Prodrive's remote control centre

Prodrive has created a remote support hub to provide real time technical support for its hundreds of race and rally customers competing across the world.

The remote support hub is housed in the company’s headquarters in Banbury, UK, with live data feeds allowing engineers to monitor the performance of customers’ cars while on events. With cars competing everywhere from Australia and Asia to the Middle East, Europe and the Americas every weekend and Covid travel bans and quarantines making it difficult to attend events, the hub was set up to ensure customers could still receive the best technical advice.

Gus Beteli, head of performance at Prodrive, said: “Our primary aim is still to have engineers and technicians on stages and at circuits whenever possible as there is nothing to beat that face-to-face contact. However, some outright travel bans and lengthy quarantine periods mean remote support is often the only practical option.”

While covid restrictions were the catalyst for the remote support hub, Prodrive has found that it is now helping many customers, where previously on event technical support was not deemed necessary. From the remote support hub in Banbury, engineers can live stream cars’ telemetry from anywhere in the world, analyse the data and provide advice directly to the teams and drivers on the ground.

“The time and cost savings of not having to travel around the world means we can offer a very cost-effective remote service,” said Beteli. “This has led to a significant increase in the number of customers, who previously ran their cars themselves, now seeking our additional technical support, which can help find those fractions of a second which make the difference between winning and losing.”

Source material - Prodrive