Formula One, the race to testing

As testing nears, I thought it was a good opportunity to share my experience of what it took to get a car to track in testing each season. All thoughts and ideas are my own and do not represent any of my previous employers.

I was lucky enough to spend 8 years in Formula One, the majority of my time was spent in Aerodynamics (aero) working as a design engineer. This article is from that perspective.

The car that's sent to testing is know as "Launch" car. This isn't something that comes from the previous season's last race car, it will have been a project over a year in the making. From a designer's point of view in aero, I would have started to look at the launch car in small projects (in terms of performance adding) from March the year before. Months before this I would have been adding structural improvements to the new car; in terms of how I want parts to be attached and what the internals need to avoid. This might sound a bit insane, considering it can coincide with the first race of the preceding season.

By August of the year before launch, the entire department will have forgotten about that season's car and will be completely focused on the launch car. From August until approximately March this will be the busier time of year for an Aerodynamics department. I use the term busier, needless to say the aero department never has a quiet period!!! During this period, the car will be in a highly developed stage. There may be considerable design changes in this period (aero parts wise).

Launch!!! This is go time for the aero department. We won't have been looking at our own car, all focus will be on the other teams. What have they seen that we didn't see? What are the new ideas, what direction have they brought their development in? This is something that will especially big in 2019 with the new rules that have been introduced. With the HAAS car already released, I am sure all the other teams are scrutinising photos to fine detail as you read this. Some details may be investigated further, some teams focus a large amount of energy on replicating large parts of the "best" packages that they see.

At the end of testing, every team will have some idea of who is in the best position. This is an idea, and mainly based on an educated guess! Nobody knows exact fuels, how hard the drivers were pushing, engine modes used by the other teams. The questions are usually answered during the most nervous time of a season for staff working for an F1 team, in Melbourne... "IT'S LIGHTS OUT AND AWAY WE GO"

I hope you enjoyed this short article, please let me know if you want me to produce more like this!