If you want to see the future of live racing coverage, this is it. The Mercedes Formula One team filmed Nico Rosberg booting his 2014 Formula One car around the famed Silverstone racetrack in Great Britain — but with six high-def camera rigs recording 360-degree video during the run.
The result is a mind-blowing preview into what could — nay, should — be the future of televised motorsport. The interactive video is viewable above, or
through an iPad app that allows race fans to tilt and pan the iPad, using the tablet’s gyroscope to change views during Rosberg’s hot lap.
F1 teams are normally heavily restricted when and where they can test their cars. One exception is official filming days for promotional purposes. This 360-degree shoot was classified as a promo day for the Mercedes team back in January, and it was the first time a 2014 F1 car saw any track time — a nice advantage for the team.
Using a the same camera setup, Mercedes also put F1 drivers Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton at the wheel of the Mercedes E63 AMG S performance wagon, a 585 horsepower school running sleeper. You can check that video below.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this sort of tech affixed to an F1 car.
Red Bull did it last year as part of a similar promotional test, but we’re positively giddy at the thought of this rolling out to live races in Formula One or it could even make NASCAR worth watching. High-definition, 360-degree, wheel-to-wheel racing? This absolutely
needs to happen.
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