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This article first appeared in GP Racing magazine.
One of the great pleasures of working in the Formula 1 environment is that it's so agile and dynamic. Throw a new set of regulations at an F1 team and its people will see opportunities that no normal group could imagine. Even more impressive is the way they will execute those opportunities. The competitive instinct of the F1 engineer marries innovation, ambition and pragmatism in a unique way.
When the world was first turned upside down by COVID-19, one department linked to government realised it was an ideal opportunity to use this exceptional F1 ability in a humanitarian manner. When the Cabinet Office put out a call for industry to turn its attention to the manufacture of ventilators for patients in critical care, this department reached out to F1 for help.
That department was Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, a group that works in partnership with universities, research organisations, businesses, charities, and the government's Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to create the best possible environment for research and innovation to flourish.
