FAQ

Frequently asked questions about the Braking Lab Race Engineer and MCP integration.

The Race Engineer is an AI-powered assistant that connects to your Braking Lab account through the Model Context Protocol (MCP). It can analyze your telemetry data, generate coaching reports, help prepare for races, and manage your track notes — all through natural conversation with an AI assistant.

Do I need to pay extra for the Race Engineer?

The Race Engineer is included with your Braking Lab account during the beta period. You do need a subscription to an MCP-compatible AI assistant (like Claude Pro for Claude Desktop).

Which AI assistants work with the Race Engineer?

Any assistant that supports MCP Streamable HTTP transport with OAuth 2.0:

Claude Desktop (recommended) — Full MCP support
Cursor — Built-in MCP support
Windsurf — MCP support available
Custom clients — Any MCP-compatible client

Can I use it with ChatGPT or Gemini?

Currently, these assistants don’t support the MCP protocol. If they add MCP support in the future, they’ll work with the Race Engineer automatically.

Privacy & Security

Can the Race Engineer see my data?

The Race Engineer can only access data in your authenticated Braking Lab account. It cannot see other users’ data. Access requires you to log in through the OAuth flow.

Is my data sent to the AI?

When you use the Race Engineer, your telemetry data flows through:

Braking Lab servers — Where your data is stored
The MCP connection — Encrypted transport
The AI assistant — Which receives the query results

The AI assistant sees the results of queries (lap times, braking data, etc.) but does not store your raw telemetry files.

Can the Race Engineer modify my data?

Yes, some tools can create or update data:

Creative tools — Generate coaching reports
Mutating tools — Create/update race events, track notepads, preparations

The AI assistant will always indicate when it’s about to modify data, and you can approve or reject the action.

Is the code execution safe?

Yes. Code runs in an isolated V8 sandbox with no access to the filesystem, network, or external resources. It has strict memory (32 MB) and time (10 second) limits. See Code Mode for details.

Technical

What is MCP?

The Model Context Protocol is an open standard created by Anthropic that lets AI assistants connect to external tools and data sources. It’s like a USB port for AI — a standardized way to give assistants new capabilities.

Why MCP instead of a built-in chatbot?

MCP has several advantages:

Use your preferred AI — Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client
Better AI quality — You get the full power of frontier AI models
Privacy — Your data stays in Braking Lab, only query results go to the AI
Extensibility — New tools are added to the Race Engineer without updating your client

How do I update the Race Engineer?

You don’t need to. The Race Engineer runs on Braking Lab’s servers and is updated automatically. Your MCP client discovers available tools on each connection.

What if the connection drops?

MCP clients handle reconnection automatically. If you lose connectivity:

In-progress operations will timeout safely
No data is lost or corrupted
The client will reconnect when the network is available

You’re authenticated with the same account used in Capture
The session has been fully synced (not stuck in “Processing” or “Syncing”)
You’re searching with the correct track/car names

The coaching report seems generic

This usually means limited data is available. For better reports:

Complete at least 10-15 clean laps per session
Run multiple sessions at the same track
Avoid sessions with many incidents or off-tracks

Connection won’t authenticate

Clear stored tokens in your MCP client
Sign out and sign in again
Make sure pop-ups aren’t blocked (the OAuth flow opens a browser window)
Verify your Braking Lab account is active

Getting Help

If your question isn’t answered here:

Check the MCP Setup guide for connection issues
Visit the Braking Lab documentation for general app questions
Reach out through the Braking Lab community for beta support

FAQ

General

What is the Race Engineer?