| Cincinnati Bengals (0-2) at Philadelphia Eagles (0-2) |
|---|
| The Eagles are off to their worst start with a real coach since 2003 (I consider 2013-2015 non-existent) when they also dropped their first two games of the season. The team would like a repeat of that season where following a week 3 bye,the team rebounded to defeat the Bills 23-13. The Eagles ripped off 12 wins in their remaining 14 games following their 0-2 start. Maybe the Eagles will be able to do the same, but they will have to shake the injury bug first. The Eagles will be without first round pick Jalen Raegor this week who underwent surgery on his hand to repair a torn UC ligament in his thumb. The Eagles may also be without Fletcher Cox who is dealing with an oblique injury. The Cox injury should be watched closely if he can’t go, Joe Mixon and Joe Burrow will have a much easier day against the struggling defense. Last week against the Rams, the defense was under prepared and unable to stop anyone. The Rams took advantage of Jim Schwartz’s consistently odd decision to have his CBs, play so far off the line of scrimmage, giving a free release to the WRs and allowing easy short passes. If Schwartz does the same this week, it will be another long day for the Eagles defense and a great fantasy day for Tyler Boyd, who Bengals Joe Burrow connected with 7 times last week including 1 for a TD. On the other side of the ball Doug and Carson will both need to be better than the last two weeks. For Carson, he needs to get out of his own head and play with confidence. For Doug, he needs to find some creativity and help his 5th year QB. He would do well to get Carson moving and utilize the RBs more in the flat and screen game. However, if we see more of the same we saw in weeks 1 and 2 from the Eagles coaching staff, we should expect another loss. Hopefully that is not the case and Carson and the coaches can learn from their mistakes in weeks 1-2 and pull our a win this week. Go Birds! |
| General Information |
|---|
| Posting Rules and Guidelines |
| Remember to [join us on Discord]https://discord.gg/HwwBbM3) during the game! |
| New to the Eagles? Take a look at our New Fan Page! |
| Score Prediction Contest |
| Date |
|---|
| Sunday, September 27th, 2020 |
| Game Time | Game Location |
|---|---|
| 1:00 PM - Eastern | Lincoln Financial Field |
| 12:00 PM - Central | 1020 Pattison Ave |
| 11:00 AM - Mountain | Philadelphia, PA 19148 |
| 10L00 AM - Pacific | Wikipedia - Map |
| Weather Forecast |
|---|
| Stadium Type: Open Air |
| Surface: Grass |
| Temperature: 78°F |
| Feels Like: 78°F |
| Forecast: Clear. Partly cloudy throughout the day. |
| Chance of Precipitation: 1% |
| Cloud Coverage: 31% |
| Wind: South Southwest 8 MPH |
| Betting Odds |
|---|
| Oddsshark Information |
| Favorite/Opening Line: Eagles -5 |
| OveUnder: 46.5 |
| Record VS. Spread: Philadelphia 0-2, Cincinnati 1-0-1 |
| Where to Watch on TV |
|---|
| CBS will broadcast Sunday’s game to a regional audience. Spero Dedes will handle the play-by-play duties and Adam Archuleta will provide analysis. |
| TV Map - Week 3 TV Coverage Map |
| Radio Streams |
|---|
| List of Eagles Radio network member stations with internet broadcast availability |
| Radio.com 94.1 Desktop Streaming |
| Listen to Merrill Reese and Mike Quick |
|---|
| Calling the game on 94WIP and the Eagles Radio Network will be Merrill Reese, the NFL’s longest-tenured play-by-play announcer (44th season). Joining Reese in the radio booth will be former Eagles All-Pro wide receiver Mike Quick, while Howard Eskin will report from the sidelines. |
| Location | Station | Frequency |
|---|---|---|
| Philadelphia, PA | WIP-FM | 94.1 FM and 610 AM |
| Allentown, PA | WCTO-FM | 96.1 FM |
| Atlantic City/South Jersey | WENJ-FM | 97.3 FM |
| Levittown, PA | WBCB-AM | 1490 AM |
| Northumberland, PA | WEGH-FM | 107.3 FM |
| Pottsville, PA | WPPA-AM | 1360 AM |
| Reading, PA | WEEU-AM | 830 AM |
| Salisbury/Ocean City, MD | WAFL-FM | 97.7 FM |
| Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, PA | WEJL-FM | 96.1 FM |
| Salisbury/Ocean City, MD | WAFL-FM | 97.7 FM |
| Salisbury/Ocean City, MD | WEJL-AM | 630 AM |
| Salisbury/Ocean City, MD | WBAX-AM | 1240 AM |
| Williamsport, PA | WBZD-FM | 93.3 FM |
| Wilmington, DE | WDEL-FM/AM | 101.7 FM |
| York/LancasteHarrisburg, PA | WSOX-FM | 96.1 FM |
| Philadelphia Spanish Radio |
|---|
| Rickie Ricardo and Bill Kulik will handle the broadcast in Spanish on Mega 105.7 FM in Philadelphia and the Eagles Spanish Radio Network. |
| Location | Station | Frequency |
|---|---|---|
| Philadelphia, PA | LA MEGA | 105.7 FM |
| Allentown, PA | WSAN | 1470 AM |
| Atlantic City, NJ | WIBG | 1020 AM; 101.3 FM |
| Bengals Radio |
|---|
| Bengals Radio Dan Hoard will handle play-by-play and Dave Lapham will provide analysis for the game. |
| National Radio |
|---|
| Compass Media will broadcast the game nationally with Chris Carrino handling the play by play and Brian Baldinger will provide analysis. |
| Satellite Radio |
|---|
| Station | Eagles Channel | Bengals Channel |
|---|---|---|
| Sirius Radio | SIRI 81 (Streaming 825) | SIRI 105 (Streaming 806) |
| XM Radio | XM 226 (Streaming 825) | Streaming 806 |
| Sirius XM Radio | SXM 226 (Streaming 825) | SXM 385 (Streaming 806) |
| Eagles Social Media | Bengals Social Media |
|---|---|
| Website | Website |
| Snapchat: Eagles | Snapchat: officialbengals |
| NFC East Standings |
|---|
| Series Information |
|---|
| The Cincinnati Bengals lead the Philadelphia Eagles(Cincinnati Bengals lead series, 9-3-1) |
| Series History |
| Head to Head Box Scores |
| First Game Played |
| September 19th, 1971 at Riverfront Stadium, Cincinnati, OH . CIncinnati Bengals 37 Philadelphia Eagles 14 |
| Points Leader |
| Cincinnati Bengals lead Philadelphia Eagles (360-222) |
| Coaches Record |
| Doug Pederson: 0-1 against the Bengals |
| Zac Taylor: 0-0 against Eagles |
| Coaches Head to Head |
| Doug Pederson vs Zac Taylor: First meeting between coaches |
| Quarterback Record |
| Carson Wentz: Against Rams: 0-1 |
| Joe Burrow: Against Eagles: 0-0 |
| Quarterbacks Head to Head |
| Carson Wentz vs Joe Burrow: First meeting between QBs. |
| Records per Stadium |
| Record @ Lincoln Financial Field: Bengals lead Eagles: 2-0 |
| Record @ Paul Brown Stadium: Bengals lead Eagles 1-0-1 |
| Rankings and Last Meeting Information |
|---|
| AP Pro 32 Ranking |
| Eagles No. 23 - Bengals No. 28 |
| Record |
| Eagles: 0-2 |
| Bengals: 0-2 |
| Last Meeting |
| Sunday, December 4th, 2016 |
| Eagles 32 - Rams 14 |
| Andy Dalton threw a pair of touchdown passes and Cincinnati finally got its depleted offense moving without receiver A.J. Green, and the Bengals sent the Philadelphia Eagles to their most lopsided loss of the season, 32-14 on Sunday. |
| Click here to view the Video Recap |
| Click here to view the Stats Recap |
| Last Meeting at Site |
| Sunday December 13th, 2012 |
| Bengals 34 - Eagles 13 |
| Andy Dalton threw a touchdown pass and ran for another score, an opportunistic defense forced five turnovers, and Cincinnati beat the Philadelphia Eagles 34-13 on Thursday night. The Eagles offense imploded turning the ball over 4 times with another turnover on a kick off. At one point the Eagles turned the ball over on 3 straight possessions. The Eagles lost double digit games for the first time since 2005, in one of the last games the Eagles were coached by Andy Reid. |
| Click here to view the Video Recap |
| Click here to view the Stats Recap |
| Last 10 Meetings |
|---|
| Date | Winner | Loser | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12/4/2016 | Bengals | Eagles | 32-14 |
| 12/13/2012 | Bengals | Eagles | 34-13 |
| 11/16/2008 | Bengals & Eagles | 13-13 | |
| 1/2/2005 | Bengals | Eagles | 38-10 |
| 12/24/2000 | Eagles | Bengals | 16-7 |
| 11/30/1997 | Eagles | Bengals | 44-42 |
| 12/24/1994 | Bengals | Eagles | 33-30 |
| 11/17/1991 | Eagles | Bengals | 17-10 |
| 9/11/1988 | Bengals | Eagles | 28-24 |
| 11/21/1982 | Bengals | Eagles | 18-14 |
| Injury Reports | Depth Charts |
|---|---|
| Eagles | Eagles |
| Bengals | Bengals |
| 2020 “Expert” Picks |
|---|
| Week 3 - "Expert" Picks |
| 2020 Team Stats |
|---|
| Eagles Season Stats |
| Bengals Season Stats |
