Chevrolet Drives Ahead with IBM’s Real-Time Weather Intelligence

Chevrolet Racing has teamed up with The Weather Company, an IBM subsidiary, to add weather technology to its race teams’ toolkit. This partnership will help teams understand how different weather conditions impact their performance and make crucial, real-time decisions on the track.

Since racing is an outdoor sport, everything from track conditions to car performance can be influenced by the weather. Therefore, any decision based on the forecast can ultimately affect the race’s outcome. Through collaboration with Cognitive Combustion, a motorsports tech company, Chevrolet Racing will seamlessly integrate valuable weather insights from The Weather Company into its race software.

This new weather application will provide teams with the ability to predict race weather conditions, like the start and stop times of rain, and track real-time weather conditions for each lap. This information will be essential in forming race day strategies. Plus, the real-time data will be compared with a significant amount of historical weather data, giving Chevrolet’s teams a comprehensive notebook of lap-by-lap data for different weather scenarios.

Pat Suhy, Chevrolet’s manager for NASCAR programs, emphasized the importance of having precise and accurate real-time data and analysis due to changing track conditions and car performance. He expressed excitement about the collaboration, noting that it helps keep Chevrolet ahead in the competitive racing world.

Starting with the 2018 season opening events in NASCAR, IMSA, and IndyCar, Chevrolet Racing began using weather data and insights provided by The Weather Company. This data, used by over 3,500 businesses globally, helps optimize operations and can give drivers a competitive edge.

Bill Dow, head of media and entertainment at The Weather Company, highlighted the importance of making strategic decisions quickly in the fast-paced motorsports environment. He expressed enthusiasm for Chevrolet’s access to their expansive data platform, helping drivers maximize their performance against competitors.