24 August

Look at what AI can do. For years I’ve thought Formula 1 racing isn’t really racing, that its results are more about entrenched technological advantage in key teams. So with AI I looked at whether the results of the world championship over the past 30 years were what you’d expect, statistically, if the outcome was about driving ability of the winners. AI did a simulation that involved running 50,000 (!!) permutations of the actual results of the past 30 years. It took 3 minutes (!!). What did it find? The chances of a fair car racing formula that rewards actual driving ability, generating the results we’ve seen? 0.9%.