Impact of Motorsports on World Development

[smak]

Guys,
I am currently doing a course on Science,Technology and Perspective on Human Development and we have to create a presentation on how the motorsport industry has changed the world in the past.

How has it developed the existing technologies, the work culture in an F1 team, the deliverance of parts within a couple of weeks, and how it's extended reaches have shaped the world needs.

If you all could please give an overview on the complete motorsport industry impact or F1 impact or any one area(which you may be knowledgeable in, whether or not you're active in it does not matter) and how it has impacted it, I would appreciate it. If you could attach some data with it, it would be all the more fantastic.

Thanks in advance

[Jersey Tom]

It really doesn't / hasn't. This topic comes up every so often. Innovation tends to come *to* racing from elsewhere rather than the other way around. The R&D budget for a single major OEM like Ford could probably run the entire F1 field.

Professional motorsports is its own little bubble world, purely for entertainment, not for making the world a better place. And that's just fine.

That's my experience having worked in professional racing for about 10 years now.

[wesley123]

To add to Jersey Tom's comment; The question asked is better turned around. What impact does World Development have on Motorsports?

Manufacturers tend to enter motorsports to promote themselves, something that they make. Which inevitably means that they bring something that already exists in the automotive industry, ie. Audi's Diesel engines.

[Jersey Tom]

The question asked is better turned around. What impact does World Development have on Motorsports?

That's actually a pretty good perspective to take on it. Can look at it from a technology standpoint, or having gone away from tobacco sponsorship, or "green" initiatives, things of that nature.

From a technology standpoint you can look at things like radial tires and fuel injection being latecomers to F1. Or thing like certain advanced materials behind banned, active suspensions being banned, things of that nature. There are good reasons for it of course - but to think of racing as some breeding ground for innovation to be brought into the rest of the world is just backwards IMO.

The other thing I'd point out is that quality and speed of development aren't exactly guarantees in motorsport or F1. As evidenced by a certain major software/electronics vendor and their flagship data analysis software... with a decades old code base, quite poor performance, and now years behind on an advertised major update.

[smak]

JerseyTom and Wesley, aren't you speaking strictly from the point of view of research? It has created so many jobs and also, the team organization systems, development of research components (like improvement and optimization of using components to the limiting condition) and also improvements of safety norms? Does this everything come from elsewhere?

[Greg Locock]

"(like improvement and optimization of using components to the limiting condition) and also improvements of safety norms? Does this everything come from elsewhere?"

We could be nice about F1 safety developments, but really, they are designed for ramming straight into barriers, when the reality is that interlocking wheels are a far greater hazard.

As to optimisation, as Shen Taguchi said to me , that's just engineering.

Fundamentally the issue is that F1 is optimised against a smaller number of responses than consumer products, so the solution space is better defined, That does mean that the optimisation in that space can be more refined.

As an example, if I am working on an SUV, I might need to improve the braking performance. It has to handle wet weather, dry weather, gravel, tarmac, concrete. The SUV might be towing a 3/4 tonetrailer. It might have a dead granny on the roofrack. It might have 3 hulking kids in the 3rd row seat and a very small driver. It is still expected to work properly.

Then when I've done all that I'll go to the team and say, oh by the way i met the braking targets, but had to increase the tire grip by 5%. Ohho, they'll say, won't it roll over?

[Jersey Tom]

JerseyTom and Wesley, aren't you speaking strictly from the point of view of research? It has created so many jobs and also, the team organization systems, development of research components (like improvement and optimization of using components to the limiting condition) and also improvements of safety norms? Does this everything come from elsewhere?

Jobs? How many jobs has F1 or motorsport created? In the grand scheme of things, racing is a very small community.

On a similar theme to what Greg said, in a way, "optimization" in racing is easy. Not a whole lot that you have to focus on other than raw speed for a handful of hours of track time every week. Though the performance margins to your competition can be challenging in how small they are.

There's just so much more to have to balance and consider in the broader, consumer transportation industry.

[smak]

I get it.