How motorsport can help the fight in the world's hour of need

The coronavirus crisis is testing modern society severely. On top of the serious impact the effects of COVID-19 can have on individuals, when it comes to treating vast numbers of people it threatens to overwhelm healthcare services.

In the UK last week, prime minister Boris Johnson called for engineering companies to help produce more than 20,000 ventilators - crucial to providing therapeutic relief to people suffering the acute respiratory distress and pneumonic symptoms caused by COVID-19.

More than 60 major businesses and organisations joined Johnson's conference call, which was aimed at engaging them to deploy their resources for the national good in a time of major crisis. Earlier in March, comments made by health secretary Matt Hancock suggested the National Health Service possessed 5000 ventilators.

"The prime minister made clear that responding to coronavirus and reducing the spread of the peak requires a national effort," read a statement released after Johnson's call.

"He set the ambition for industry to manufacture as many new ventilators as possible, so we can all help the most vulnerable and our NHS, whose staff have been working round the clock."

The motorsport industry across the world is responding to the various calls for aid. The majority owner of the Envision Virgin Racing Formula E team - the Envision Group, a Chinese wind turbine and energy technology company - has set up a face-mask manufacturing operation and donated more than £5million to help with the coronavirus outbreak.

The Ferrari-owning Agnelli family has donated €10million to Italian health authorities and provided 150 ventilators through the companies it controls, which also include Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Juventus Football Club, while Supercars team owner Ryan Walkinshaw has offered to help build ventilators in Australia.

It was also announced last week that a collective of UK-based F1 teams - Haas, McLaren, Mercedes, Racing Point, Red Bull, Renault and Williams - is evaluating how it can help with Johnson's request. This initiative is understood to have support from F1 itself, with Pat Symonds and his technical team also involved in discussions over the collective's full response - which, at the time of writing, is yet to be fully revealed.

The pandemic is, rightly, at the forefront of our collective consciousness. Considering that situation, and the pledges and action already taken by various motorsport organisations, it is worth considering how the overall industry can help in the crisis - while of course respecting the rules of the new lockdown measures where appropriate.

"What we're good at is modelling the production process, modelling the solution itself" Rodi Basso

This isn't about whimsy, or self-promotion from the parties involved, it is simply a positive step in a sometimes overwhelmingly negative situation. There is, again totally correctly, much talk about how we must now pull together as individuals - from not stockpiling food and supplies, to engaging in self-isolation and social-distancing measures, as well as complying with full lockdown procedures where these have been enacted in the world.

Ultimately, this pandemic will not be overcome without teamwork. And, without wishing to sound too flippant, this is something motorsport does well. It is the collective work that ends with individual success - teams building and operating machines, and drivers aiming to take them to glory.

But a key point here, says former Ferrari and Red Bull race engineer Rodi Basso, is not that motorsport engineers can simply walk in and design and build healthcare equipment from scratch by themselves. In fact, they must work closely with existing experts and engineers from other industries.

"If you take the motorsport solution and a team of engineers and you try to apply it in another industry, that's a complete failure," says Basso (below), who also worked as motorsport business director at McLaren Applied Technologies between 2016 and 2019.

"You need to go back. We have a lot of wonderful solutions in motorsport - let's go back to either the core technology [designs] or the process in order to move from the technology [idea] to the final solution.

"The other thing is the approach. In motorsport, you give a challenge to the engineers and you say, 'Listen, that's the variable, the KPI [key performance indicator] that we need to improve', and they will go there as fast as possible through modelling, faster prototyping - faster experiments, testing, and then straight into a prototype. But first you need the interaction with people with a lot of domain knowledge."

It is so often highlighted that motorsport teams must work together to succeed, whether that's team-mates cooperating or just not clashing, or considering pitstops and car design. The best organisations know how to get people working at their best individually and as part of a wider team.

In F1, says Basso, "there is an incredible turnover with the engineers in the teams and you have to be led by a top management that understands and fosters the team collaboration and team spirit. So if you get a few of them to team up with people with a domain knowledge [of ventilators], after a certain point they will speak the same language and they will go for it."

