Chris Ballard wants to build the Formula 1 equivalent for “live” giant drone racing.
The founder of Australian startup Freedom Class Giant Drone Racing mentioned that motorsport nearly a dozen times during an interview earlier this week, stating that drone racing is “born into the digital age.”
For Freedom Class, we’re not talking traditional drone sizes. We’re talking about giant drone racing, with the aerial vehicles measuring 1.5 meters or five times that of normal-sized drones, according to Ballard.
Near the end of 2015, Ballard and his small team found an alternative to regular drone racing. He explained that after holding a few state-level races in Australia, conversations with potential sponsors didn’t materialize and at the same time, he and his colleagues believed the normal drones weren’t great for spectators.
“Giant drones would work quite well, ones that you could actually see,” he said.
“We started to identify the challenges and decided to start chipping away at it. The sport needed to improve.”
From the beginning of 2016, Ballard added that it was either a “go big or go home” sort of dilemma for Freedom Class.
Get The Latest Drone Racing Tech News In Your Inbox!
“We had two main choices: something that is about a tenth of the power they have now or all the way to the end where they are now. There is no in between. We thought, ‘Let’s go all out and see what we can come up with,’” he said.
Freedom Class Giant Drone Racing started with a range of aircraft designs, eventually bringing in a carbon fiber specialist from Melbourne who used to work on the front end of Formula 1 cars to help with version one of the aircraft. Ballard added that there were a lot of technical challenges to overcome, especially given that regular drones generate 1-2 kilowatts of power versus upwards of 20 kilowatts right now for the larger ones, leading to much more heat coming off the latter. Currently, Freedom Class is in the process of manufacturing the version two aircraft and have plans for more aerodynamic models soon as it continues to put Formula 1 at the center of its direction.
“Our initial ideas stemmed from Formula 1 and how that has changed the face of motorsports in the last couple of decades,” Ballard said. “That’s what we’re trying to emulate and build up and create that international standard of aerial racing.”
While Ballard declined to say when and where Freedom Class would hold its first race of 2017, he did say it is focusing on abiding by certain international guidelines and safety regulations to “really ensure that we can be accepted globally as the leading edge of drone sports,” especially from a live standpoint.
Unlike other drone organizations such as the Drone Racing League — which is partnered with ESPN and “very much a post-production company” according to Ballard — Freedom Class wants to own the “live” racing experience. Whether that is through an over-the-top streaming platform and/or via linear broadcast is a wait-and-see game. First and foremost, though, Freedom Class is working to perfect the drone aircraft technology before a formal league takes flight.
“They do have some very good content,” Ballard said in reference to the DRL, which views itself as a technology company and heads into DRL Season 2 this summer. “What we’re designing, though, is something more around that ‘live’ factor. Live event racing, live spectating. These are all things that aren’t offered by any other brand out there, so that’s a large segment we’re looking to fill.”