F1 - McLaren, a technical and engineering powerhouse
The equivalent of a new Eurofighter design every year, one of the most powerful supercomputers in Britain, a team of mathematicians working on game theory to provide optimum strategies, the best engineers in the worlds of aerodynamics and mechanical engineering and their work being scrutinised by 600 million people every weekend. All these factors come together at McLaren, one of the leading teams in the engineering hothouse that is Formula 1.
I’ve drafted this article to give some idea of the computing and IT power behind a Formula 1 team. It is based on publicly available information, and some of it may be incorrect or out of date.
McLaren has a reputation for excellence in all aspects of their business. Their team principal, Ron Dennis, demands nothing but the best. Their new McLaren Technology Centre (or “Paragon”) is a futuristic design from none other than Sir Norman Foster.
“With a jet fighter you are looking at maybe a 10 year development programme, where with an F1 car you are talking about months, sometimes even weeks”. Henry Fong, Senior Business Development Manager at Mechanical Computer-Aided Engineering (MCAE) in Sun.
Continue Reading 20 comments September 14th, 2006