There are tangible ways motorsport squads can assist in the fight against COVID-19. Returning to the UK government's call for aid as a specific case study, there are several ways teams and automotive companies can have an impact.

The first, when it comes to F1 squads, stems from the intricate modelling systems the teams employ to produce their cars. This involves not just the design concepts of the cars, but the full process of getting them from mathematical theories in design offices to real parts in the factories and, eventually, putting these together in a sporting scenario. Everything is optimised.

"A motorsport engineer cannot design a ventilator," Basso says of the case in point. "They can by a technical standpoint, but by the time they get fully aligned with the whole homologation process and all the [regulation] aspects that are very much related to the healthcare industry, it will take much longer than needed.

"So, this is when motorsport engineers can add a massive value, in the approach. Being a prototype industry - based on high speed, high quality, low volumes - I would get them in a production line of a ventilator of an existing company to work together with this company and model. What we're good at is modelling the production process, modelling the solution itself. So, the product, the ventilator - it would be how can we translate this into a mathematical model in order to improve the efficiency of these things?"

From his time in F1, Basso cites teams employing 3D printing to produce tiny aerodynamic parts at tracks to trial in Friday practice sessions as an example of rapidly tackling an engineering problem.

"Testing is limited in motorsport," he says. "And so the teams need to work a lot on their modeling and their simulation capabilities and using these tools in order to understand if a new part is working or not - that's the exercise at home in the factory. Then you go to the track on Friday, and you test the thing and you have the feedback from the driver, the feedback from the data that you try to correlate.

"By just acquiring the 3D model and getting into a pipeline, straight away motorsport can add volumes to the number of parts that a country can produce" Rodi Basso

"But sometimes, especially for the small aerodynamic parts, they have 3D printing on site at the track, where they can do a modification and test straight away. So, by a structural standpoint, the part will stand a Formula 1 application, and it's built on a Friday."

Because of the tightly regulated specifications involved in producing ventilator parts, any new design suggested by a motorsport company would have to be strictly audited. Basso estimates this could be done in "a matter of a couple of weeks" and "it can be the same time [again] to fill the gap [in terms of a new specification adhering to the regulations]." He adds: "So let's say in a month's time that you can get the thing up and running."

But in terms of having the fastest positive impact in the crisis, motorsport teams with the right machinery could immediately begin to build ventilator parts in addition to the detailed modelling to improve design and manufacturing processes we have mentioned.

Basso reckons that so long as the proper homologation procedures required to build parts for the ventilators are respected, this is "low-hanging fruit" as "in the motorsport teams, in F1 teams, there is already a fast and efficient way of managing parts and producing parts". "By just acquiring the 3D model [specification] and getting into a pipeline, straight away motorsport can add volumes to the number of parts that a country can produce," he adds.

There are many other ways in which the strengths of motorsport squads can be useful during this pandemic. One concerns logistics, as the art of getting complex machinery and people (in some cases many of them) to race tracks around the world takes a lot of careful planning.

"The logistics, when you think about a ventilator, it is not a ventilator itself [produced as a whole]," says Basso. "There is a supply chain that has to be improved. And actually, this is another point where motorsport can help massively - how to improve the efficiency of the supply chain."

The positive impact motorsport companies can have in healthcare can already be seen in products produced by MAT and Williams Advanced Engineering.

Among other innovations, the former has worked on improving the efficiency of ventilator masks using computational fluid dynamics, improving surgical simulations and outcomes monitoring, as well as clinical care and facilities optimisation using enhanced data-sharing, which was done in conjunction with the University of Oxford. It also worked on a study using a digital therapeutic approach to help prevent the onset of type 2 diabetes.

WAE, which also operates the Jaguar FE team, has invested in an ultrasound technology company and used F1-inspired tech to create a system to protect babies during emergency transportation.

While fighting COVID-19 is of course the current focus of the world's priorities, when it passes - which we all hope it will, as quickly and painlessly as it can - Basso reckons there could well be lessons learned from the crisis regarding more motorsport strengths that could be applied to other illnesses and health struggles. The processes behind in-race strategy calls are one such example here.

