 Hi everyone, I'm Chris Johnson and welcome to another reedle podcast In this episode, we're going to talk a little bit on sports and the technology used in motorsport in particular and I have the pleasure of Speaking with Brad eyes today who is support engineer at the shell v-power racing team So hello Brad and thanks for joining us. Hi Chris. Great to be here today. First of all Brad before we kick off I should probably congratulate you guys on your third Drivers championship win and your second teams championship win this season. Yeah, no, it's been a great season The last few years have been very good for us So to come away with with the third drivers championship and the second teams championship in a row I think just commends how well we've worked as a team and It's just been great to get to the end of the season and have that success Absolutely Yeah, great achievement So I guess that for a lot of people who are listening to this now, you know, they're probably Only know of supercars You know from from what they see in glimpses on on television Or maybe by visiting a race every now and then but I guess to start and to get everyone familiar Tell us a little bit about about yourself and what exactly it is you do for the shell v-power team Yeah, so I'm I guess the support engineer there involved in the engineering duties I'm involved with the race strategy and analysis Implementation of that And also involved in in data systems and analysis So gathering data from the cars and and what we do with that data The race strategy been involved with the last few years Which is obviously an important part when you're trying to battle for drivers and teams championships there's a lot of effort that has to go into Figuring out as a team how you're gonna try and be the top so That's sort of my involvement I guess I got involved with motor racing While I was studying mechanical engineering at university. I was involved at a University project there which Were you design and build race cars and many of the young engineers these days sort of come through that program? And that's how they get this started in motorsport After I finished my studies. I was lucky. I went to the US for five to six years and Was an indie car over there for for a bit of a stint working for various teams and Then the last three years was luckily where I was involved with team Penske and their indie car program And that's sort of how I got involved with with team Penske And then when they sort of got involved with supercars down here. I came to Australia And it's sort of been involved with the DJ our team Penske since they got involved back in the end of 2014 And then I've been involved in the supercars championship since then Amazing so I don't know about you But obviously I turn on the TV and I and I watch supercars and and you know as far as I can see You you just rock up in the track and the driver hops in the car and off they go But something tells me it might be a little bit more complicated Than that Brad so so for those listening tell us what what's involved in in getting to that final point where we all turn On our televisions and and see a bunch of top-class drivers go to race Yeah, I think you know at at the top level at this level of sport, you know It's it's a really complex team behind the scenes like any professional sport You know, you've got merchandise and store staff. You've got commercial and media staff You've got shop-based staff who are working on design and machining and fabrication assembly You know, so there's a there's a big crew of people that are behind the scenes that you know Maybe you don't see on the TV, but they're working just as hard In what their areas are to make sure that the car is on the track and ready to go Then you've got, you know a crew of mechanics and engineers who travel to the events You know to make sure the cars are running on track and carrying out whatever work you have there So so there's a large crew of people and and you probably only see the drivers or maybe one or two others Actually on the TV, but there's a lot of people who are behind the scenes as well putting in just as much effort to Make sure that when we're on the track, we're ready to go and and we look good And so you talk about there being a big crew of people How many people are we talking? How many people are involved in the Shell V-Power team? And how many of those are part of your your trackside team? Yeah, I think I don't know the exact numbers myself, but I think it's around 35 to 40 people involved totally We probably had somewhere around 20 people that would travel To the events prior to COVID now this year has been quite different we were only allowed to have 14 people go to the track that could actually be a part of the running the car including the drivers so for at least the next little while obviously will probably be Running the cars at events with reduced staff until we start to Transition out of this this COVID period. So yeah big changes for all of us So you've got your 20 people or so on track, whether it's 14 now or 20 normally I imagine that the communications is is a big part of of your kind of critical infrastructure Tell us a little bit more about that. What what do you need? To work for you to succeed there. What what is the kind of critical? Communications challenges you have to work with in a supercar's race. Yes, so most of the communications That we may have to deal with during On track activities so when the cars are actually out on the on the circuit Probably the first Challenge we have to deal with is actually talking to and from the car Now the car is a is a hot and noisy environment with a lot of vibration. So There's a there's a challenge there in terms of having something that's reliable Where you can talk to the driver at any time and know that he can hear what you say and vice versa He can talk back. So that's the first challenge The second challenge is then Communication between sort of managers and engineers and and crew mechanics sort of for carrying out pit stops and and Changes on the car and just running the cars During practice and qualifying sessions as well as the race. So you sort of got to I guess areas there where you need to manage And that's where I guess the right else system sort of comes in and helps us Facilitate what we need to do there Absolutely So I guess the thing that stands out to me about your environment Which I think is common to to quite of a lot of environments We're working in is is that all of this is really time critical, right when when that car comes in for a pit stop It has to happen now and there are no second chances, right? This all has to work first time that there's no do-overs Yeah, that's absolutely correct. You know in some instances particularly in races You can be having to make decisions and in under 60 seconds and