| 2020 Stats (Starters/Leaders) |
|---|
| Name | CMP | ATT | PCT | YDS | TD | INT | RAT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wentz | 50 | 85 | 58.8% | 512 | 2 | 4 | 64.4 |
| Burrow | 60 | 97 | 61.9% | 509 | 3 | 1 | 81.5 |
| Name | ATT | YDS | YDS/G | AVG | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sanders | 20 | 95 | 95 | 4.8 | 1 |
| Mixon | 35 | 115 | 57.5 | 3.3 | 0 |
| Name | REC | YDS | YDS/G | AVG | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Goedert | 12 | 131 | 65.5 | 10.9 | 1 |
| Boyd | 11 | 105 | 52.5 | 9.5 | 1 |
| Name | Sacks | Team Total |
|---|---|---|
| Sweat/Graham | 1.0 | 4 |
| Lawson/Bynes | 1.0 | 2 |
| Name | Total | Solo | Assist | Sacks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gerry | 17 | 8 | 9 | 0.0 |
| Bell/Bynes | 16 | 6/7 | 10/9 | 0/1.0 |
| Name | Ints | Team Total |
|---|---|---|
| N/A | 0 | 0 |
| Jackson III | 1 | 1 |
| Name | ATT | YDS | LONG | AVG | NET | IN 20 | TB | BP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Johnston | 7 | 389 | 62 | 55.6 | 49.1 | 4 | 1 | 0 |
| Huber | 8 | 428 | 70 | 53.5 | 43.5 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| Name | ATT | MADE | % | LONG | PAT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elliot | 4 | 3 | 75.0% | 38 | 3/3 |
| Bullock | 6 | 5 | 83.3% | 50 | 4/4 |
| Name | ATT | YDS | AVG | LONG | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scott | 3 | 61 | 20.3 | 25 | 0 |
| Wilson | 3 | 131 | 43.7 | 45 | 0 |
| Name | RET | YDS | AVG | LONG | TD | FC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Raegor | 2 | 6 | 3.0 | 6 | 0 | 2 |
| Erickson | 2 | 29 | 14.5 | 29 | 0 | 1 |
| League Rankings 2020 |
|---|
| Category | Eagles Stat | Eagles Rank | Bengals Stat | Bengals Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Offense | 314.0 | 28th | 324.0 | 26h |
| Rush Offense | 89.0 | 29th | 95.0 | 26th |
| Pass Offense | 225.0 | 23rd | 229.0 | 22nd |
| Points Per Game | 18.0 | T-27th | 21.5 | 23rd |
| 3rd-Down Offense | 46.2% | T-11th | 43.8 | 15th |
| 4th-Down Offense | 0.0% | T-25th | 100.0 | T-1st |
| Red Zone Offense (TD%) | 60.0% | T-14th | 40.0% | 30th |
| Category | Eagles Stat | Eagles Rank | Bengals Stat | Bengals Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Defense | 344.0 | 9th | 398.0 | 22nd |
| Rush Defense | 135.5 | 22nd | 185.0 | 30th |
| Pass Defense | 208.5 | 5th | 213.0 | 7th |
| Points Per Game | 32.0 | 26th | 25.5 | T-16th |
| 3rd-Down Defense | 40.0% | 10th | 45.8% | 20th |
| 4th-Down Defense | 66.7% | T-19th | 25.0% | T-9th |
| Red Zone Defense (TD%) | 77.8% | 27th | 62.5% | 16th |
| Category | Eagles Stat | Eagles Rank | Bengals Stat | Bengals Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Turnover Diff. | -5 | 32nd | -2 | T-25th |
| Total Penalties | 8 | 5th | 11 | T-12th |
| Total Penalty Yards | 50 | 2nd | 89 | 13th |
| Recap from Last Week’s Games. |
|---|
| Eagles - The Eagles' struggles continued in their home opener against the Los Angeles Rams. An early fumble by Miles Sanders led to a Rams touchdown by Tyler Higbee. After the Eagles cut their deficit to four with a Jake Elliott field goal, Los Angeles responded with a Robert Woods touchdown run followed by a second Higbee touchdown catch. Trailing 21-3, the Eagles closed the deficit to five points by halftime with touchdown runs by Wentz and Sanders. After forcing a three-and-out on the Rams' first possession of the second half, the Eagles would drive to the Los Angeles 21, only for Wentz's first down pass to be picked off by Darious Williams, turning the momentum back in the Rams' favor as they would outscore the Eagles 16-3 the rest of the way. Despite not being sacked once during the game, Wentz finished the day with a 56.5 passer rating, completing 26 of 43 passes for 242 yards and two interceptions. The 37-19 blowout loss dropped Philadelphia to 0-2 for the first time since the 2015 season, and marked the Eagles' first home opener loss since that same season. It was also the first home loss to the Rams franchise since the opener of the 2001 season. |
| Bengals - After losing their regular season-opening game at home, the Bengals then traveled to Cleveland to face the Browns for Battle of Ohio Round 1. In the first quarter, the Bengals scored first when Randy Bullock kicked a 38-yard field goal to make it 3-0. Though, the Browns took the lead when Nick Chubb ran for an 11-yard TD to make it 7-3. In the second quarter, the Browns went up by double digits when Baker Mayfield found O'dell Beckham Jr. on a 43-yard TD pass to make it 14-3. The Bengals then came within 4 after Joe Burrow found C.J. Uzomah on a 23-yard TD pass to make it 14-10. Mayfield then found Kareem Hunt on a 6-yard TD pass to put the Browns up by double digits, 21-10. The Bengals closed out the half when Randy Bullock kicked a 43-yard field goal to make it 21-13 at halftime. In the third quarter, the Browns went back up by double digits when Chubb ran for a 1-yard TD to make it 28-13. The Bengals drew closer with Bullock's 27-yard field goal to make it 28-16. In the fourth quarter, the Bengals were able to get within 5 when Burrow found Mike Thomas on a 4-yard TD pass to make the score 28-23. Though, the Browns would go back up by double digits yet again when Hunt punched the ball in for a 1-yard TD to make it 35-23. The Bengals wrapped up the scoring when Burrow found Tyler Boyd on a 9-yard TD pass to make the final score 35-30. |
| Connections |
|---|
| Bengals HC Zac Taylor is the older brother of Eagles QB Press Taylor. |
| Bengals TE Coach James Casey played two seasons for the Eagles from 2013-2014. |
| Bengals assistant Special Teams coach Colt Anderson played 4 seasons for the Eagles from 2010-2013. |
| Eagles Run game coordinatodefensive line coach Matt Burke was the LB coach for the Bengals from 2014-2015. |
| Eagles DB coach Marquand Manuel played for the Bengals from 2002-2003. |
| 2020 Pro Bowlers |
|---|
| Eagles | Bengals |
|---|---|
| DT Fletcher Cox (Starter) | DT Geno Atkins |
| OG Brandon Brooks (Starter) | |
| C Jason Kelce (Starter) | |
| LS Rick Lovato (Starter) | |
| TE Zach Ertz | |
| SS Malcom Jenkings (1st Alt) | |
| OT Lane Johnson (1st Alt |
| General |
|---|
| Referee: Adrian Hill |
| Philadelphia hosts Cincinnati at Lincoln Financial Field for just the third time in the all-time series and first time since 2012. Sunday marks the 14th overall meeting between the two teams. |
| The Eagles are 23-10 (.697) at home in the regular season under head coach Doug Pederson, which is tied for the 6th-best home winning percentage in the NFL since 2016, trailing only New En-gland (.818, 27-6), Baltimore (.758, 25-8), Kansas City (.758, 25-8), New Orleans (.727, 24-9) and Green Bay (.712, 23-9-1). |
| In Week 2 vs. L.A. Rams, Miles Sanders combined for 131 scrim-mage yards (3rd-most in a single game in his career), including 95 rushing (1 TD) and 36 receiving. In 2019, Sanders led his class with a franchise-rookie-record 1,327 scrimmage yards. |
| Brandon Graham recorded sack No. 52 of his NFL career against Rams QB Jared Goff in Week 2 vs. L.A. Rams. His 52.0 sacks are the 5th-most in Eagles history, behind Reggie White (124.0, 1985-92), Trent Cole (85.5, 2005-14), Clyde Simmons (76.0, 1986-93) and Hugh Douglas (54.5, 1998-2002, ‘04). |
| Draft Picks |
|---|
| Eagles | Bengals |
|---|---|
| WR Jalen Raegor | QB Joe Burrow |
| QB Jalen Hurts | WR Tee Higgins |
| LB Davion Taylor | LB Logan Wilson |
| S K’Von Wallace | LB Akeem Davis-Gaither |
| OT Jack Driscoll | DE Khalid Kareem |
| WR John Hightower | T Hakeem Adeniji |
| LB Shaun Bradley | LB Marcus Bailey |
| WR Quez Watkins | |
| OT Prince Tega Wanogho | |
| LB/DE Casey Toohill |
| Notable Off-season Additions |
|---|
| Eagles | Bengals |
|---|---|
| S Will Parks | NT DJ Reader |
| DT Javon Hargrave | CB Trae Waynes |
| CB Nickell Robey-Coleman | CB Mackensie Alexander |
| CB Darius Slay | G Xavier Su’a-Filo |
| LB Josh Bynes | |
| WR Mike Thomas | |
| S Vonn Bell | |
| CB Leshaun Sims | |
| RB Jacques Patrick |
| Notable Off-season Departures |
|---|
| Eagles | Bengals |
|---|---|
| S Malcom Jenkins | QB Andy Dalton |
| CB Ronald Darby | CB Dre Kirkpatrick |
| RB Jordan Howard | G John Miller |
| WR Nelson Agholor | OT Cordy Glenn |
