But, what stops Formula 1 teams from shooting super-high resolution, high speed, images or videos of cars driving by? Pairing that data with their own to judge vibration levels caused by tyre flat spots (usually created when a driver locks the breaks) should not be too hard either. Installing high fidelity microphones to record sounds in so much more detail than the human ear and brain can handle and using that data in correlation with their data to predict changes to a competitor's car performance. Natural language input from other team's radio communications. Visually measuring brake performance via relative deceleration comparisons and thermal vision. The list is endless, so many things could be done beyond what is already happening to collect more valuable and actionable data.

This is where F1 teams can gain an edge ... by being more creative and clever than others.

Machine Learning

I won't elaborate too much here. It is a given that a sufficient quantity and quality of input data is required to then feed into a new set of machine learning systems to start gaining insights and reap the benefits of AI.

F! teams will likely need to think of AI as a new department at least, with it's own R&D, it's own facilities and it's own world-class staff.

An additional upside is that F1 teams can independently become leaders in artificial intelligence in general. Technology Groups like McLaren could start rivalling companies like IBM with a similar offering to Watson with the emphasis on strategic decision making in business.