The FIA, which is motorsport's international governing body, has announced it successfully tested the Driver's Eye Technology in the World Endurance Championship. The tech is designed to offer a different view of the racing action, straight from the driver's helmet.
Mind you, Driver's Eye has been extensively used in the last two seasons of the Formula E World Championship and it was also showcased in Formula 1 at this year's Belgian Grand Prix. The FIA has released a video of Driver's Eye footage from the practice session held before the last race of this season.
As you can observe, the new camera brings you into the driver's helmet and shows what is going on inside the cockpit of an endurance racing car. In the video that is embedded below, you can observe Brendon Hartley's view of his Toyota GR010 Hybrid Le Mans Hypercar.
Since this was a practice session, the view of the built-in telemetry system on the steering wheel is obstructed by the video editors. That is the only kind of editing that this video received, and the goal was to prevent competitors from getting a view of telemetry data from the Toyota Gazoo Racing Team's vehicles.
The new camera employed for the Driver's Eye Technology was developed by Bell Racing Helmets in conjunction with Zeronoise. Both companies are part of the Racing Force Group, and they made the first-ever, FIA-homologated in-helmet camera.
This camera only weighs 2.5 grams and has a diameter of just 10 millimeters. That is just a centimeter, which means 0.39 inches. The camera is positioned at eye level in the helmet, and its creators have placed it inside the protective padding between the right eye and the ear.
The position has the advantage of being right in the center of the action, without being visible for the driver or obstructing their view of the track in any way. Since it is light, it will not bother anyone and it brings a new degree of entertainment to any series.
With the risk of revealing team strategy and sensitive telemetry data to other teams, the new type of camera has the potential to make motorsport even more exciting to watch. We cannot wait to see more cameras like these developed and available to the public, as these can improve the footage recorded by athletes and videographers.
It is worth pointing out that there are other action cameras made to fit inside a helmet or adapted to be worn and to feature a point-of-view camera angle, but none of them have been permitted for use by the FIA. This one stands out because it is made by a helmet manufacturer and has full FIA homologation, which means that a racer using it will not be penalized in any way.
Sebastian's love for cars began at a young age. Little did he know that a career would emerge from this passion (and that it would not, sadly, involve being a professional racecar driver). In over fourteen years, he got behind the wheel of several hundred vehicles and in the offices of the most important car publications in his homeland. Full profile
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