Today I learned F1 cars can have their engines disabled wirelessly via IP connection

HardwareNetworkingToday I learned F1 cars can have their engines disabled wirelessly via IP connectionWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: Codemasters | OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay)

A racing car in F1 2022 game with a cartoon explosion overlayed on top

We PC gamers often like to flirt with F1 driving, fromsim racingto straight-up brandsponsorshipand partnership. We tend to be a techy bunch, too. So I was a little angry at myself for not already knowing that, as Ex-F1 Senior Systems EngineerDan “EngineMode11” explains, “An F1 car has an IP address.”

I mean, duh, of course F1 cars have IP addresses. Right? We’re talking about some of the most sophisticated automobiles on the planet, designed to chop sharp turns at well over 100 mph and quickly climb back up to 200+ mph, all without spattering person across the asphalt.

If everyday dawdler vehicles are now packed to the brim with electronics, including wireless tech (and they are), you can bet that F1 cars are, too. And wealready know that F1 teams like Alpinepainstakingly gather shedloads of car sensor data for analysis. What, did we expect F1 cars to pit-stop-and-USB?

No, much is done wirelessly, apparently using the F1 car’s IP address. Or, to be more precise, using one of its multiple IP addresses, because, as Dan explains in a reply, “there are several depending on what you want to do.”

What you probably don’t want to do is blow up the car’s engine, though. And that, Dan implies, is something that might have actually happened. “The fear” about having an F1 car with an IP address, he explains, “isn’t from external bad actors. It’s internally, from the electronics team, who definitely wouldn’t accidentally connect to the wrong car and flash the ECU of one running on the test bed instead of the sim, that’s definitely never happened.”

Not current job, but a cool little bit from the last one:An F1 car has an IP address https://t.co/dOdGXOqXJoJuly 2, 2024

An ECU, for reference, is a car’s Electronic Control Unit, which controls much of its engine’s systems, such as the ignition. Now, thankfully, I’ve never actually had anything go wrong when flashing amotherboardBIOS, which is why I’m not too fussed about doing so. If my motherboard was connected to a combustion engine, though? I’m not so sure I’d pull the trigger. And I certainly wouldn’t like the ability to accidentally connect to it remotely and do so.

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Let’s just hope there’s no flashing going on track-side (no, not like that, get your mind out of the gutter) because, apparently, track-side wireless management is a mess at F1 events: “I had the unfortunate job of trying to deploy WiFi trackside and the amount of noise and overlapping networks in the pitlane gave me an aneurysm.”

I dunno, I’m still wrapping my head around the fact that I didn’t realise F1 cars are zooming around out there with itty bitty IP addresses circulating the digital space. Information I now know, that I may never need to use, and that now you know, too.

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