Chris Pickering

Dynisma brings F1 simulation to the automotive masses

In-Depth

It may be a long way from Maranello, but an industrial estate on the edge of the Mendip Hills is home to a technology that has played its own small part in the Ferrari F1 team’s spectacular return to form this year. Pitched as the world’s most advanced driving simulators, the machines built by UK-based Dynisma claim to offer a step change in realism. Chris Pickering reports.

Honed on the race track Dynisma's technology is said to provide accurate cueing up to 100 Hz, with up to 400 Hz said to be possible at lower precision
Honed on the race track Dynisma's technology is said to provide accurate cueing up to 100 Hz, with up to 400 Hz said to be possible at lower precision - Dynisma

When Ferrari’s team principal Mattia Binotto spoke during pre-season testing this year, he emphasised the importance of correlation between the digital models used in the simulator, wind tunnel data and the real car’s behaviour on-track.

Increasingly, the world’s top automotive OEMs are searching for a similar link between the digital world and the behaviour of their road cars. From ride quality to powertrain noise, they’re using simulators to evaluate every aspect of the driving experience. At the last count, BMW had 14 simulators in its Munich facility alone – each optimised to cover different areas of development.
Although the automotive industry has become an enthusiastic adopter of simulators in recent years, it was motorsport (and, in particular, Formula 1) that was the first market to really embrace this technology for ground vehicle development.

Dynisma CEO Ash Warne was very much part of that movement. As the team leader for McLaren Racing’s simulator operations, he worked with the likes of Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso at the Woking outfit. He then joined Ferrari F1 as a senior vehicle dynamics engineer.

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simulation