| How many times in a year do you think you get race day strategy 100% correct? | I would say we never get it 100% correct. Race day strategy isn't just about picking the correct number of stops and stop laps for both cars. |
| Did we take every last drop of grip out of the tyres before we pitted? Did we pressure cars ahead the right amount at every point? Did we back off and protect the tyres the right amount at every point? Did we communicate to the driver exactly what we were trying to achieve and therefore get 100% out of them at every instant in the race? Was the modelling accurate and useful? etc. etc. |
| We will always be searching for marginal/incremental improvements in everything we do. |
| I’m in high school and am planning on going to school to become a mechanical engineer, so my question is this: how available are engineering jobs in F1, or just motorsport in general? Of course, being an F1 engineer would be a dream, but I have no idea how difficult it would be to actually find a job | I have to be honest and say that jobs in motorsport and especially F1 are not plentiful and that they are often oversubscribed many times over. |
| I would not let that put you off though, at your age you have a lot of time to pick up skills, experiences and knowledge that will help you in the endeavor of getting a job in motorsport. |
| I would also say that perseverance is almost an essential quality in finding a job in F1. I, and many others I know, were turned down for roles multiple times and at various points thought we would never get our dream jobs in F1. |
| Hey, Randy! Thanks for doing this awesome AMA. You have talked a lot about getting into F1 for a career as an Engineer. I was hoping you could shed a bit of light in what skillsets/qualifications you look for in candidates who work as the mechanics and the pitstop crew on a given race weekend. Again, Thanks for doing this. I have read through every one of your answers and they were as much fun to read as they were enlightening about the sport we love. | So this is not my area of expertise, although I do spend a lot of time working with the pitcrew - so please take this with a pinch of salt but I think below are the main things we look for: |
| * Some prior experience in building and servicing of race cars or bikes. |
| * An ability to understand and follow (often complex) procedures. |
| * A proactive nature (e.g. when reporting faults or build issues). |
| * Dealing well with a high pressure and time constrained workload and environment. |
| * An attention to detail and a willingness to learn. |
| * Ability to read and interpret technical drawings. |
| * Fabrication and machining skills. |
| Really cool to hear from you Randy. How have you and the team at McLaren been spending your time with everything that’s been going on with Covid-19? Hope we can see you go racing in Austria in July! | So F1 teams have all been subject to an extended "shutdown" meaning that most of us haven't been allowed to work on F1 projects and many of us, consequently, have not been working in recent weeks. |
| Personally, I've used the time to try and get fit, having averaged c. 4 hours and 15 minutes of exercise every day since April 1st (yes I do have a spreadsheet), as well as trying to learn some new skills like React. |
| Many of the team have used the opportunity to spend time with their loved ones, which can be difficult with hectic schedules, to improve their cooking skills (I have eaten the best pizza I've ever had during lockdown!), do gardening and so on. |
| Everyone seems eager to get back to it and most teams will be returning to work over the next fortnight. |
| Hi Randy. Thanks so much for doing this, the answers so far have been really insightful. Can I ask, as an armchair fan, what can I look for over the course of the weekend to help me predict likely strategic calls on race day? | The main 2 factors are tyre behaviour (degradation, wear life and pace difference) and pitstop loss. From here you can get a basic understanding of the strategy before competitors are thrown into the mix. |
| Pirelli kindly provide some of the information each weekend on tyres and you can estimate the rest from FP2 long runs towards the end of the session. Pitstop loss is also often given by some teams (maybe rounded or slightly noisified - but close enough to give you the right number of stops). |
| With those 2 things you can work out the baseline strategy if you were racing alone and then you want to be considering the cars that are a pitstop window ahead and behind and see whether you would stop earlier or later than the baseline based on undercutting, traffic and so on. |
