F1 Data Junkie – What Does This Data Point Refer To Again?

The count down is on to my first post unpicking some of the telemetry data grabbed from the Mclaren F1 site during the Bahrain Grand Prix, and then maybe this weekend’s race, but first, here’s another tease…

One of the problems I’ve found from a data-based (groan…) storytelling perspective is relating what the data’s telling us to what we know the car is doing is from where it is on the track. As I/we refine our data anlaysis skills we’ll be able just to look at the data and work out what the likely features of the track are at the point the data was collected; but as novice data engineers, we need all the cribs we can get. Which is why I had a little play with my Processing code and built an interactive data explorer that looks something like this:

The idea is that I can easily select a data trace, or a location on the track, and get a snapshot of the data collected at that point in the context of the other data points. That is, this data navigator allows me to expose the data collected in a single sample, in the the context of the position of the car on the track, and given the state of the other data values at the same point in time, as well as immediately before and immediately after.

I’ll post a version of this data explorer somewhere when I post the first data analysis post proper, but for now, you’ll just have to make do with the video…;-)

PS As to where the data came from, that story is described here: F1 Data Junkie – Looking at What’s There