the telemetry information collected from the car during races - vital information which needs to be shared with all engineers. Unusually for an LCD, Viera LCDs boast ultra-wide 178 degree viewing angles meaning that there is no problem for the all the pit crew to crowd around and see it. Furthermore the Motorhome is filled with luxury large-screen Viera Plasma TVs - ideal for watching the races unfold in beautiful, high definition quality - and equally good for showing films to help the mechanics wind-down after a hard days work!

Overall through its technical contributions to the team, Panasonic is much more than just a logo on the car - and looks forward to increasingly expanding the areas it can contribute into the future to help Panasonic Toyota Racing enjoy even more on-track success.