| Thank you so much for doing this AMA! During last year's German GP, I remember that a lot of us fans were interested in contrasting approaches made by two teams as the track started to dry up. One driver saw that the track was dry enough for slicks, called it in, and got the go ahead to take the gamble; he ended up coming very close to a podium. Another driver made similar observations and appealed repeatedly to his engineer to make the switch, but was instructed to stay out for several more laps, costing him points. I understand hindsight is 20/20 here, but if you were the engineer, would you be more inclined to take the driver's word when they potentially contradict the data, or vice versa? Do you believe there's a "correct" approach in situations like these, or a personal preference? Again, thank you so much! (Typed from my “Mclaren Edition” phone...I can't wait for the season to start, and I really wish you guys the best!) | Thank you for the kind words! |
| I think there is a lot you don't see (not your fault) when it comes to strategic decisions, this is amplified many times over in a wet or changeable conditions race, where decisions are extremely difficult, with lots of information, of varying quality/frequency. |
| I think we have learnt that it depends. Sometimes, we will weight the driver's input higher than anything else, sometimes it will be the least valuable information. |
| Do you employ many Americans on the team, and if so what does it take? Assuming they have the technical credentials of engineering. | So we have nothing against Americans, nor people of other nationalities - having the right to work in the UK is sometimes required although we do also help with visa applications this isn't always possible for us to do. |
| In terms of Americans on the team, we have Zak Brown, of course and I'll be honest and say I can't think of any others at the moment, although we have had a few placement students in recent years from the United States. |
| There's no extra requirement for Americans, especially as we're moving to Mercedes powerunits soon, we won't have too many issues with the pronunciation of Renault anymore. |
| What kind of people do you have in the strategy department? Are they mostly engineers, or like mathematicians and computer scientists? | Although we are largely engineers by degree, we don't really discriminate against other backgrounds and are often quite keen to add a diversity of ideas and backgrounds into the mix - a numerate degree is going to be very helpful though. |
| We are 60% mechanical engineers, 1 engineemathematician hybrid and 1 physicist. |
| Is it unusual to go from entry-level engineer to head of strategy in 6-7 years? What do you think drove your success? | I think it actually happened even a bit quicker than that - which had never been my expectation when I started. |
| It's hard to say what is unusual, there are so few "race strategists" in the world, let alone in F1 that I think there's not really a "usual" and often timescales can be quite variable based on circumstance (e.g. someone leaving/changing role). |
| I guess the success is driven by the confidence and belief in the strategy team, of which I am just a part - so the fact that the other members of the team are so good, that management above us let us independently improve and change our processes without blame nor interference etc. is what has really driven it. Also have the much wider strategy team that includes 10s of volunteers to thank - it truly is a team effort and no single person would have the impact they do without the team around them. |
| Does race strategist cooperate with aerodynamics department in any way? | So, I can't go into details but yes we do. Strategy is a really cool role because we end up dealing with pretty much all other areas - as we also cover things like Competitor Intelligence and Sporting matters. |
| In a more typical sense, just thinking about race strategy, there are a few areas that spring to mind, aerodynamicists and other engineers will be setting things like the wing level and the trades made here can affect performance in qualifying vs. the race, something that we as strategists are well placed to comment on the value of and also for setting cooling levels, we're responsible for weather forecasting and interpretation and so will often liaise with our aerodynamics colleagues about the risks of it being hotter than certain limits. |
| the below is a reply to the above | |
| Could you unpack a bit on what "competitor intelligence" does? Thanks! | "Mr Holmes, I would love to tell you, but then I'd have to kill you." |
| I'm afraid that in this case the answer is no. All I can say is that we do some pretty neat things using the various kinds of information (audio, video, images, data, quotes, etc.) to gain intelligence on things like relative performance, other teams and so on. |
| What’s your proudest moment in F1 to date? | Another tough one! |
