Applied Formula

The most striking, and frequently controversial, example of high-technology meshing with sport, Formula One (F1) has as much in common with aerospace as with automotive. Developing and optimising an F1 car involves cutting-edge innovation, state-of-the-art materials science and boosting the development cycle from concept to design, prototyping and manufacture from months to days or even hours. It is probably the most glamorous environment for an engineer to work in.

The cliché about F1 is that all this high-speed inventiveness makes it the R&D department of the automotive industry. Technologies pioneered on the Grand Prix circuits are taken up by high-end supercars and trickle down into mass production and the road vehicles that we normal mortals drive. But the development time cycles for automotive are long and it can take time for the advanced technologies to move from the circuit to the motorway.

F1's contributions to other sectors are less known, but a recent exhibition at London's Science Museum aimed to set the record straight. Organised in cooperation with McLaren, the Fast Forward exhibition put on show a wide range of products that use F1 technology in strikingly different ways — for medical, mobility and production applications.