Andretti Autosport’s big play with big data: Inside an IndyCar team’s next step in analytics

Colton Herta jokes that “nothing sticks” when asked about what he’s learned from the melding of analytical brainpower and brute horsepower being attempted this season at Andretti Autosport.

But there was one thing that stood out about the founder of Zapata Computing, a company spun out of Harvard that wants to use sophisticated, quantum-ready algorithms to make Andretti a more efficient and successful race team.

“That was pretty wild when he was like, ‘Yeah, I made Siri,’ ” Herta told NBC Sports about meeting Zapata CEO Christopher Savoie. “I was like, ‘What?’ That’s pretty insane.”

It might not be so simple as saying, “Siri, devise a strategy to win this IndyCar race” into a smartphone app.

But the goal of the Andretti-Zapata partnership is guided by the same predictive analytics and concepts that are rooted in artificial intelligence technology and big data.

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With millions of data points compiled by thousands of sensors that produce roughly a terabyte of information per car during every race weekend, there already is too much information for Andretti Autosport’s 38 engineers to digest with six cars (including two from its alliance with Meyer Shank Racing).

“We do all the same things that a Formula One team does except with a tenth of the people,” Andretti Autosport technical director Eric Bretzman told NBC Sports. “It’s massive overload for us to take all the data and make a decision in a second (with) what the tires are doing, the aero is doing and the human element of what the driver is doing. There’s so much more data now than there’s ever been to really define this model and start to draw some strong trends.”

So the team joined forces