| What makes me proudest is the Strategy team at McLaren. The team consists of around 5 people at its core and I can honestly say that they are the most talented, motivated, most passionate and smartest collection of individuals I have ever had the pleasure of working with. Everyone's level naturally rises when you work with people of this calibre and although the team is constantly looking for areas of improvement, challenging each other - it is also really just fun. I am very proud that I've played a part in pulling in each of my strategy teammates. |
| One other thing that gets close (other than Grand Prix which I'll cover in another answer) is Mission Control. McLaren were kind enough to give me the opportunity to manage the project to design a new Mission Control from scratch, build and deploy it. We were responsible for building contractors, ventilation, budget, aesthetic, even unpacking and setting up over 30 machines. The Mission Control room is an awesome facility and we built it together as a team. A lot of it is secret but here's a photo you are allowed to see: |
| https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EKssMOfWkAAwPE6?format=jpg&name=large |
| Hello, Do you go on reddit and check this sub sometimes? | I would say more frequently than sometimes and I'm not the only one who works in F1 than does. |
| The content on here can be amazing at times - from some of the photos, to some of the data visualisations - and sometimes it is just fun to read comments and see how different our perspective of a race/event can be to that of fans. |
| You've talked about refuelling in a previous answer, and how it might affect strategies, but what is your opinion on the current tyres, and how they basically force the teams to do a two-stop strategy? Would you prefer if the tyres were manufactured in a way that makes them more durable? Thank you! | So, I would start by saying the tyres don't force teams into 2 stop strategies, however, the front-runners will have a higher propensity for 2 stops over 1 stops in the current regime, which may present a more skewed picture to fans. |
| I believe and I think my colleagues and competitors agree, that good racing does involve some strategic flexibility and variety and a good sweet spot is to have races that are at crossover between 2 an 3 stop strategies (crossover means the timings and track position work out such as to be roughly equal). |
| However, Pirelli are in an unenviable position with regards to giving us tyres that would encourage 2 or 3 stop crossover events, as the drivers also need to be able to push the tyres lap after lap to get good racing. |
| So you can see that Pirelli have to try and balance both concerns and I think with that in mind they are doing a good job of finding a balance. |
| The strategy with sainz in Brazil was amazing man | Thanks for the kind words but the strategy in Brazil (I hope) was as good as in Austria, or Hungary, etc. We didn't do anything particularly special but in this case the outcome was particularly good - we try and judge ourselves on our decisions/processes/analysis rather than the outcome as the outcome/result can be dependent on chance which is outside our control. |
| Have you found any books in particular helpful when it comes to the soft skills required working in a multi-department environment, also when it comes to the overarching strategic principles. Building on that, how often do you find yourself acting against the data/conclusions presented to you in favour of your own observations or “common sense” | I think the most useful book has been Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix as it really demonstrates the importance of teamwork. Mark Corrigan's seminal "Business Secrets of the Pharaohs" and Michael Scott's "Somehow I Manage" are also essential reading. |
| Seriously though, a difficult one, I think a lot of skills are picked up outside of books, things like logical problem-solving, being extremely pro-active, etc. however, some books that I find have been useful are: |
| * Thinking Fast and Slow (almost essential reading, Thinking in Bets is also good) |
| * The Intelligent Entrepreneur (very inspiring) |
| * Outliers (to try and replicate some of the factors) |
| * Legacy (a great book about teamwork and management) |
| * Resonant Leadership (given to me by manager and a great read) |
| Speaking from a career standpoint, does having a background in something like biology factor into a possible role at all? Something of a mix of Biology and Engineering (Biomed, Bioengineering etc)? Thanks! | It can do - I specialised in Biomedical Engineering as one of my electives in my final year at university, by the way. |
| Especially in strategy, different viewpoints/experiences/backgrounds can be very useful. |