"The other thing that is incredibly important, and could be beneficial for other industries, is data-mining and data-analysis in general," he explains.

"I can see on the news that there is a lot of effort on, again, modelling the way this virus is spreading around and trying to predict [how it will behave]. So, predictive algorithms that are integrating - artificial intelligence, machine learning, specifically - in order to understand the dynamics of the virus.

"There are promises in this field, but it's still an open point - it's not completely clear. But I will say that this could be something that may save lives from now on. Maybe even the normal flu that we are used to every year, maybe we can do a much better job by increasing awareness and how we handle this information."

Most teams have up-to-date CNC lathes and milling machines, rapid prototyping and 3D printers that could be reprogrammed

In the case of the UK's call for increased ventilator production, motorsport has a chance to show the world just how useful it can be to a society. In a few weeks, simply by turning their machines to new tasks, teams can provide parts that are desperately needed in hospitals around the country.

But this approach is not confined by borders or nationalism - the knowledge, skill and capacity in global motorsport has real value when it comes to combatting a critical healthcare crisis.

There are no points to be collected, no champagne to be sprayed. But there is something far, far more valuable on offer - providing real products to try to help end a pandemic. There is also hope and help at hand. The COVID-19 crisis is not going to disappear without action.

Motorsport can play its part - and it is.

Other ways motorsport can help counter COVID-19 - ideas from engineering company AVL

■ Top-league motorsport teams are used to transferring huge amounts of sensitive data between the race track and the factory during every race weekend. They have extensive knowledge readily available about how to establish and operate technical solutions that allow quick, reliable and secure data transfer. This is what almost every company needs these days, as most of their employees are working from home.

■ Currently, global researchers need large amounts of computing power to support their activities to fight COVID-19. This could be an area where the motorsport teams can also lend support.

■ There is also a high capability in motorsport when it comes to predicting scenario outcomes based on available data, which is used for race strategies. Support to predict outcomes of different measures sent from different governments could be of great benefit.

■ AVLʼs High Precision Manufacturing Centre in Germany is offering manufacturing capacity for medical devices or other urgently needed components - as far as they fit into AVLʼs portfolio and are feasible.

The machines motorsport teams can use to build ventilators

By Jake Boxall-Legge and Tim Wright

On the face of it, a fleet of racing car builders isn't necessarily equipped to deal with a health crisis, but the sheer quality of manufacturing and machinery on the factory floors of many motorsport teams would suggest otherwise.

To cope with the demand for products now stemming from governments and health services, Formula 1 teams in particular shouldn't need to make wholesale changes. Most teams have up-to-date CNC lathes and milling machines, rapid prototyping and 3D printers that could be reprogrammed - a modern-day equivalent to the transfer of manufacturing during the first half of the 20th century, where numerous manufacturers of all kinds of products were commandeered to help the war effort.

Some companies in other fields, such as Louis Vuitton, are changing their manufacturing to make hand sanitiser - so why would F1 teams not be able to contribute by turning their talents to new avenues? This is a great opportunity to show ingenuity, and apply the processes honed in a high-performance racing environment to a real-world situation that requires a rapid response.

In the light of the cancellations and alterations made to the 2020 F1 calendar so far, it has already been decided to push the introduction of the 2021 regulations back another year. There was unanimous support from the teams because it gives them even more time to prepare for the new regulations. But it also frees up resources over the coming months to assist with the battle against COVID-19.

The teams can react very quickly when it comes to producing new parts - as can be seen with updates at nearly every grand prix during a normal racing year. They can produce moulds for carbon pieces using the CNC machines, they have laser-cutting facilities to produce patterns - all of this is computer-programmed and so they have several autoclaves that can run 24 hours per day.

Rapid prototype machines can produce parts to be used on racing cars and make items very quickly. The teams have state-of-the-art electronic departments, computer-controlled inspection and ultrasonic cleaning facilities. Therefore, there is a real opportunity for them to provide assistance.