| OL Halapoulivaati Vaitai | TE Tyler Eifert |
| LB Kamu Grugler-Hill | WR Marqise Lee |
| RB Darren Sproles | CB Darqueze Dennard |
| DT Timmy Jernigan | DT Andrew Billings |
| LB Nigel Bradham | S Clayton Fejedelem |
| Milestones |
|---|
| Eagles QB Carson Wentz (99) needs 1 passing TDs for 100 career passing TDs. |
| Eagles WR Desean Jackson (6386 needs 79 yards to move up to 3rd on the Eagles all-time receiving yards list all-time passing WR *Mike Quick |
| Eagles WR Desean Jackson (34) needs 2 TDs to move into a tie for 7th on the Eagles all-time receiving TD list tying WR Jeremy Maclin |
| Eagles DE Brandon Graham (52) needs 2.5 sacks to move to 4th on the Eagles all-time sack list tying DE Hugh Douglas |
| Eagles DT Fletcher Cox (48) needs 2.5 sacks to move up to 6th on the Eagles all-time sack list tying DE Greg Brown |
| Eagles DE Vinny Curry (27) needs 1 sack to move up to 19th on the Eagles all-time sack list passing DT Darwin Walker |
| Bengals WR AJ Green (8987) needs 13 yards to reach 9000 receiving yards for his career. |
| Bengals WR AJ Green (63) needs 3 receiving TDs to move into a tie with Chad Johnson for the most receiving TDs in Bengals history. |
| Stats to Know |
|---|
| QB Adjusted Completion % |
| What’s one thing rookie Joe Burrow and 5th-year Carson Wentz have in common? They have not been terribly accurate so far. PFF has an Adjusted Completion % stat that accounts for clear drops, spikes, throw aways, batted passes, and throws made while getting hit. Burrow and Wentz are near the bottom in AC%, with 70.4 and 70.3, respectively. Interesting to note a bit of the distribution within the array of aforementioned stats: while Burrow has had one of the lower rates of on-target passes dropped by the receiver (4.1%), Wentz doubled that at 8.4%, good for 5th-highest. Yes, Wentz has stunk, but... |
| Matchups to Watch |
|---|
| Rookie versus Veteran, Which QB Has Poise Down 0-2? |
| With two consecutive weeks of porous defense from both the Eagles and Bengals defensive units, this Sunday's matchup should rest squarely on the shoulders of each offensive unit. Will the Eagles be able to rely on fifth year starter Wentz? Will he be able to shake off two tumultuous weeks and put together a consistent offensive performance? Will the Bengals weapons coalesce around their rookie Burrow? Will he be able to put together his first complete NFL game and demonstrate that this season is the turning point for the franchise? A big piece of Wentz stabilizing his game time performance will be continuing his focus on short-time-to-throw plays. From Week 1 with 8 sacks versus the Washington Football Team to Week 2 and zero sacks versus the Rams with the vaunted Aaron Donald, the Eagles Offensive Line and Wentz’ pocket choices resulted in less lost yards and broken plays. Unfortunately, key turnovers again forced short-yardage scoring situations and massive tempo swings. Wentz needs to take advantage of the cleaner pocket that will likely be available versus the Bengals (2 sacks on the year so far) and finish drives cleanly to put the game away. Without rookie WR Jalen Reagor (placed on IR with a thumb injury after Week 2), Wentz will have to make use of the remainder of his threats, including veteran DeSean Jackson who had 6 catches on 9 targets for 64 yards against the superior Rams’ defensive backfield. Joe Burrow has had the classic introductory NFL QB experience. A high-flying game versus the Browns last week, with 300+ yards passing, 3TDs and zero ints was fantastic bounce back from Week 1 versus the Chargers. 193 yards, 0 TDs, and an int will not win the game for the Bengals versus the Eagles, even if Wentz struggles. A key focus for Burrow will be settling into the routine and relationships he’s formed with his offensive weapons. AJ Green remains one of the best WR threats in the NFL and his slow start to the season (8 catches for 80 yards) could end at any time, in any game with a QB like Burrow. Burrow threw a nearly record setting number of passes during the almost-come-from-behind loss versus the Browns; if the Bengals are able to establish their run-game and abuse the Philadelphia secondary in a similar way to the Rams offensive scheme, then Burrow could have a very big day. If he is forced to drop back 60+ times, and Joe Mixon is again held under 75 yards on the ground, the Bengals and Burrow may have a hard time. Keep an eye on how comfortable each QB is feeling, and whether they can establish good tempo. That will be key to offensive production this weekend. |
| Coaching Conundrum; Pederson versus Taylor |
| At the core of the NFL these days is the combat between offensive and defensive schemes. Both coaches come from a background of coaching QB play and offensive schemes, though from different eras and coaching trees. How they go about using that experience to enable their teams to a secure a necessary win this week will make or break their seasons. Doug Pederson, at the helm of a revamped offensive coaching tree with the addition of Quarterbacks Coach Press Taylor as Passing Game Coordinator, has had a rough three year stretch of offensive stumbles. Since the miraculous Super Bowl 52 season (2017), the Eagles have consistently failed to be productive, with a lot of the challenges relating to lack of roster depth and poor player improvement through misaligned coaching. This is the third consecutive year of stuttering offense to begin the season and a big piece of the matchup versus the Bengals will be how well the Eagles can settle in. Coach Pederson has made it clear that the lack of full-speed off-season practice plays a big role in the Eagle’s struggles so far; so it remains to be seen when and if both units can make use of this gametime practice to solidify the small flashes of prior success we’ve seen. Opposite Pederson is Coach Taylor, in his second year of a complete rebuild, now with the (ideally career-long) franchise WB in Burrow. Hailing from the Shanahan line, through the LA Rams McVay, Taylor was brought into Cincinnati to recreate the organization’s coaching structure and form a new core for the team around veteran WR AJ Green. The 2019 season showed marked improvement throughout, particularly in run production and passer protection; the addition of Covid-related practice limitations have also taken their toll on the Bengals’ preparations for this season, as exemplified by the Week 1 drubbing by the Ravens. Taylor returns this season with second-year offensive coordinator Brian Callahan, formerly the QB coach for the Raiders. The cerebral talent in the Bengals organization is clearly arrayed around giving Burrow the best possible chance to shine; and they may just do so against an extremely poorly performing Eagles defense. Being able to establish consistent offensive strength and consistency throughout this season will be a key part of whether this new coaching structure is able to flourish in Cincinnati or if yet more change is needed to remake the franchise. During game day, keep an eye out on how these coaches make use of their star players, now that the very early season yips and stumbles should be behind them. Whoever can appropriately adjust to the flow of the game and take advantage of the others mistakes will win this football game. |
| The Big Punt: How Special Teams Makes An Impact |
