Can Max Verstappen be caught by Red Bull’s rocket drone at 217 mph?
While many of us are eager for Formula One to return to television this weekend, Red Bull was developing a new method of presenting the pinnacle of motorsports. In collaboration with Dutch Drone Gods (DDG), the company developed the fastest camera drone in history to track its newest Formula One car through a complete lap of Silverstone. Given that the average consumer drone can only travel up to 37 mph (60 km/h), DDG’s top speed had to be greater than 217 mph (350 km/h).Though it’s not the fastest drone ever made for filming, it is the fastest drone ever designed for that purpose. This forced the team to reconsider the drone’s shape, and with some assistance from Red Bull Advanced Technologies, they came up with a, uh… unique design. But getting the rocket-shaped drone to reach high speeds wasn’t the only challenge.
The drone also needed to be able to slow down like an F1 car in order to record a lap of Silverstone in a single, uninterrupted shot. The drone’s flight time was finally limited to three minutes due to the propeller-powered vehicle’s high battery consumption and system strain.After it was constructed, the task of piloting it presented its own set of difficulties. Pilot Ralph Hogenbirk, also known as Shaggy FPV, was given the job, and he wore a headset that displayed a live feed from the drone in low resolution. He had to simultaneously operate a remote control to fly the drone and a foot pedal to adjust the camera position, all while avoiding signs and bridges and staying out of the turbulent air coming off the F1 car.
“Developing a drone that can maintain speed and capture the car in full frame while capturing the shot in an interesting way is a very challenging project,” stated Hogenbirk. “This shoot was the craziest I’ve done so far, without a doubt.”
The outcomes are unquestionably “interesting,” nevertheless. The drone’s ability to follow Verstappen through a complete wet circuit of Silverstone helps capture the speed and fury of Formula One vehicles in a way that static ground views find difficult to match. David Coulthard, a former Formula One driver, was also impressed.”When you have the drone up close like that then you’re immersed in the whole experience. I’m sure in the not-too-distant future, we’re going to see this as part of our broadcast,” he added. “When you see the big, wide, shots, you lose perspective on the speed of the car.”