| So we're hearing that Austria and maybe Britain is going ahead, is McLaren prepping for this or are they waiting for official word from Formula 1 | I can't comment on the calendar as it stands as that would be breaking confidentiality. However, I can say that Liberty and the FIA are working tirelessly to bring a calendar together and it was something that we all discussed yesterday in the Sporting Working Group and is no doubt being discussed on a daily basis in other forums also. |
| The teams, including McLaren, are trying as well to prepare for the season starting soon whilst remaining flexible such that if there are changes we can adapt to them quickly and well. |
| How do you judge a mandatory 2 pit stops instead of only one? Can this make the races more enjoyable in your opinion? Thanks | I don't think mandatory 2 stop strategies are a good idea. I can talk about this openly as its something we have debated with other teams, the FIA and Liberty as well and as a group we decided against it. |
| The reason I don't like mandatory 2 stop strategies is that it is artificial and artificial constraints (I believe) will lead to more strange/bad occurrences than good ones. |
| The benefit of mandatory 2 stop strategies is that everyone will make 2 stops which on average is more stops than we currently do and we believe that more stops (to a limit) typically lead to more exciting races. |
| However, the downside is that this is purely artificial. If the race is a clear 1 stop and we add a second stop artificially then it's more likely that that stop could be placed in a strange spot, because the sensitivity to its timing could be low - you may see cars pitting very early or late into the race and therefore the race is still like a 1 stop (you don't get the full benefit on racing of the second stop) - especially with a point for fastest lap. |
| You may then argue that we could force the second stop into a particular window, or set a limit on stint lengths. This also has issues, with cars likely to be concentrated on one side of the window and then there may need to be more artificial constraints. |
| I very firmly believe that the best way to encourage more stops is to keep constraints on strategists light and influence the primary factors that determine how many stops there are, that is: |
| * Pitloss (decrease = positive pressure on number of stops). |
| * Tyre behaviour (worse behaviour = positive pressure on number of stops). |
| What's it like working for the most positive and happiest team? | Let me ask some of my friends at other teams and I'll get back to you soon. |
| Only kidding 😁 ! I can't say if McLaren is the most positive/happiest team as I've not been everywhere, but its certainly the most fun, positive, happy, smart, etc. etc. team I've ever worked at. |
| I love it. It's the people that make McLaren (and I know that's a cliche) special and I enjoy working in such a tight-knit, funny, motivated team. |
| What was the most difficult race strategy wise in your F1 career? | My first race, I think stands outs - the 2013 Australian Grand Prix. I started work on January 2nd that year (my first real job in F1), had no strategy experience, had to do lots of winter reporting and had no strategy mentor (as the previous strategist had left already). I'm not sure "baptism of fire" and "thrown into the deep-end" are mixable metaphors but that's what it felt like. |
| To make matters more "interesting", the data showed and I was convinced that it would be a multiple stop (probably 3 stop) grand prix, based on what we had observed in Winter Testing and during Friday and Saturday running. This was in sharp contradiction to recent history at the Australian Grand Prix - so there were many heated discussions over this (with the majority of the team heavily disagreeing with it being more than a 1 stop race and every member having much more experience than I). |
| Turns out lack of experience can be an advantage sometimes. Teams tended to do a 2 or 3 stop race, but the latter was much better. Teams were reluctant to add stops given experience and recent history of the Australian Grand Prix and this pushed many into poor strategies, rather than adapting to the tyre behaviour we were observing. |
| 2013 was an interesting year for strategy, with empirical data and lack of bias being really important to getting the strategies right. If you were to look through those races there are certain teams that flip-flopped a lot and others that quickly adapted to the new 'normal'. |
| Hi Randy, I don't know if this is already over but I'll try anyway. It's no surprise that working in F1 in any capacity must be extremely competitive. Is there any chance for someone considering a career change to be able to get a foot in the door? I work in investment management and realise that I want to be as close to my passion as possible. I'm open to pretty much any job just to get in. Naturally Id hope to have some transferable skills but i would focus on the chance to build skills and potentially go from there. Any advice? Thanks! | I think perseverance and desire are key and yes it is possible. Coincidentally, I was working in the investment industry when I was offered the chance to take a full time role in strategy for the 2013 season. |
