Haas F1 Team Will Use AMD EPYC To Aid Its Vehicle Design Efforts For Next Year’s Formula 1 Season

Since the introduction of its EPYC server processors last summer, AMD has been keen on sending out emails detailing its latest wins and newest partnerships. Admittedly, this has become a little hard to keep track of, which is impressive from the standpoint that this is a first-gen enterprise-grade product.

With second-gen EPYC on its way, 2019 is shaping up to be an interesting one for the server market. That’s not only true on the CPU side, but potentially GPU, as AMD’s reportedly still on target to deliver 7nm GPUs in the near-future. That is slated to begin with products that will also cater to the enterprise market, and in particular, target AI and deep-learning work.

Even in enterprise, there are some who can’t wait for second-gen, or at least refuse to. Their hunger for performance is insatiable, and some of them can truly prove it. Take Haas F1 Team, one of ten teams competing in the current Formula 1 calendar. To win in Formula 1, or even place safely in the top third of the leader board, serious analysis and computation is needed to give teams their much-needed edge.

Haas F1 Team’s VF-18 Formula 1 car

For teams without bottomless wallets, a disadvantage is a given right out of the gate. Mercedes and Scuderia have no problem throwing money at a problem, and in effect, more engineers at a problem, but even they need to take advantage of vast amounts of computing power to aid the current race. And the next one. And next year’s calendar.

In Haas’ case, the team’s adopted a Cray CS500 cluster supercomputer, with the EPYC 7000-series processors to be used for computational fluid dynamics simulations, as well as improve vehicle design for the year ahead. Recently, Formula 1’s overlord FIA announced new 2021 vehicle design considerations that should aid in smaller teams being able to better compete, and it’s computational hardware like EPYC that will help teams stretch their dollar further to help make that a reality.

Cray’s CS500 cluster supercomputer

AMD’s logo graces Ferrari’s SF71H car this season, and will continue to be used over the next few seasons. With this new Cray and Haas partnership, AMD is beginning to make a notable impact on one of the world’s elite racing championships. The timing is notable, as well, as the American Haas team heads home for the USA Grand Prix this weekend, in Austin, for the eighteenth race of the current calendar.