CRL partners with Force India to help design the next generation of Formula 1 cars

16th December 2009



Computational Research Laboratories (CRL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Sons, and Force India Formula One Team (FIF1), India’s first and only F1 team, today announced an exclusive three-year multi-million dollar partnership deal to offer a fully automated Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) solution to aid the design of the team’s next generation race cars as well improve aerodynamic efficiency in the current racing models. This will be the first time a Formula 1 team will leverage an Indian HPC (high performance computing) organization for their design activities.
In conjunction with physical wind tunnel and straight line testing, Force India relies on virtual prototypes and CFD methods to improve racing car aerodynamics and accuracy by conducting complex simulations without compromising processing times. The sheer computing power provided by CRL will enable Force India to reduce its design cycle times, thus providing the team’s drivers with the best chance of a strong result.

With this partnership, Force India’s design team will now have access to ‘eka’, India’s fastest supercomputer and one of the most versatile supercomputers in the world that is capable of 133 trillion calculations per second! The new system will increase Force India’s CFD computing capacity in the first year by a factor of at least four, allowing the team to model the car’s aerodynamics in much more detail and deliver results in greatly reduced time frames.

Dr. Vijay Mallya, Chairman and Team Principal, Force India Formula One Team Ltd said, ”Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations are a critical part of Force India’s car design process to continually improve the team’s aerodynamic performance. The tie-up with CRL will significantly accelerate Force India’s computational simulations to drive better on-track results. The tie-up with CRL gives us an immediate 200% increase in our CFD processing capability which will rise to almost 800% by the end of 2010. We have integrated our own CFD methods with the CRL facility to allow Force India’s CFD engineers to seamlessly interface between the UK and India effectively, giving us increased processing power. The CRL facility allows us to run significantly more CFD cases, in the region of 200% more cases per day, with twice the model size currently possible. In the future this will increase still further and also allow Force India to undertake significant development of the current CFD methods in us”.

Mr. S Ramodarai, Chairman, CRL, said: “With this partnership, CRL reconfirms its commitment to develop technology that will aid in design activities and make it seamless for the companies to take advantage of HPC. We are really proud to be associated with a brand such as Force India Formula One Team which has showcased India as a team to watch in the global motor racing arena. This deal demonstrates the value that an organization can get by leveraging ‘eka’, and the complete HPC support ecosystem we have set up at CRL.”
Virtual wind tunnel simulation applications on ‘eka’, using Computational Fluid Dynamics, can help address the limitations of a testing environment in understanding the impact of design on the aerodynamic abilities of aeroplanes and automobiles. The CFD designs for Formula One cars, are amongst the most complicated, and require extremely high computing powers for timely and accurate results. CRL will provide Force India with a complete HPC ecosystem, ranging from fully automated pre processing to post processing simulation work flow on ‘eka’, customized configurations to application optimization services for Force India’s design activities.

About Force India Formula One Team Limited:


The Force India Formula One Team races in the FIA Formula One World Championship. Based in Silverstone, UK, it’s a small, tight-knit team that punches above its weight and races with the larger, more established teams. 2009 was only the team’s second year of competition at the highest level of motorsport but over this short period of time, it has secured one pole, one podium and one fastest lap and was ninth in the championship last season.

The team was created in the final months of 2007 when Dr Vijay Mallya, owner of India’s iconic UB Group and Kingfisher Airlines, and Jan & Michiel Mol, Dutch e-commerce businessmen, established a joint-venture company. Called Orange India Holdings (OIH), the enterprise finalised negotiations to purchase the Spyker Formula One Team from Spyker Cars N.V. in October 2007. Its creation was the the first-ever foray for an Indian team into the FIA Formula One World Championship.



After the close of the racing season, the team was renamed Force India to forge an emotional, opportunistic and highly compelling commercial aspect with the enormous, growing Indian market. The name symbolises at once the growth of economic consumerism in India, the world’s fastest growing economy at 9% per year, and the emerging new youth where 500 million Indians are below the age of 25, and 400 million Indians are below the age of 20.

The team continues to be one of F1’s smaller outfits, with a staff of approximately 250 people operating from its base in Silverstone, in Northamptonshire, UK, just opposite the main gates to the famous Silverstone Circuit. Just 12km from the Silverstone building, in Brackley, the team also has its main aerodynamic facility, a 50% scale wind tunnel and a further 55 staff.



The team competed in 2009 with German driver Adrian Sutil and until the Italian GP with Italian driver Giancarlo Fisichella. Tonio Liuzzi took over Giancarlo’s seat from Italy onwards following the latter’s move to Ferrari.

Computational Research Laboratories Limited (CRL)
CRL is a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Sons Ltd. The company is into the business of High Performance Computing (HPC) services and solutions. CRL’s supercomputer, ‘eka’ was ranked the 4th fastest in the world in November 2007, marking India’s presence in the Top500 list of supercomputers, being the first non-American supercomputer to break into top 5. CRL provides HPC services and solutions to various organizations in the Automotive, Aerospace, Pharmaceutical, Biotechnology, Exploration & Production, Media & Entertainment, Weather and Scientific sectors among many others.