| I had worked at Williams for my final year project at university, but had been "out of the game" for a couple years when I got the offer to return. |
| Hello Randy, I am sorry if this has already been asked. But I would like to know your thoughts on: The new strategy involved on the new regulations/ground affect designs on the new Formula 1 vehicles? Is this a step in the right direction? Love to hear an professional / insider view on these new changes to the sport as the team Engineers do not seem to have a big say in the acceptace of the design limitations from FIA. | I personally think the new regulations (Sporting, Technical and Financial) are moving the sport in the right direction and so am looking forwards to them being introduced over the coming years. |
| I would also say, as it may not be obvious to fans, that teams and engineers are heavily involved in these regulations. Whether that is us helping to draft parts of them, sense check them, vote on them, etc. it is a very open, constructive forum between the teams, the FIA and FOM (and other external experts as required). |
| Day 5: Mr. Singh is still answering questions. He's now one of us. LEGEND, and thanks to McLaren for allowing this. -Best AMA yet? DCanswered4questions. | Haha thank you! |
| I will probably have to stop soon - but have a few more answers coming on a few families of question I haven’t yet answered. 🙂 |
| Hi, Randy, Your answers are great, thank you! One of my most favorite McLaren performances of recent years was Fernando's insane race in Azerbaijan in 2018, when he had a double tyre puncture but still managed to finish 7th. Were you still his personal strategist back then? What was your role in his success? What were you thoughts when you saw him limping to the pits on two wheels? What did you do after that? | What a race, eh? "Personal" strategist, you make us sound like mathematical butlers... 😁. |
| I wasn't Fernando's strategist at that time, Chris (one of our team) had already taken over by then and I was leading the team. It was not an easy race, although it may look like we sat back and watched, there's a lot of decisions made that you don't see and a lot of decisions made not to do stuff. |
| It was a good team effort from everyone to stay calm and try and pick up the pieces after the incident on the first lap, when the car rolled into the pits we did consider retiring it - but as a famous paper salesman once said "you miss 100% of the shots you don't take". What outsiders (who get special access) often notice is that the team stays calm, you can't get wobbly or excited over the incident/accident, you need to be calm, methodical and logical. |
| Great ama | I think this is my favourite question so far. 😀 |
| To be honest, the questions are very interesting and I have had so many people answer questions for me when I was in the position of being a fan/student and that changed my life by helping me get my dream job. If I can give back a fraction of the help/information I've received then I'll feel very happy! |
| How contagious is Landos laugh? | I don't know about you but I find it quite grating. Do you know the feeling you get when you hear someone scratch their nails across a blackboard, or when your alarm goes off and you're still tired? |
| In all seriousness though, Lando is a funny guy and does always keep the mood nice and light. |
| Hi Randy. Who is your favourite member of the IT team? Sincerely, Definitely not a member of the IT team. | Trick question! I don't have a favourite member of the IT team. 😁 |
| Is there any role for physicians/doctors on race teams? | As doctors, I would probably say no. Most teams won't employ their own doctors anymore or will do so in a very limited capacity. |
| However, that doesn't mean we don't have medical support, it tends to come through external organisations that support F1, such as Formula Medicine, for example, or the FIA's Medical Programme. |
| We also occasionally get applications for strategists who have a medical background - and that isn't something we look down upon, if anything it may provide a skillset/experiences that would be complementary to those of 'mostly engineers'. |
| I understand you may not answer because this may be sensitive, but Which method of steering the ship do you think is more effective ? The steely dictatorial grip of Ron Dennis or the More lenient managerial approach of Zak brown ? From a fan perspective, I love that mclaren drivers aren’t on such a tight leash. | I never really worked under Ron as I joined in mid-2015. I have to say that the management style I’ve experienced throughout has been great - no blame culture, very open and understanding, letting the experts make decisions, etc. |
