STUDYING the stream of numbers flashing across his computer screen, Mark Williams checked the vital signs of Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren MP4-25 racecar as it attacked a corner at the Australian Grand Prix in March. Hamilton pushed hard at the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne, working his way up to a sixth-place finish after starting 11th.

But the shriek of the Mercedes V-8 engine in Hamilton’s racecar never distracted Mr. Williams from his task as head of race engineering for the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Formula One team. On the lookout for abnormal readings  high brake wear, an engine malfunction, excessive fuel consumption  Mr. Williams worked at a desk in the operations room of the team’s home base in Woking, an upscale commuter town about an hour’s drive southwest of London  and 9,000 miles from where the race was taking place in Australia.

That’s racecar telemetry at work in 2010, and it will be in place this weekend as well for the European Grand Prix in Valencia, Spain. Hamilton goes into the race leading the driver championship points, and his team is atop the standings in the constructors’ championship.

Gathering on-track data from electronic sensors to develop the best race-day set-up and strategy is nothing new in Formula One; such remote reporting has been standard practice for years, with multiple channels of radio signals flowing from the car to computers and recording devices at the racetrack, either in the pits or the team’s garage.