Thinking strategically… with Pat Symonds

In Formula 1, strategy is about far more than just the lap on which you make a pit-stop. Pat Symonds explains how strategy dictates everything a team does...What does strategy mean in Formula 1? For many people, it boils down to how many pit-stops you are going to make, when you make them, and how they will get you to the end of the race in the quickest possible manner.

In reality though, race strategy is only the most visible component of a mentality that guides every part of a Formula 1 team. From how you allocate your budget, to the lifecycle for which your engine is designed, strategic choices at every level of the company are the foundation stones of success.

When considering the role strategy plays in how a Formula 1 team operates, race strategy is just the tip of the iceberg. Indeed, planning how we will run our race is a relatively simple statistical exercise – and one that we are constantly modifying as the race unfolds.

More importantly, though, the mentality with which we approach race strategy has evolved significantly from fifteen or twenty years ago. Then, our aim when calculating a strategy was to work out the quickest way to complete the 310 km race distance – it was a theoretical optimum. Now, our focus is on track position – and how to optimise it relative to our rivals.

In that fight for track position, a race essentially boils down to a series of key moments: times when a driver and his team must be capable of maximising their performance in order to achieve success. We saw this very clearly in Bahrain two races ago, when Fernando’s victory came down to a critical series of laps around the second pit-stop when he had to move ahead of Schmacher’s Ferrari

The ability to achieve maximum performance at those critical moments is the result of a web of intersecting factors. Under the two weekend engine life regulations, for example, we need to be able to call on our allocation of maximum revs at those critical moments, to give us the necessary performance. To be able to do so, depends on decisions made 18 months previously when the designers established the exact lifecycle of the engine.

Before reaching the critical moment, we must decide how hard to push the engines during practice and qualifying, and when to use our allocation of laps at high revs, in order to have maximum performance available at the critical moments of the race. Where do we position the compromise between performance and reliability on the engine? How do we allocate our testing miles during the winter – to establishing high performance, or solid reliability? And when, during the race, do we turn the engine down in order to save performance for later on – or the following race weekend? All of these actions are conditioned by strategic decisions made many months previously, as we determine our priorities for how we go racing.

The management of engine life is only the most obvious of the intersecting decisions that take us far beyond the simple question of pit-stop laps. Strategy is about how you run your wind tunnel, and deciding what wings you develop for a particular circuit, at what time of the season. How should you plan the introduction of new developments to make the best use of your production resources? When should you fit new parts to a car, and how do you determine their lifespan? To fit brand new parts every weekend would be easy, but incorrect – because you would spend a large amount money doing so unnecessarily, and potentially compromise your development budget… In each case, the correct compromise must be found.

Within the competitive world of Formula 1, strategy is all-encompassing. Each team has an allotted budget, and within that limit, the way in which the money is apportioned will dictate their success or failure. The balance of investment between performance and reliability development, the strategy for introducing your new car and making it race-ready, all must be taken with a bold strategic vision, and with a clear sense of the priorities for generating the end-product: on-track performance.

That vision is driven by the ability to think strategically – the ability to keep an open mind and to not be trapped by pre-conceived ideas. Within the restrictions of any budget, necessity will always breed invention, and a strategic company must be able to conduct continuous and ongoing analysis of its strengths and weaknesses. You must be able to analyse the situation of today, and what tomorrow may bring, while learning the lessons of the past without being trapped by a need to do things the same way you always have done. If a situation is forced upon you, you must be able to adapt to and learn from it.

Our V8 engine development encapsulated this neatly. We decided not to run an interim car last winter, partly through necessity as our 2005 chassis was not suitable for the 90° angle of the new unit, and partly for reasons of budgetary efficiency. When we took to the track with the new RS26 V8, we were immediately able to run race distances with it, and build a solid platform for the season. And as a result, we have learned a lot about the most cost-effective and reliable way to develop a brand new engine. Our methods were not necessarily those we would have chosen in ideal circumstances, but the necessity of doing things that way has taught us many valuable lessons.

In summary, strategy is about the global approach a team takes to going motor racing. Where it sets its objectives, and how its culture and personnel transform those targets into reality. At Renault, it is a source of pride that in terms of overall efficiency, our ratio of points scored to millions of dollars spent over the past three seasons is the best of any team in the paddock. Taking the right strategic decisions and correctly managing their risks, be it in the cockpit, on the dyno or in the boardroom, are the keys to achieving success in modern-day Formula 1.