| Have you ever sat on the pitwall at the start and said (even to yourself) "And it's lights out and away we go."? | I haven’t! I imagine I now will at whichever Grand Prix we get the pleasure of starting first this year. |
| Is Ferrari’s strategy as much of a running joke in the paddock as it is by the fans and here on reddit? Maybe you can’t really answer that truthfully but I’ve always been curious. It’s obviously a difficult job but I do wonder if they shoot themselves in the foot as often as it seems from the fans perspective. | Answered elsewhere in the thread. |
| It's a difficult, stressful job, so you always have respect for your competitors. |
| In your experience, would adding flame decals to my truck make it go faster? | Where are you going to place them? What colour are the flames? |
| Hey randy, i am a 15 year old girl who lives in india and my dream is to become a formula one engineer or work in f1 in anyway. What do u think are the educational qualifications needed to become a formula 1 engineer and what exposure do u think i need to even be close to full filling my dream. I have been following mclaren f1 team for quite some while now and love the friendly environment inside the team. | As PapaKeth says, hopefully there are some answers to your question about what qualifications are required in my other comments. |
| Can I say though, don't let being 15, female, or living in India deter you - none of those things are a blocker to getting a job in F1 in the future. |
| Hi ! Thank you for answering some of our questions ! I've been wanting to ask, in the event of a car failure ( engine failure, hydraulics failure, etc) how do you become aware of it ? Do you have a real time data link to the car as an engineer ? Or is it something you see on a TV ? | So we get data from the cars "live", there are hundreds of sensors on each car and this data is transmitted to us at the track and we also transmit it back to HQ in Woking. There are tens of people looking at the data and typically we will spot problems in the data, or based on feedback from the drivers, before we see them on TV. |
| That doesn't mean that we never spot stuff on TV first - sometimes you don't have instrumentation for certain things and so you may spot it visually first and the TV feed is a good way of sense-checking in some cases as well. |
| Do you think Stoffel deserved to still be in F1? (Not necessarily with McLaren) | 100% - he is a great talent and I'm very glad that he is doing so well in Formula E. |
| Hi, thanks for doing this Q&A. Working for an F1 team is the dream, though I understand it's very difficult to get in. I'm disabled, would this matter to an employer? Do you have any advice on how I could approach this to someone as I'm just finishing my first year at University and hoping to apply for internships. Also, (sorry if you've answered this question already) I am studying Mathematics probably going to move into Mathematics and Statistics. Would it be possible to apply for a strategist position with a Mathematics degree? | Your disability should not matter to an employer and I really believe it will not. We have people with disabilities working at McLaren. Perhaps if it is something you are concerned about or if its a disability that a team (or McLaren) could help make easier to manage (apologies if my wording is not sensitive) then I would highlight that in your application when you apply for a role. |
| Mathematics is entirely sensible as a background for a strategist role. I started off in Mathematics (& Statistics) before I moved over to Engineering (I found Mathematics at university to be too abstract for my liking). If you are doing Statistics anything that covers stochastic modelling would be particularly relevant to strategy. |
| I want to work in F1 in the future and preferably an engineer role. Would studying Mechanical Engineering be the best course to get a chance? Thanks | I would say the majority of F1 engineers have studied Mechanical Engineering but that doesn't necessarily equate to it giving you the best chance of getting in. Engineering skills (and particularly mechanical engineering skills) will make you suitable for a multitude of roles in an F1 team (from strategy, to design engineering, to race engineering and performance analysis), so naturally you would expect more mechanical engineers. |
| I would have a think about the role that you would like to do and what qualifications would give you the best chance for that role, it could be that its Computer Science instead, or Aerodynamics, or maybe it is Mechanical Engineering. I would also think heavily about how interested you are in said degree - a degree is not a small investment of time, money and effort and its important you do something you enjoy. |
| the below is a reply to the above | |