| Kevin versus Cameron, Huber versus Johnston, two players that may very well decide the nature of this Bengals versus Eagles matchup. These titans of the turf, two punters to rule them all, and two punters to pin them deep; two punters waiting on call, and two punters to make fans weep. In lieu of offensive production, and in hopes of good defensive play, Kevin Huber and Cameron Johnston bring their punting prowess to Lincoln Financial Field this Sunday. Hailing from opposite sides of the Earth, Huber from Cincinnati itself, and Johnston from Geelong Australia, these two are some of the most capable foot-based deliverers of the football to opposing teams. Huber holds nearly all of the Bengals franchise records in punting statistics; and Johnston holds the highest gross and net punting averages in a single Eagles season. The third year Australian punter is known by Eagles fans for his insanely long hang-time and penchant for pinning the NY Giants inside the 20 (20+ times in four games). Huber is loved by the Bengals fanbase as both their longest tenured player and his consistency over the past 13 years. He has missed just 2 of 180 possible games, and has been perennially top 10 at his position. Both players are in the final year of their contracts, so effective performance is a must for maximum salary gains. Keep an eye out on how effective these two are in establishing and keeping good field position. If both teams are struggling for consistency, these swings may be the key to a late drive that puts the game away. Additionally, with every punt comes the magic of a muffed punt return. If you’re a particular connoisseur of special teams play, watch and see if these punters add any special spin or location to their strikes; and key turnover last week in this position kept the Eagles hopeful. Maybe lightning will strike twice for the Eagles Special Teams and the Wizard with the Large Leg, Cam Johnston; maybe the Bengals gunners will scoop up a muff and Huber will be huger than expected. Stay tuned! |
| Questions | Answers |
|---|---|
| Dear Randy, I would like to ask what is your opinion concerning driver's influence on development of the car. And are there any big differences between the driver's feedbacks? Which driver was the best one you have been working with during those 5 years, concerning the feedback? Thanks in advance for your answer. | Driver feedback has a big influence on the development of the car, after all, if the driver can't exploit upgrades/developments/the car then you won't see any laptime gains - nobody else is in the car and so this feedback is vital. However, it is part of a multitude of tools, experience, analysis, etc. that we have, so you can't underestimate the other contributors to development also. |
| All of the drivers I have worked with have been quite different in terms of their feedback, I don't think I can pick a best one as they all have great qualities, Fernando seemed to instantly know what was wrong/where to improve, Lando is very open and easy to talk to, etc. | |
| Hi Randy!! I wanted to ask you how hard is predict the degradation and overall performance of this generation Pirelli tyres. Also, are you excited for the new rules? I was also wondering how international the McLaren team really is in terms of staff. Thank you!!! | I would say it's not super difficult in the current generation of tyres to predict degradation and overall performance - this is done by our tyre experts and the strategy team together. Things change, however, through the weekend and sometimes you have to be very much into the empirical data to spot shifts in behaviour because of this. |
| I am excited for the new rules - change keeps us on our toes and presents opportunities. Even though I thought single-shot qualifying was a bad idea before we implemented it, it presented an opportunity to really adapt your strategy in qualifying to take advantage - as an example of these opportunities. | |
| The team is really quite international, thinking about the people I work with on a regular basis, most are from the UK, but they also include Italian, Japanese, French, Spanish and German as nationalities. | |
| Can we get McLaren's Tooned back? Next year with Lando and Dan Ric would be fun! | I've already asked a few times. I love Tooned! |
| Very broad question, but what are your thoughts on simracing and how seriously some team/people take it? | I think simracing is a great thing, especially with the relative ease of access (cost and location issues) compared to typical motorsport. There is some mounting evidence of a correlation between simracing and physical racing talent as well. |
| I'm impressed by how seriously some people take it and how good they are - I think it can also be quite addictive - there's a guy in our team Oli who plays pretty much all the time, we think by next week he'll be able to complete a full lap of one of the easier circuits. | |
| Is AI (by which I mean applied neural networks) making inroads into how strategy calls are made in F1? It seems like it could be super useful for analysing how and when the tyres are going to degrade. | It is. I am a strong proponent of machine learning and artificial intelligence and we are getting some good benefits in this area. I can't say more. |
| How often do you pick a strategy that is not the fastest (by the models), but is counter to the other team(s) that you are trying to beat that race? | If you are referring to the "free air" quickest strategy - i.e. if I was racing alone, how many pitstops should I do and what tyre sequence should I use then we will almost always not use that strategy. |
| That strategy would be quickest if you have no other interactions with other cars, which is rare for any car in an F1 race - as you have interactions from battling/overtakes, lapping, etc. but it is not the best strategy (and potentially not the quickest) when interactions with other cars are present. | |
| Depending on the types of interactions there will be a force that acts on the "baseline" strategy mentioned above, the propensity to drop into traffic, for example, may push a stop lap later to avoid getting stuck or battling, etc. But all of these will need to be weighed up to come up with an "optimum" strategy. | |
| Ok, so one thing bothered me for a while now. In many races we see sudden safety cars or double yellows. More often than not, the commentators turn this into a "everyone has to decide real quickly what to do now" situation. Do you really decide just then whether or not to pit a car? If yes, why? I imagine you could easily run multiple real-time simulations that tell you at every given moment with a high precision whether pitting is beneficial or not. Is that not possible or is it just the commentators playing up the situation? | Really both things are correct. We try and simulate and analyse what to do in the future, even as humans, every second of the race we'll be thinking what we would do if there were a safety car, probing each other in the strategy team to test our strategies and so on, so in a way we are trying to be prepared before the safety car is deployed, if it is. |
| However, safety cars can be quite disruptive, depending on who has crashed or what has caused it, etc. your simulations and prior analysis may no longer be useful because the race state has changed too much. In this case you operate from first principles and (hopefully) a deep understanding of the key factors in the race that would sway decisions one way or another. | |
| Safety car decisions are also very game theoretic which can make things more difficult as you typically won't know your competitors' decisions until some time after the safety car is deployed, reducing your time down even further. | |
| Hey Randy! I am a big F1 fan and am very interested in what is one thing you hate about being F1? Could be anything just curious since I am not planning to do anything related with F1 (want to become a coder) but want to know something you dislike about being/doing/involved in F1. Also I know that you already answered something like this but are you going to miss the Carlos/Lando memelord group? Also what are you expecting Riccardo to bring in the meme side. I like to focus on the silly things about F1 hehe. | I think the one thing I do dislike about F1 is that more people can't be involved in it. I'm so fortunate to work with our young, extremely talented and proactive graduates, intern students and placement students but my role means I am also responsible for turning away swathes of talent as we have such a limited number of roles. |
| It's not fair that we are turning away people who are far more talented and would have far more positive impact than, for example, myself and it can be quite upsetting. However, as the sport continues to grow and prosper I'm sure there will be many more opportunities coming up. | |
