The 2024 Formula 1 season kicks off this weekend, with reigning champion Max Verstappen set to the track in Red Bull Racing's newest car, the RB20. Red Bull Racing's latest video shows the fastest first-person aerial camera in history, featuring the latest invention of the Dutch team Dutch Drone Gods, following Max Verstappen in an RB20 car on Silverstone.
This coherent first-person view film shows three-time F1 Group 1 world champion and Red Bull Racing driver Max Verstappen completing a full lap of Silverstone, filmed by a manually operated traverser. The drone was built for the event, allowing visitors to experience the RB20 race car up close and personal, and it was an important milestone for the first time that the drone technology had succeeded in capturing high-quality images at such high speeds and on a sustained basis. After witnessing the results of the drone in one go, Max Verstappen expressed his amazement: "I never thought that a drone could fly so fast for photography! He further shared: On a rainy day, I don't feel it following closely behind, especially when it comes so close to me in a corner. I believe that this kind of technology, if applied to broadcasting, will bring a more immersive experience to F1 viewers. 」
The new drone technology captures Max Verstappen driving an RB20 race at Silverstone, with reigning world champion Max Verstappen amazed by the speed and footage of the ride. Dutch drone specialist Dutch Drone Gods and Shaggy FPV pilot Ralph Hogenbirk spent more than a year filming a full lap of Verstappen on the track, building a drone that can reach speeds of up to 300 kilometers per hour in just four seconds and over 350 kilometers per hour. The development of the drone was also aided by Red Bull Advanced Technologies, the high-tech division of Oracle Red Bull Racing Formula 1 Team, which helped build the machine.
Advanced Technologies has developed a lightweight wind shield and motor mount that has reduced overall weight by nearly 10 percent, making the overall flight more agile. D**ID Coulthard, a well-known car reviewer and former F1 driver, said: "Usually we lose the sense of speed when we see a long-range, wide-angle picture. Of course, there is a lot of technology out there that makes it feel like you're in a race car. However, by flying up close with such a traverser, one can immerse oneself in the whole experience. I believe that in the near future, we will see this perspective in the broadcast. Of course, this is a new challenge for the pilots who fly the drones. The pilot needs to use the remote control to grasp the path of the traverser, and can only see the flight path through low-resolution first-person view glasses. At the same time, the pilot had to use the footpegs to adjust the camera angle, which required a high degree of hand-eye coordination to capture smooth close-ups of the F1 car at more than 300 kilometers per hour.
This drone was created to capture racing footage and is expected to become the latest technology for future event broadcasting.
Pilot, Shaggy FPV, has previously piloted a variety of traversals, such as chasing mountain bikers at the Red Bull Cerro Abajo. But keeping up with an F1 car at full speed was a completely new challenge for Shaggy FPV and the existing technology, as it was not just about navigating different obstacles such as bridges and advertising signs, but also about complex control variables such as turning, acceleration, deceleration, battery energy, and connectivity between the traverser and receiver. In addition, there were other considerable technical difficulties for the traverser. Generally, the speed of the traverser is about 60 kilometers per hour, and the battery can fly for about 30 minutes.
The rover, which is designed to chase the RB20, needs to cooperate with the driving conditions of the F1 car on the track and change the flight conditions at any time, in other words, it needs to accelerate and decelerate significantly, and the two cities greatly reduce the battery flight time, and the battery life is sharply reduced by about 3 minutes. When three-time F1 champion Max Verstappen saw the car of the Crossing Machine following him, he felt the challenge of flying. He also mentions: There are so many things to consider for pilots. For example, to avoid the bridge, you have to ask when the driver brakes, because we have brake pedals, but we don't have that in mid-air. So, the pilot has to be very focused at all times, and the pressure is really high. Shaggy FPV said: "What's special about this drone is that it's the only one with a camera on it that's fast.
It is tailored to the needs of the race car and is the brainchild of a unique team. It was a difficult project to develop such a drone that could quickly keep up with the cars, make sure that the whole car was fully represented in the frame, and shoot in an interesting way. This is definitely the craziest project I've ever worked on! 」
Reigning World Champion driver Max Verstappen discusses drone technology with drone pilot Shaggy FPV.