Aston Martin announces partnerships with Altair and EPOS

The Aston Martin Cognizant F1 Team has announced two new partnerships which will see the Silverstone-based outfit cooperate with EPOS, an audio and video solution company developing and selling devices for business professionals and the gaming community and with Altair, a global technology company providing solutions in simulation, high-performance computing and artificial intelligence.

The British team, which recorded its first podium finish in its F1 history at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, has confirmed EPOS as its new partner. The company has been developing gaming audio equipment for more than 15 years and has successfully carved out a position as a state-of-the-art supplier within the world of gaming.

Most recently, EPOS launched its next-generation headset, the H3, which it will provide to Aston Martin Cognizant Esports Team together with a range of other products from their gaming portfolio for its forthcoming participation in Formula One’s official Esports Series.

EPOS-engineered audio brings skin-tingling deep bass that delivers the intensity of game action and the acoustic clarity for crisp and clear game communication.

Jefferson Slack, Managing Director – Commercial & Marketing, Aston Martin Cognizant Team, said: “Just as in the real world, esports racers require the very best equipment in order to succeed. We’ve already established a successful partnership with EPOS, but we’re delighted to be able to extend that agreement to now incorporate the esports sector.

“We’ve seen the recent growth of the gaming sector within motorsport – no sport offers a closer experience to the real thing; and we’ve enjoyed seeing gamers go racing and Formula One drivers enjoy virtual racing. As a team, we’re really looking forward to deepening our understanding of the sector alongside EPOS.”

Director of Global Marketing, Maja Sand-Grimnitz commented: “We are delighted to lend the full force of EPOS’ gaming audio expertise to the esports ventures of Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One™ Team. World-class audio is critical to success in the esports world – from communication, to sound cues, to total immersion. The exceptional audio performance that EPOS provide is vital in every game.

“As partners, we share a mutual passion for precision and excellence in technology, performance and design, backed by over a century of innovation and heritage respectively. Combined, this underpins both companies’ ability to unleash the Power of Audio in our respective fields. We’re thrilled to work with a world-calibre team who share our ambition to push the boundaries of innovation and success in the gaming world.”

Furthermore, Aston Martin also announced a new partnership wit Altair which is a global technology company providing solutions in simulation, high-performance computing (HPC), and artificial intelligence.

The team’s engineers are using Altair Grid Engine™ to optimise the team’s HPC infrastructure with its workload scheduling and management solution. Modern Grand Prix racing has prioritised the construction of the most fuel- and energy-efficient cars, with a lower total cost. Establishing that efficiency occurs long before the car hits the track, where teams are running complex simulations using an optimised compute environment.

“Across our aerodynamics department, we’re hugely reliant on high-performance computing to manage intensive workloads," said Bill Peters, Chief Technology Officer, Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One™ Team.

“That includes the ten terabytes of data the team produces on a daily basis. Altair’s solutions give us a consistent and powerful infrastructure, enabling our team to gain strategic and performance advantages within a limit of 30 teraflops by achieving higher throughput, smaller wait-times, and reduced downtime.”

Altair Grid Engine empowers Aston Martin's engineering department to ensure the tens of thousands of simulations and other compute-intensive tasks are consistently and correctly sequenced and coordinated.

It provides timely and efficient access to HPC, critical to powering simulations like windtunnels, vehicle aerodynamics, tyre performance, as well as fine-tuning crucial design elements. HPC also powers full-car simulations, which creates a real-world simulator; allowing drivers such as Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel to understand how design changes will impact race-day performance of their AMR21 cars.

“The impressive Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One™ Team operates in an environment where every split-second counts, not just on the racetrack, but in terms of rapid and informed design decisions utilising HPC,” said Sam Mahalingam, Chief Technical Officer, Altair.

“As Altair offers the industry’s most comprehensive HPC toolset, we are proud to be part of the story and will be cheering for the team over every lap of the Formula One season”, he concluded.