| I will miss the Carlos/Lando pairing just as I miss the Stoffel/Fernando pairing and many of the others. I have been fortunate enough to work with some extremely talented and friendly drivers so in a way you miss every one and every pairing. On the other hand I'm sure it will be just as great, in a different way with Ricciardo - I'm looking forward to some bonza Aussie slang and pulling out the "Chopper does the weather" video each year! | |
| hello. as a 16 year old student doing a levels what would u say helped u the most in terms of getting to the position u are in now? im intestered very much in working in f1 when i grow up and im looking to do mechanical engineering in uni. thank you | I would say that Maths, Further Maths and Physics helped and will help the most - especially in preparing you for engineering at university also. |
| If you have other subjects to choose as well, then I can also put in a word for doing what you enjoy as well as what you 'need'. | |
| the below is a reply to the above | |
| Thanks for replying. Would you mind telling me what uni you went to aswell? Loads of choices to pick from and im unsure | I went to the University of Oxford. There's a very large mix of colleges and universities represented here and thinking about recent graduate hires we have talented people from UCL, University of Bath, University of Southampton, Cambridge University, University of Newcastle and many more. |
| Are there any members of the traveling team that have a business / not engineer background? Would love to work in F1, but being an economist does not help. Right? | Being an economist is not common and I don't know of anyone who is travelling who is an economist by background. But for reference I did Engineering, Economics & Management with a fair amount of Economics and Econometrics. It's not impossible, but as long as you're smart, motivated and can pick up the engineering knowledge you have a shot. |
| Hi Randy, many thanks for taking the time to answer questions. I’ve snuck two questions into my post. How many people would typically work on strategy within an F1 team and would many of these be based in Brackley during race weekends? Are there any roles in your strategy team that are targeted at or suited to actuaries / risk modellers / mathematical modellers/ statisticians rather than engineers? | Around 3 to 6 would typical for a strategy team and normally teams will have 1 of the team trackside, the rest back at HQ. For clarity, none of our strategists should be working at Brackley (Mercedes) - if they are we will be having some difficult conversations! |
| I would say that strategy does lend itself to those backgrounds (I'm a part qualified actuary - I rejoined F1 before I finished my last few exams), as much as it does to engineering backgrounds (or maths, or stats, or physics, etc. etc.). | |
| Just wanted to say I really appreciate you answering so many questions. What race of the (original) 2020 calendar did you most look forward to? And what is your approach when determining a strategy for a new F1 track, such as Zandvoort? | Both Vietnam and Netherlands GPs were very much up there, because of being new to the calendar. This always adds some extra challenge and can lead to more mixed performances compared to the baseline pace of each cadriver. |
| You tend to rely a lot on Friday data where you are more pressured than usual to learn as much as you possibly can as you've not run their before. There's also a fair amount of prediction and forecasting before you ever leave (as you have to pick tyres, etc.) and a lot more scenario analysis than normal (and there's a lot normally too). Most teams will have the tracks in their simulators and offline simulations weeks, if not months before the actual event as well. | |
| What exactly does a CS do in F1? Asking for a friend | I think many roles could be applicable, but most teams will have fairly substantial Software Engineering departments, as well as lots of modelling and computation activities in Vehicle Science and CFD - all of these may be quite well suited. |
| Hi Randy. Are there routes to get into motorsport and F1 without the usual maths/engineering route; asking as someone who loves the though of F1 but was shit at DT and intends to study politics? | Based on some of the stories I had read before working in F1 it had seemed that a degree in politics may have been the way of surviving the 'Piranha Club' - however, that is not the case, thankfully. |
| It will depend on the kind of role, without gaining engineering knowledge or scientific knowledge you'd struggle to work in the core technical or operational areas but we have a finance department, planning department, HR department, etc. and there may be roles in those other areas that are more suitable. | |
| I’m currently at uni studying Mech Eng to hopefully work in F1 some day, and applied for a summer placement at McLaren this year. Of course that’s been cancelled now, and I’m gutted, but am still hoping to be doing an undergraduate placement year in the 21/22 academic year. Ideally, a summer placement this summer would have been a way for me to get my foot in the door and add some much needed experience to my CV, but what would be your advice now, to make myself as appealing a candidate as possible in the decreasing amount of time I have until the application? | Try and find something else, that you enjoy and that is relevant if possible - go fix up an old car, do some formula student, learn a programming language, etc. |
| Nobody is as gutted as me that Covid is meaning we won't get to work with some very talented summer interns this year. | |
| Hi, I'll go right to the point, I'm from Colombia and finishing my last year of Mechanical Engineer, I've worked as a Mechanic for 2 years and understand quite good vehicle dynamics, I'm good in mathematics and I like to code on python and Matlab, and I keep improving my English. Do you think I have an opportunity as an intern in any racing team? Data analytics, vehicle dynamics something, I just want to get in haha, cheers. | Don't rule yourself out. Many of us never thought we'd get our dream jobs in F1, many of us never thought we were smart or able enough and many of us probably feel like that even once we're in - especially for me, seeing all of the young talent applying for jobs each year. Perseverance is key - you're doing the right things. |
| "No. Try not. Do or do not. There is no try." - Yoda | |
| Hi Randy, thanks for the AMA! When do the drivers get the last word for a chosen strategy? Is it only in the race, is it before too, given they know the tracks? How the strategy team work alongside all the valuable input from the guys behind the wheels, so you could as a team be always certain about a given strategy? How much drivers and strategists disagree about something? Best of luck in July, I will be rooting for you guys. EDIT: Grammar. | Nearly always the strategy is decided by the strategy team, I can't really remember occasions where the driver or someone else has chosen the strategy. That doesn't mean that the drivers don't have input, before the weekend when we nominate tyres, during the weekend with feedback and during the race over the radio - but we let the experts in each area make decisions and so the strategy is driven by the strategy team. |
| There are sometimes disagreements, for example, we may think a 1 stop strategy is possible and the driver may think its not, like with all things we'll discuss it rationally and then decide what to do. Sometimes the driver is correct and the 1 stop is too slow to make it work and sometimes we are correct and the 1 stop is the right choice. We try and have the right expertise, skill and feedback coming into the strategy group such that we are correct most of the time (otherwise what is the point of having a strategy group). | |
| Thank you! | |
| This is probably way too late. Do you require a chemist/physicist, my credentials includes but not limited to growing up on Bruce McLaren road. How do you handle inter Strategy-team disputes when/if there is a split between differing choices of strategies. What would you consider to be your go to technique to settle these/bring the team back together after maybe choosing a strategy that it becomes quite clear later on that it was not the optimal choice? | Well done on having parents who chose to live on Bruce McLaren road - they're welcome to get in touch 😀 . |