| Hey Randy, this answer was not directed at me but I just want to let you know it really just helped me out. I recently dropped out of mechanical engineering because I wasn't enjoying it and made the switch to computer science. It really pained me for a while thinking about giving up the F1 dream because my career choice wasn't ideal for me. So yeah, thanks. While I'm at it I'd like to add a question about computer science in an F1 team, what kind of roles could I take part of with that degree (specificaly at the track, though I see how that's a bit less likely)? Are there masters degrees or specializations more sought after in certain areas? Again, thanks a lot for you time in answering these questions and apologies for the bad english 😅 | Hi, no worries and thank you for the appreciation. |
| Computer Science is a numerate enough degree at most places that you could lend yourself to any role as long as you can pick up the required engineering knowledge as well. Obviously, something in areas like Software Engineering, IT or Vehicle Science/Modelling may be most relevant/easy but there aren't necessarily many trackside opportunities in those areas. |
| Hello, First of all, thanks for answering all those questions. It's nice for us students dreaming of F1 to have something to look up to. So I am studying mechanical engineering in France and I am really looking forward to become a Motorsport Race engineer, and obviously F1 would be the dream. What I like the lost in that job is the trackside aspect, travelling, living the race. As I imagine, you need some years of experience to become a trackside F1 engineer. So do you think building experience in lower formulas like F2/F3, FE, or prototypes, GT...as performance/data engineer in smaller teams is a good way to line up for a trackside job in F1 ? Or is it recomended to start as an engineer at the lowest level directly in F1 and try to climb the ladder from there ? What is the proportion of your trackside colleagues that come from other motorsport categories ? Thanks ! | Great - I look forward to working with you, or competing against you in the future! |
| That's a tough one. I wouldn't say trackside experience, per se, is very highly desired for trackside roles, but rather a demonstration of the deep technical/operational knowledge, the ability to deal with stress, etc. that makes people successful in those roles. |
| For this reason, I would say it's better to be in an F1 team and then attempt to try and go trackside, than to be trackside in a 'lower' formula. |
| The data, from my experience, suggests the same, the vast majority of engineers are in F1 first and then go trackside, rather than being trackside outside of F1 and moving to be trackside in F1. |
| That is not to say that experience in 'lower' formulae is not immensely useful to securing a job in F1 (just, I believe less preferred than F1 experience). |
| [deleted] | We have - and not just sports too. |
| We have met with data scientists from football teams, coaches from the Olympics, rugby teams and professional cyclists - as well as many engineers and drivers from other motorsport series. |
| We also try and keep learning by working with partners or contacts across the military and commercial fields also. |
| the below is a reply to the above | |
| Can you expand on the military part? | Only at a high level, I'm afraid - as I wouldn't want to give anything away to others. |
| One area that I can talk about is that many teams will use military or ex-military experts to coach/train/share ideas with their personnel as there is a lot of overlap (as there is with many commercial fields also). So, for example, the military practice high quality communications on a regular basis, in highly stressful/pressured situations - that's an area where many teams have worked with ex-RAF personnel, for example, to share best practice, to coach and teach personnel and to improve processes. |
| Hi Randy My question is, if there's for example safety car deployed and the decision whether pit or not have to be made quickly, can the race engineer and the driver make a decision without asking you? | They can but they shouldn't and I can't think of an occasion when they have. |
| Strategy decisions are made by the strategy team (not necessarily by me) and we have processes in place for making decisions where we have lots of time (normally measured in minutes), down to decisions where we may have 2 or 3 seconds to decide what to do for both cars and execute the communications/actions to do it. |
| Sometimes we may pre-make the decision and sometimes we have to make it on the fly or override our original intent - the thing about safety cars is that the cause of them can often change your variables/strategy. |