sometimes an even half that so You know a lot of the time someone has to be making decisions on whether you're making pit stops and even what you're gonna Do in those pit stops? And then you have to relay that information to your mechanics and other crew members, you know to make sure that they Carry out whatever tasks need to be done. So That's you're absolutely correct there. There's time critical decisions that have to be made and information That has to be relayed to other people to carry that out both to and to and from the driver as well as With your crew members who are in pit lane So that provides a real challenge And a lot of the time you may not have time to repeat yourself So you need clear communication that can get across to your driver and to your crew members To make sure that you know you make pit stops or or changes to the car if it's during practice sessions and whatnot that are Timely and to achieve what you need to achieve so Absolutely, it's it's time critical. It's a very I guess you'd say It's a it's a tricky environment. It's high pressure. Obviously you have a lot of high stakes. So Making fast decisions and relying that information. Yeah, it's absolutely critical Okay, so you spoke a little bit about using some of the reedle products Tell us a little bit more about that. Obviously you're working with with a system provided by us Every race. What does that system involve and why why is that an important part of your on-track kind of infrastructure? Yes, so We've been using Rodel for the last during the last couple of seasons here And probably the the biggest Influence it has is using the Bolero equipment You know, I think being able to have mobile communication Within your engineers and your and your crew Like that sitting next to you is is really power amount and this year became became even more so given We had reduced staff So, you know, many of our staff at the track. We're now doing multiple jobs and Having to be mobile within the garage or within pit lane Is absolutely necessary and also just to be flexible in terms of how you manage your staff and and having the flexibility to make sure that you can communicate to who you need to and when Is a big part of it as well So, yeah, I think the Bolero has been great for us you know in terms of Just having people Move around the garage and pit lane and Still be able to communicate That's been really helpful to us, you know, for example Now this didn't happen last year, but as an example It's if you're lining up the race cars on the grid before the start of the race and and maybe it's It's just starting to rain Obviously, you need to have people back in the garage deciding whether rain is going to be Staying and for around for a while. You need people making decisions on whether you're going to put on wet tires or not And if you are you didn't need to communicate that to your mechanics to make the change and these things can be happening minutes before the start of the race So things like that Where the Bolero really become helpful Because you can have these discussions between the right people and make make your decisions and then Relay the information that needs to be relayed as examples like that when critical decisions really become a big part of your performance Absolutely, and there's no room for error. So Any miscommunications can really complicate the process So Brad you've talked about using the Bolero system with your team in the garage and obviously you've got Two-way radio systems as well as a big part, especially if the car to pick communications Tell us a little bit about making the jump there to Bolero in the garage and how you go about picking the right tool for the job Yeah, no, that's an interesting point you know as I said, I think As the team grows or as you have more and more users at the track that you need to communicate with It becomes more complex in terms of communicating with different users and in groups of users which Sometimes two-way radios become a bit of a challenge with so I Think What we've found is Moving to sort of the technologies that ride out have enables us to communicate with these different users in an easy way and Particularly this year, you know, we saw we had to really be adaptable and with what staff we had at the track and You know staff doing multiple jobs this year so being flexible with our communications in terms of Who we who we're communicating with and and when is is really important So I think You know as these wireless technologies Develop and it sort of enables us to use it In a way that improves the way we operate as a team Absolutely and and I guess the other side of the coin which we've we've talked about a little bit already is is really just being able To to engage with the fans And so of course as anybody who's watched supercars on TV knows that that Driver communication is a critical part of of the broadcast and of people engaging with the racing From from the comfort of their living room That's a really important part of this evolution to right trying to bring all your tens of thousands hundreds of thousands Millions of supercars fans around Australia and further afield a little bit closer to the action so they can feel like they're they're with you in the garage Or they're with the driver in the car Yeah, absolutely. I think this year was was actually quite interesting Particularly during the the lockdown phase during covid where you know, not only our sport but other sports were forced to Sort of go into on online platforms and for us it was the gaming platform You know in the technology that they have in those I think was really interesting in terms of how it enabled our fans to engage with the drivers live as the as the You know playing the games Which I think is a interesting take on Involving fans, which you know, hopefully in the future It's maybe paved a way to show us how We can we can maybe implement that into how we operate at the track normally so it's it was actually an interesting year and and I think We'll see some of those online technologies perhaps being used in the future to Sort of help engage the fans with with the sport and the drivers Absolutely. Well, hey Brad. Thanks so much for your time today Thanks for for for joining me to have a little chat about all things motorsport and communications and I hope you're enjoying a little bit of downtime there before You guys have to get back in the shop and and turn it all around for for the next season and certainly We look forward to working with you as you guys Move on to to 2021 Yeah, thanks Chris. I really appreciate coming on here today and just to give a bit of insight and how we sort of operate with particularly with the ride L system In our team, so Yeah, we'll have a bit of downtime before we start preparing to try and do it all again next year Thanks, Brad. Thanks, Chris