| I'm assuming you mean disputes inside the strategy team at McLaren (intra? My Ancient Greek is a bit rusty.)? | |
| I think we are fortunate to have very few disputes whatsoever (thinking about any kind of disagreement) - the team atmosphere is really great and we are all just quite honest with each other and open - if one of the team tells me that I made a mistake, or could have done something better then that's probably some of the most useful/trusted feedback I will ever get to get better. It's kind of a nice feeling knowing that you have to do everything really well, because some of the best people in your field work with you and will call you up if not - so you are constantly improving. | |
| Sometimes we will disagree on stuff, there's a lot of data but a lot of things become subjective, as its a case of weighting some factors over other and the weightings can't always be determined. We may disagree sometimes on (mostly non-strategy) stuff and tend to just work out which underlying assumptions/beliefs/knowledge are different and align if we need to. | |
| I think strategically we have very few disagreements - I can't really remember any. If one of the guys told me something could be better, I'd go away and try and work out how to improve it/avoid making the same mistake/ask them to help me fix or improve it, etc. so any disagreements we do have don't really linger. | |
| Thanks for doing this AMA! Since most F1 teams are based in and around the UK, how often do teams hire Canadians/Americans for intern level or full-time engineering roles? P.S I am currently a Canadian software engineering student in Montreal working towards a career in F1 someday. | I would say it's fairly rare, but I think a lot of that will be based on volume of applications, we get a lot and from memory they are largely non-US/Canadian. |
| For some internships and placements we require the right to work in the UK which may also be more difficult for Americans/Canadians to achieve - unfortunately this is because we are quite limited in what we can do in this space. | |
| For other roles, including full-time roles it shouldn't be a detriment to your application - especially not if you are able to address it as well in your cover letter. | |
| F1 never stops, obviously, but are there any cities or circuits that you especially enjoy visiting because of the facilities or culture, rather than the racing? | In terms of cities, it's so hard to pick just one, we are fortunate enough to travel to some amazing places. |
| I have to say that Melbourne (Australia), Suzuka (Japan) and Austin (United States) have to definitely be up there though! But there are so many others that are up there too. | |
| Is Hamilton really that good or is it the car? Would he be as good if he was in, say, a McLaren? | I think the evidence stacks up to say that Hamilton really is that good. I imagine he would be as able in a McLaren, but we have to admit that our car isn't yet as quick as his car - but don't worry we're working on it and going in the right direction! |
| How many have strategies are developed for every race? | We will easily simulate millions of races, if not billions of races for each race. Unfortunately the number of permutations of races possible far exceeds this number, so we have to employ some smart methods to make each simulation more useful than it would be if we just tried to simulate everything. |
| [deleted] | Thank you for the concern - but although I'm giving my own views this is being done in conjunction with our Marketing and Communications teams - so there is no risk of me being fired (for this). |
| I have heard the radios from Sainz at Brazil 2019 and i know he didn't pit during the SC because he didn't have a delta behind, but i still don't understand one thing about the strategy followed that race. My question is, what led you to put Lando on the hards and Carlos on the mediums? Were you aiming to do a 2-stopper with Carlos originally and changed your mind after the Safety Car "shortened" the race? Or did you believe he was better and keeping the tyres alive? | There are reasons, but I'm afraid these lips have to be sealed on this one. |
| Is there like a kill switch for the car that the team can use to shut off the car | Yes there is, you may hear race engineers telling their drivers to go from "P2 to P1 or P0" and that is effectively what is happening (turning the car off). This procedure is drilled into every driver and race engineer as its very important for safety too. |
| We can't turn it off remotely as we're not allowed to communicate from the pits to the car (otherwise we'd probably be making all kinds of changes all the time). | |
| How many Gigs of data are generated after a race? Does it vary a lot per race? (provided no failure of some sort) | It can vary but we're roughly talking between 100 and 200 gigabytes of car data, and lots of other types of data such that its probably 1 to 2 terabytes of total data per weekend. |
| How faster cars could go if they had track specific gear ratios like they used to have? | With the current generation of cars and powerunits - it's not a huge amount (I can't give numbers). Locking down ratios was and is a great cost-saving measure with little noticeable impact for fans or spectators. |
| Having worked with the likes of Jenson and Fernando, how much did their feedback work into your calls? Is jenson really brilliantly nice as he comes across? | Jenson was my favourite driver growing up, so it was a privilege to work with him - he's a really nice guy. |
| Their feedback is really important - often (and Jenson would attest to this) we would disagree on how many stops there would be but never would you not value the feedback or use it (even if you decided other things were more important). | |
| the below question has been split into four, enumerated | |
| Thank you for doing an AMA. I have a couple of question for you: 1. did Lando win the bet with the wallpaper | Thanks (but not sure we'll win the 2020 season - I hope we do). He did. This bet required no skill and only a lack of shame. |
| 2. Right now am applying for Mech. Eng. programs in SA (KAUST) US and UK and I hope to work in F1 or Formula E one day, do teams prefer degrees from one country to the other. | No, we don't prefer any country but for some roles there is a requirement to have the right to work in the UK. |
| 3. How many possible strategies do you come up with before the race weekend, do you have one for every grid possibility, temp, tyre setup etc. or is it more simpler? | Millions if not closer to billions. We simulate a lot of different variables including many that you mention. As the weekend progresses the set of permutations shrinks, as it does with each passing lap in the race. |
| 4. as Alonso's former strategist do you see him coming back to F1 for 2021 and to which team? I hope you can answer my questions, and win the 2020 season. | I'm not sure - I hope he does because a talent like his belongs in F1 and I hope he doesn't (I'd rather not race against him). |
| Hi Randy, thanks for taking the time to come on here. One of my biggest interests in the sport (aside from the racing) is the commercial side of it. Specifically sponsorships but also the negotiations behind them and just the general business of the sport. What college degrees would be most useful to enter the commercial side of a team, and how often would such positions open? What kind of positions would someone be aiming for to enter an entry level role? I'm about to enter college next year and need to finalise my course choices now, and am hoping for some insights on how to break into that world...thanks again! | I think anything focusing on the business side could be helpful (e.g. economics) but I think you also have some freedom to do something you enjoy. My impression is that relevant experience will be more useful than degree choice. |