As the coronavirus crisis has become a pandemic, it is worth looking at the manufacturing possibilities that all the big companies in and outside F1 could participate in. You have McLaren and Williams already producing specialist batteries and electronics, and automotive giants Honda, Mercedes-Benz, Renault and Aston Martin all have the capabilities to do so too.

It's not just physical components that teams could also produce, as the computing power that some possess could provide governments with simulations and data on the transmission of COVID-19

Let's take the ventilator call, for example. Those companies that supply ventilators to the NHS could, in this instance, hand over the relevant CAD files, drawings and other instructions to a race team in order to build them.

But, as it stands, the designers and engineers at certain companies are being commissioned to produce their own prototypes that use simplified parts, which are required to reduce manufacturing lead times. This is then intended to be released as an 'open source' product specification to allow other manufacturers to produce the ventilators.

Currently, it is understood that McLaren Applied Technologies is heading up a consortium of motorsport organisations to do so. When the new designs are cemented, the teams can press their machinery into action. The CNC machines will build any moulds required, and rapid prototyping will service the production of the smaller parts.

Rapid prototyping in particular is a manufacturing technique on the rise in motorsport that can quickly produce tiny parts in intricate detail. This is commonly referred to as 3D printing, where a laser merges layers of plastic or metallic powders to produce complex designs.

With the capabilities that a number of F1 teams - and in some cases their offshoot engineering companies - have in their design departments, they can combine to produce a good quota of fully constructed ventilators for use in emergency hospitals - or just specific parts if required.

The factory floors likely wouldn't require too much change to accommodate the new line of production with regards to machinery - simply reprogramming the CNC codes for new moulds and similar should suffice. But the emphasis would come off producing carbonfibre parts and would instead focus upon plastic components.

You would expect that the teams would have the capability to produce plastic components en masse, and processes such as injection moulding are time-tested and common procedures. The smaller parts can be, as mentioned, produced via rapid prototyping where greater precision is required.

Overall, that process can continue to other products that are currently in short supply, and any medical machinery that requires a team's prowess with regards to electronics can also benefit from the fast turnaround times of the motorsport industry. And, as already discussed, it's not just physical components that teams could also produce, as the computing power that some possess could provide governments with simulations and data on the transmission of COVID-19.

For example, using CFD simulations to mimic pedestrian footfall in public spaces would determine areas that are a risk. Of course, the official government line is to stay home, but at the time of writing there are too many distressing news reports of people defying that advice.

It's not just F1 that can play a part in the coronavirus fight. There are all sorts of companies involved in Formula E, sportscars and more general motorsport engineering operations that are all unable to go racing at this time. Rather than have capacity standing around idle, these could all get involved with producing the medical equipment that the health services need.

British industry's call to arms

By Stephen Lickorish

It's not just Formula 1 teams based in the UK that are replying to the government's call to arms for manufacturers to assist in the production of vital healthcare equipment. The wider UK motorsport industry is also doing its bit.

UK motorsport trade body the Motorsport Industry Association is encouraging any company that believes it can help to complete a "very simple" online form, which can be accessed via MIA website the-mia.com or from the gov.uk site.

The form includes listing the company's key capabilities, and the government will then reply accordingly.

"There are currently a couple of company-led and university-led initiatives," says MIA CEO Chris Aylett.

"Then there's a group doing initial work led by F1 itself, their teams and engine suppliers. Right now, discussions are ongoing to establish exactly what specific products are required. I expect they may then reach out to their current supply chains, MIA members and others to help."

Aylett believes the ability to deliver high-quality results in a very short timescale makes the UK motorsport industry well placed to help the government.

"Motorsport-based manufacturers meet the demands of very tough customers who insist on very fast responses," he explains.

"Right now, that's just what's needed. Companies that register with the government scheme should highlight rapid delivery as being one of their unique capabilities."

But Aylett also has a word of warning for companies: "It's great that motorsport companies are stepping forward to help in this time of national crisis, but they shouldn't think of this as a commercial rescue package," he adds.