| Can you speak on how the sport has changed in the past few years in aspect to big data. How has data gathering and manipulation changed the sport? Specifically when it comes to making decisions based on past and current strategies. What kind of software and hardware have made the biggest changes, and how do you see the future of F1 benefit from AI/Big-data? Thanks for any info you may be able to share. | McLaren have always been data-driven, so things haven't changed too much recently. We are finding better ways to analyse the data we have and to draw insights from it. I'm afraid I can't say too much more. |
| Why is it that you still see signs being held out to the drivers at the pit wall? Surely there can’t be anything said on these signs which can’t be said over the car radio? There’s gonna be a simple answer id imagine. I’ve always thought that it would be hard to try read a sign while travelling at 200 mph? | It happens so rarely nowadays but the radio can fail, so the pitboards are a backup for that. The drivers should always give them a look as they go past (and they rarely do!) in case the radio has failed. |
| In the current times, where radio is public to other teams they could also be used as a way of passing coded messages, but we do watch them and that doesn't seem to be the case. |
| Hey Randy! Big fan of your work last season! My question is: Other than focusing on optimising strategy through the various instruments you have for every next race, what portion of your work is dedicated to improving the tools you have to work out strategies, or developing new technologies and methods? Is this something done consistently or over the winter? And lastly, how much does McLaren Applied work with you in using the newer tools in their work? Thanks :) | Thank you. |
| With how busy the season is, often it is difficult to spend too much time doing development in the season, so big projects are typically tackled over the Winter period between seasons (although this is also getting compressed). |
| However, we are constantly, both in race weekends and between, developing our analysis techniques, smaller pieces of software, our understanding of competitors' behaviours, etc. so there is a constant ongoing development battle. |
| We do work with McLaren Applied fairly frequently across the business - we're not currently doing that on strategy projects. |
| the below question has been split into two, enumerated | |
| Hi, thanks for doing this AMA! I've spent a lot of time reading your answers!I don't know if you'll answer this too but I'll try asking something anyway 1. What are the possible roles that a computer science graduate could cover? | Hi! If you wanted to be very computer science focused, I guess software engineering, IT and some of the compute type roles would be interesting. If you're willing to pick up engineering knowledge then things like Vehicle Science modelling and CFD can open up too. |
| 2. What are the main languages/frameworks used in the F1 enviroment? |
| 3. Are you worried about Daniel coming next year? I mean, probably it will be hard not to laugh for the entire week-end when he's with Lando! Thanks in advance, totally not a computer science student. |
| Hi Randeep, first of all, thanks for your deep insights into the world of Formula 1 and McLaren. My question to you is, how do McLaren (or any other F1 team for that matter) ensure a stable electrical power supply in the case of a loss of normal power supply (Diesel Generators/UPS/battery banks) at both the factory and less likely to occur but still possible, at the track? Bonus question; how do teams (McLaren) prepare for different types of electrical outlets, voltages and currents all around the world? | To start - I’ll say I’m not an electrician - take the below with a pinch of salt. |
| Most teams will have generators at the track (actually various kinds - to run stuff on the grid, in the trucks at European events and external ones at fly away races) and some kind of UPS system as well. Power supplies at circuits can be ‘temperamental’ and often there are power outages for specific reasons too. |
| In terms of for electrical outlets - we as end users just bring our UK stuff and plug it in! There’s an electrician and IT team who ensure that everything is set up and good to go and sneak with different voltage, phase, etc. supplies. |
| How did it feel to be part of mclaren last year? Like it has been in an incredible year with outstanding results. | I have to say, I have enjoyed every year at McLaren and I started in 2015 when the results weren't outstanding - I am working with really awesome people and even through the bad times it is great to see the team spirit that pervades through everyone. |
| Last year was incredible and it's good to get an upswing in performance and to see teammates celebrating the thick after making it through the thin! |
| Who won the bet where Lando had to have ur face as his lock screen till Abu Dhabi last year? | Lando won the bet, but he also clearly has no shame. 😃 |