| What was the biggest mistake you've done and what were you able to do to correct it? Or in other words how do you deal with mistakes during the race in order to get everything back in order? | I've made many, many mistakes and will make many, many more - but they don't tend to stand out as we hope that we make a mistake, learn from it, change processes and procedures and analysis and move on. I guess one of the biggest changes to how we worked came after Germany 2018, where we, like many teams, made the wrong choice for tyres in the changeable conditions - we learnt a lot from that event. I've experienced lots of poor luck and bad results from races, but I try and separate mistakes from what we can't control. |
| I think we're very good at not looking at 'sunk cost' now, once you've made a mistake, or something has gone wrong or against you, it doesn't really matter any more until after the event is over when you can analyse it and improve - there's no point expending any energy or thoughts on it in the race, you have to move on to the next thing and you shouldn't try and recover the mistake - it's happened, let it go and work out what to do from where you are. | |
| How hard it is to become an F1 engineestrategist? How much time you took to to become one? | I would say it's difficult to get "your foot in the door" and unfortunately things have gotten so much more competitive over time that it can really take a long, sustained effort to put yourself in a good position. |
| I ended up waiting a few years for the "dream job" offer in F1 after my placement and to be honest I thought I would never receive that offer. | |
| Perseverance is really important - it is so much more competitive to get in today than it was when I did - but that doesn't make it impossible. | |
| Did Lando keep the screensaver or did you get to keep your £250? | Lando has no shame (and may have forgotten how to change the screensaver) and won that particular bet. |
| Is there a limit set by the F.I.A. as to how many people can work for a Formula 1 team? And if so, what is the limit? | So there is no limit in terms of the total number of employees, although as the Financial Regulations come into force and we are subject to a budget cap there will be a natural "soft limit" from that. |
| We are currently limited to 60 operational personnel for nearly the entirety of the race weekend at the track - designed to stop teams spending too much money flying too many people all around the world. | |
| There must be so many people travelling from race to race - what's the atmosphere like around the paddock on the weekend for someone working it? Does it feel like an F1 'community' or do you all generally keep within your teams? | It does feel like an F1 community. People move around teams fairly frequently so I think most people will know someone or have worked with someone at the majority of other teams. You also get to know your counterparts fairly easily. |
| It's a great atmosphere, there's obviously an underlying feeling of competition and trying to beat your opponents, but there is also a mutual respect as well and most people are actually quite normal human beings (or very good likenesses at least) and quite fun to chat to. | |
| Hi, thanks for doing an AMA! Are there any roles in F1 for someone with a pure economics degree? EEM at Oxford would’ve been great but they stopped offering the degree a few years ago. Thanks | Yeah - what a shame about EEM being discontinued - I thought it was a great course! |
| There are suitable roles, most teams will have finance departments and areas that even cover financial planning, analysis and strategy. You would also be suitable for more typical roles if you were able to find a way to pick up the engineering side of things. | |
| Hey Randy! I've been reading through all these questions and answers, they're all awesome. I also might be a bit late, sorry. I'm 16 and have dreamt(literally) of being a f1 aerodynamicist when I grow up! I have a knack for physics and calculus. What kind of degree do I try to pursue/study? I am absolutely bewildered by the amount of information out there. Is mechanical engineering the right place to study fluid dynamics, or engineering science? Thank you in advance! P. S. I live in New Zealand | It can vary between general engineering, mechanical engineering, aerodynamics, aeronautics and so on. I would suggest you find something you enjoy and also interrogate the course content to see how applicable it may be to your career desires before committing. |
| What do you think about Lance stroll? Do you rate him as an F1 Driver? | Lance's race pace has been fairly strong this last year, he has been close to Perez in that respect and Perez is no slouch in races. |
| Lance's qualifying positions have made it hard for him to score more points - so that's an area that will clearly payback for him (in terms of points scored) if he can improve on it. | |
| Hi Randy, hope you’re doing well over lockdown! I’m currently in my second year of Automotive Engineering and would love to work in motorsport when I graduate (as many of us do). Firstly I wanted to ask whether you felt academic achievement, work experience or who you know in the industry is the most important part of getting a role in F1? And secondly, if you were an engineering student again now what would you do to stand out (especially for someone wanting to work in race strategy)? Really appreciate you doing an AMA by the way, and good luck when the season starts! | I would hope that knowing someone no longer has an impact on getting a role in F1 - I certainly feel that it shouldn't. |
| Both academic achievement and work experience can be useful - it's hard to rank them. Personally, I have always valued "intelligence" highly - but to me that includes things like book smarts, applied smarts, problem-solving, proactivity, etc. | |
| Thanks for the luck. | |
| Hello! I am currently working for Honda Performance Development where we develop and build the Indycar Honda engine. I got in through an internship from my community college and I have been tearing down and inspecting the engines when they come back to us. I am young and have only taken little math classes so far because I want to become an engineer one day and work in F1. I just don’t know what kind of engineering I should try to get into. I’d love to become one of the engineers who push our engines to the limit at the track. People have told me mechanical engineering can quite basic just designing parts while electrical engineers deal with stuff like engine mapping. What should I do and pursue? | Awesome - sounds like a fun job! |
| I don't think Mechanical Engineering will hold you back and at many colleges and universities you can specialise enough into the areas that are a little more related to Control Systems/Powerunits to help. I also don't think Electrical Engineering will hold you back either. | |
| From experience, most of our Control Systems engineers I have worked with have done either Mechanical or General Engineering, but not all have. | |
| I would pick what you enjoy and try and get some good and relevant experience and knowledge around that - for example, given you're already at HPD, can you offer to help out with some basic tasks in that area there? | |
| Hi Randy, I know you’re an engineer. I’ve applied for a job in Marketing at McLaren (and other teams) multiple times over the years, and had no success. I live in Australia but I have a dual Australian-British citizenship so I can live and work legally in the UK. I think my skills are strong enough to justify an interview, but I always seem to get rejected. Is there a bias towards hiring people already in the UK? Is being in Australia hurting my chances of scoring a job somewhere like McLaren even if I’m willing to move? | I'm sorry but I'm not sure - I know in engineering we are careful not to be biased, but we have to sometimes consider the right to work in the UK. Perhaps you could try reaching out to HR to find out if there is any feedback? |
| why Vettel spin | Find me a driver who hasn't. I've never worked with Vettel, but have a lot of respect for him. Driving these cars is not easy and I imagine that driving them 0.1% faster than the other excellent drivers you're competing against (because that's what a tenth of laptime comes down to) puts you even closer to the line between a truly quick lap and disaster. |
| PS: Why waste time say lot word when few word do trick? | |
