Our mates across the pond at Wired.co.uk attended the unveiling new MP4-26 McLaren Formula 1 car in Berlin last week. While they were there, they got to chat with managing director Jonathan Neale about sustainability, computational fluid dynamics, driver weight and Vodafone's contributions beyond cash.
Wired.co.uk: Do you think Formula 1 is doing enough when it comes to sustainability?
Jonathan Neale: Between 2009 and 2012 we'll be reducing CO2 by around 30,000 tonnes -- which represents a 12 percent reduction. But fossil fuels aren't the biggest thing, it's the size of our supply chain. We've also seen the reintroduction of KERS (kinetic energy recovery systems) and there is huge room for innovation there. There's also been a significant reduction in track testing [thanks to simulation]. I don't think we do a good job of telling people about it though as it doesn't make good headlines.
There's a debate going on about running F1 cars as EVs in the pit lane. Some people say, "Isn't that just a milk float in the pit lane?" But when you look at the technology required to make that happen and restart the engine at the end of the pit lane it's exciting.
Wired.co.uk: Virgin Racing has taken a huge punt on computational fluid dynamics (CFD), having designed its 2010 and 2011 cars entirely in the digital domain. Can you win like that?
JN: The role of simulation is important to us, but with limited track testing you've still got the problem of correlation to test if your model is right. No matter how big your supercomputer, you have to reference something. I really admire the ambition, but there are lots of things that are hard to test off the track, such as cars bouncing around corners, on kerbs, sliding… It's not easy to model all of those.
Wired.co.uk: Cars are heavier with KERS. How do you deal with that?
JN: Weight is always an issue. It's a nightmare when a car's heavy and you have to reverse engineer it to take weight out -- the return on investment on that is rubbish. So we have appointed a weight management person who weighed every single component we were using so there were no surprises.
Wired.co.uk: What about introducing regulations on driver weight?
JN: The drivers get their R&R in December and then just train hard and lean down. Lewis has slimmed down.
Wired.co.uk: Does Lewis get frustrated when you ask him to lose weight?
JN: Well, a kilo's a kilo! Not naming any names but we have had more difficult drivers in the past.
Wired.co.uk: What technologies developed for F1 will cross over to consumer vehicles?
JN: The role of simulation in making suspension geometry is something we know a lot about in F1. We also know a lot about the low-cost-of-assembly carbon fiber structures for fuel efficiency and great-handling cars. However, F1 is less relevant for other things because we are restricted by regulation. We'd love to have ABS or launch control, but can't. However, metals, heat management, carbon fiber and some of the energy part of a hybrid work very well. We have also done a lot to push the power density of lithium-ion battery technology over the last two years. We can now get one horse power for seven seconds out of something that looks like a torch [flashlight] battery.
Wired.co.uk: Beyond stumping up sponsorship money, what does Vodafone contribute to the McLaren Formula 1 team?
JN: Vodafone provides the Vodafone One unified communications system, which makes team members contactable via multiple devices wherever they are in the world. They also ship huge amounts of data [weather data, mechanical data, performance data] from wherever we are in the world to mission control in Woking.
Be sure to check out the Wired UK Q&A with Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton.
This Q&A was written by Olivia Solon of Wired UK.
Photo of Jonathan Neale with Lewis Hamiton: McLaren
