7 Lessons Airspeeder Takes From Motorsport

HEAD-TO-HEAD RACING

Head-to-head racing is competitiveness as its utmost, pitting athletes’ minds and bodies against one another for glory.

The 1971 Italian Grand Prix remains the closest finish in motorsport history with just 0.01 seconds separating first and second place. In fact, a mere 0.61 seconds was the difference between P1 and P5 at Monza – also known as the temple of speed – that day.

Airspeeder’s vision is to deliver a highly competitive racing package, where outright airmanship and the strategic vision of the team will dictate the results. Safe but close racing in the skies is enabled through the creation of ‘virtual forcefields’ using latest LiDAR and Radar technologies. This means our pilots can race at the limit. The goal: for there to be a hair’s breadth between victor and runner up.

AN EQUAL PLAYING FIELD

Formula E is a prime example of creating a race series with unity through a turnkey and complete product technological solution. Their race series has allowed for rapid progress and engineering acceleration which resulted in dramatic races and outcomes, whilst creating an element of fairness throughout the field.

Our Speeders, engineered by Airspeeder’s sister-company and sole manufacturer of the vehicles Alauda, will be identical. Crafted by our aerospace and motorsport team in Adelaide, Australia, they will fuse these two technological advancements together. This will put emphasis on the pilot’s airmanship and skill, also ensuring more close proximity racing.

PIT STOPS

Some of the most pivotal and exciting moments in motorsport history have been around pit stops. Races have been won and lost during them; Daniel Ricciardo’s dreams of a Monaco victory were shattered when his crew weren’t ready to serve the car and George Russell’s hopes of a debut podium were quashed during a pit stop at the Sakhir Grand Prix this year.

F1 pit crews go through intense training to be able to perform a sub two-second pit stop: from rigorous gym sessions to reaction tests, the tyre change becomes a syncronised art performance.

At an Airspeeder Grand Prix, we will execute a battery change in the quickest time possible thanks to state of the art engineering solutions with lighter and swappable batteries. When motorsport first began, a car would be serviced in around a minute. With Airspeeder being a new series, we too hope to improve our times as our sport evolves.

EPIC LOCATIONS

We all know what the triple crown of motorsport is: the Indy500, the Monaco Grand Prix and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. From the instantly recognizable oval in the USA to the timeless glamour of the Côte d’Azur and breathtaking moments on the Mulsanne straight in the depth of the night – these locations are seared into the iconography of global sport.

As a sport conceived in the sky and defined through the creation of electronically governed sky-tracks, we are free to write our own history in previously unseen settings. We don’t have to stick to the tarmac; we’re free to compete across water, sand and canyons.

Imagine a full electric flying car grid speeding towards an epic hairpin turn in a snow and ice setting or racing through the star-covered sky of the desert at night. This is where science fiction, pop culture and motorsport collide.

Airspeeder will be synonymous with its own breed of race tracks in the sky and, who knows, one day we’ll fly across the bay of Monaco.

PIONEERING ENGINEERING

It’s simple. Competition drives technology. We have racing to thank for many of the safety, performance and dynamic innovations we now take for granted in road cars. The disc brake was pioneered at Le Mans, ABS came from F1 and safety harness technology has been rapidly improved to protect racing drivers across all disciplines. The likes of Henry Ford and Enzo Ferrari all kickstarted the automotive industry through motorsport and our series will hasten the arrival of the eVTOL mobility revolution.

This is a new form of transport that promises to transform urban passenger flight, global logistics and even applications as important as emergency services. We are proud to stand with our forebears in motorsport in serving as an accelerator for a transport solution that answers the global requirement of a clean-air future.

TRACK LAYOUTS

Hairpins, chicanes, the unforgettable corner complex of Silverstone’s Maggots, Becketts, Chapel. Just because our competition happens in the sky, it doesn’t mean that we will be racing in a straight line. We have taken inspiration from some of the greatest race tracks in the world to design our sky tracks that are physically demanding for the driver and provide exhilarating viewing for our audience. Our octocopter is optimised for performance and manoeuvrability. Our pilots will be able to make the same rapid hair-pin turns as their MotoGP and World Rally Championship counterparts but with the added dimension of a vertical space to play in.

FAN ENGAGEMENT

Motorsport has taught us that fans long to be as close to the action as possible. MotoGP is known for their thrilling driver onboards which make the spectators feel as if they’re amongst the heart of the action. Drive To Survive on Netflix gave us behind the scenes F1 action which provided the audience with never-seen-before access. Formula E has invented audience engagement methods like ATTACK MODE and FANBOOST to ensure those watching at home have a say in the race. These are fantastic methods that we will take inspiration from to build our own unique sporting series where fans are at the core of our DNA.

Through these seven significant and historic lessons we aim to deliver a sport for the future.

www.airspeeder.com