| Thank vou for this AMA. I am a PhD Student in engineering Physics. I would like to know where did you start your career as an engineestrategist? As a motorsport enthusiast I would like to be part of a motorsport team. Do you have suggestions from where to start looking? | I think answered elsewhere in this thread, so I won't repeat the comment here. |
| Keep an eye on the McLaren careers website (and if you really want to work elsewhere - their websites too). | |
| Thanks for all the info in your pervious questions. Do many strategist or engineers work their way through F3 and F2 to get to F1? Is it common/possible for someone to start out in engineering in like suspension design and then transition into strategy? I’m a going into my 3rd as undergard as a ME, does McLaren offer opportunities to pay for grad school and work on the team? What is the difference between the strategists who travel and ones who don’t travel? Do you or other strategists contribute to the design of the next year’s car? Thanks if you get a chance to respond. It’s really thoughtful of you to do this, and I think it reflect very highly on McLaren that you’re doing this! I joined Formula Student in college during my first year and started doing data analysis for my team. Because of my time so far in Formula Student, I picked up following F1. It has been possibly one of the best decisions I’ve made. I’m highly interested into going into F1 now as either an engineer or a strategist. | Hi - thank you for the kind words. I've enjoyed answering these questions! And great that you've picked up a passion for F1. |
| In my experience, very few of the strategists I have worked with/invited to our team have been in F3 or F2 prior - that's not to say that that is a bad route and certainly I have met some very talented F3 and F2 engineers (including a strategist who has really impressed as well). | |
| The other route you mention, doing some other role at an F1 team and moving over is probably more frequent. We've generally tended to hire people we've worked with and there are plentiful volunteering/assisting opportunities to teammates in the F1 team. | |
| The Engineering Graduate Scheme (which I am biased about positively) is amazing in terms of talent (that's not bias, that's 100% honesty) and so we've actually taken most of our strategists from there as people finish their 2 year rotation period through the F1 business. I can not recommend the Engineering Graduate Scheme enough. | |
| Can you give a funny or interesting story that happened to you and McLaren (about strategy) on a race weekend last year? | No really funny "strategy" stories from this year - at my first race (Australia 2013) I did jump off the pitwall in front of the safety car at least 2 times causing an emergency stop though - and I did get sent on to the track when it was live later that year... |
| But an interesting story, after Germany I had a very long chat with Carlos in the airport. Initially he was happy with 5th, but we chatted and I explained how we could have got a podium (his first!) by making a different decision, because of how things played out, but that that would have been the wrong choice. It was a great conversation and I think Carlos came around to our way of thinking fairly quickly and sensibly. We sat there and said we just needed to carry on making decisions the right way and the podium would come, little did we know we wouldn't have to wait too long... | |
| hi randy quick question are there any legal related jobs in f1 in specific for lawyers | Yes, most teams will have (small) legal departments. |
| What are some of the biggest challenges with data visualization that you face? I imagine you have to sift through a lot of telemetry data quickly for your work. | I think some of the biggest problems are having too much data and being able to drill down to the important stuff quickly and making information presentable to those not familiar with the data so it is easy to comprehend the conclusions/summary/analysis. |
| Hi Randy, Could you explain what Ferrari were doing last year with their fuel flow sensor? And how teams found out? And how sure we are they were doing that? And do you expect other teams to have developed DAS? Thx mate. | I'm afraid I don't know what Ferrari were doing, if anything. Teams conduct a lot of competitor analysis so we do often spot things that others are doing or may be doing that way. |
| I don't, due to the ban and the complexity and time required to develop such a system but I don't know. | |
| Hi Randy. I couldn't find this specific question. So would you guys love to see less durable tires. Or more obliged pit stops so that there would be more tire strategies possible? | As a strategist, I would love to see less durable tyres than we currently have - but I also understand that drivers want tyres they can push harder on and for longer (to battle each other) and there are a myriad of other factors that Pirelli are also dealing with to produce the "perfect" tyre. |
| So yes, strategy-wise less durable and higher degradation tyres would, in my opinion, lead to better racing, but they could have negative effects on other things. | |
| I disagree heavily with constraints on strategy as I think they will make racing worse, so I disagree with obligated numbers of pitstops (I have just written another answer about that if you'd like more detail). | |
| For the more “business” roles, do you guys hire people with MBAs or are people with just undergraduate degrees hired as well? (Eg. business strategy for the team, supply chain etc) Do you have an approximate of how many challenges would someone from Canada would have to overcome to get a job? (Or how much better would they have to be than someone from the UK) | I think there are probably not many MBAs based on my knowledge but that does not mean its not a good asset to have and that it won't help you. |
| I think the right to work in the UK can be very helpful, otherwise it shouldn't help or hurt you. | |
| Evening Randy, I’m actually an undergraduate physicist. I had applied for the race team internship for this summer. I was very sad to hear that it was cancelled. I was really hoping to get a better understanding of how you guys model the tires and decided on optimal strategies and lap times to find the shortest race time. Do you know of anyone who releases tire data publicly that I could have a look at when I eventually get bored this summer? Also I saw that placement over summer as the first stepping stone for a career in formula 1. I’ll be graduating next year so won’t have an opportunity to reapply. Do you have any advice for someone in my position, looking to get into the data analysis side of formula one without much prior knowledge. Thank you for your time. | I'm so gutted that Covid has scuppered our plans this year, I get to manage the summer placements and it's a highlight of each year of work. |
| Pirelli do a great job of releasing tyre information each weekend to the press and on their website - I'd suggest you start there. | |
| Do all of your plans get tossed if unexpected rain comes? Do you make strategy plans for rain happening at say lap 10, a different plan for if lap 15, etc? And how does rain potential affect amount of fuel you'll carry, if at all? | We don't toss our plans. We do plan for wet and changeable races, as well as all kinds of other scenarios too. |
| Less fuel is used in the rain as you are going slower (and considerably so) but before you remove too much fuel you'll need to think about the certainty of rain during the race (when you decide hours before how much to fuel the car) and its intensity and duration... | |
| the below is a reply to the above | |
| Thanks for the reply, I know you've had a lot asked. If you don't mind me asking, what's the strangest weather pattern/geological event/etc you've ever made a "no real chance of happening, but just in case" plan for? | I think the typhoons in Japan are always pretty special to follow, there have also been heatwaves and occasionally snow/ice. |
| Questions | Answers |
|---|---|
| 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. 😃 |
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