We've all thought about it. What is it like to be at the wheel of a race car? To feel and experience the adrenaline of speed as the world whips by you at 200+ Mph? The people at IndyCar have created a camera providing a stimulation which is as close as you can get to the real thing. The heart-pounding ride of the visor camera is putting IndyCar at the head of the pack for fan viewing experience.

Time for Formula 1 to close the gap.

If you have not seen the visor camera in all its glory, check out this lap from Graham Rahal around the Belle Isle Circuit in Detroit.

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You can almost feel the bumps and G-forces combating the driver as they control the car around the track. Compared to the current on-boards in F1, the visor camera is unlike anything on offer.

United States broadcast teams have been working towards creating such an experience for fifteen years. Paul Tracy was the first to wear a helmet cam with a live feed and did so in the 2002 CART series. The shot was a hit, and is now a point of emphasis in IndyCar’s broadcasts.

Last season, IndyCar began posting videos from practice runs on both their YouTube channel and IndyCar.com. Their web team captured the videos using a helmet mounted GoPro camera. The limitations of the camera meant the video could not be live streamed. The data chip would have to be removed and uploaded. Not very convenient for the broadcast team.

Reaction to the visor video pushed IndyCar to develop a camera package allowing a live feed, giving us race fans the magic we have now.

Creating the shot was no small task, but was something President of IMS Productions*, Robby Greene, was determined to bring to IndyCar. In a conversation with Greene, DriveTribe was able to attain some details of the visor camera, how its implementation has been received, and the outlook for the camera moving forward.

The video from the camera itself is transmitted to the broadcast team no differently than traditional onboard shots. A cable runs from the drivers helmet and is connected to the car via a plug which can easily be disconnected.

In our conversation, Greene explained testing for the visor camera in its current form began in January of this year. Once the team had a reliable camera feed, there were still obstacles to clear. Chief among these obstacles is driver safety. IMS had to create a system that would not add any time to driver extraction in the event of an accident, and was also shatter-proof.

Once the safety barriers were cleared in May, IMS had a camera that was approved to run for drivers using Bell helmets (the helmets used and focused on in testing the camera). Although a lite version of the camera was used as early as the first round at St. Petersburg, the final and current version debuted at the Indy 500.

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It did not take long for the camera to become a phenomenon in the motorsports world.

When asked, Greene said he has received communication from nearly all forms of the racing world questioning how his team at IMS Productions pulled this off. Could the biggest thing in racing really come from a tiny lens whose entire package weighs around six ounces?

On top of being a spectacular visual experience for the current motorsports fan base, the shot is reaching new demographics. Shared across social media at unprecedented levels, the visor camera videos are reaching a younger age group at a higher rate than more traditional onboards have. A group the current racing world is struggling to connect with.

So why is Formula 1 being left in the dust?

F1 is in a phase of transition. Liberty Media Groups recent purchase of the series has not had any major impact to date. Other than more social media activity by the teams and drivers, fans may not notice any change in their level of access to the sport, something Liberty Media has promised to enhance.

Part of their promises include treating each Grand Prix as a Super Bowl. A must-watch spectacle. As many television networks have used unique camera shots in the past to garner increased interest and exposure, so too should Liberty Media and F1.

It is typical for stateside F1 fans to rely on their DVR’s to watch F1 races. With much of the European rounds having start times between 5-8am depending on the time zone, there is not much incentive to set a weekend alarm and watch the standard race broadcast.

But, given the opportunity to see through the eyes of Lewis Hamilton as he blasts through the tunnel into the chicane before heading through Tabac and the Piscine complex at Monaco? Or seeing Sebastian Vettel mount Eau Rouge chasing down a rival in the wet?

That’s appointment television! That’s a spectacle. That’s what ends up being shared across social media platforms and brings more eyes to the sport.

The camera is just as reliable as a regular onboard. It is not as if IndyCar and IMS Productions cracked the Da Vinci code or invented a camera system using dark matter and wizardry.

Their team is just committed to providing the best viewing experience possible for their fans. For instance, Greene explained when Graham Rahal was wearing the visor camera at Detroit, a bug strike dirtied the lens beyond use. Later, the race happened to be red flagged. Greene seized the opportunity and sent someone down to Rahal’s pit box to clean the lens by hand so they could continue to broadcast the shot.

That sort of commitment is special, and commendable.

Maybe the new halo system in F1 will prevent the exact specification IndyCar uses from being feasible. But creating a side mounted camera to provide an angle under the halo should not be any more difficult.

Hopefully Formula 1 catches IndyCar’s draft soon and draws alongside in the race towards providing the most immersive viewing experience. Until then, we’ll just have to enjoy what’s on offer in North America’s premier open wheel racing series.

Come to think of it, that’s really not so bad!

New IndyCar for 2018 in Speedway trim New IndyCar for 2018 in Speedway trim

*IMS Productions is a premier, multi-faceted, multimedia production company located in Indianapolis, Indiana just across the street from the iconic Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Special thanks to Robby Greene, President of IMS Productions, for taking time to answer my questions and offer some insight into the visor camera and IndyCar’s broadcast.