McLaren and BAE extend technology partnership

For example, BAE aerodynamicist Dominic Amor has just returned to his company to work on concept design for a secret new aircraft project, having completed a year with McLaren's computational fluid dynamics (CFD) department. "We've definitely got something to learn from Formula 1," he said. "What strikes you most forcibly, coming from the aerospace industry, is the speed and flexibility of the F1 design process. Aircraft design projects last anything from 15 to 25 years, so you might only work on one or two projects in your entire career, or you might only ever get to see a short period of the complete design cycle.

"In F1, the entire cycle lasts just six months and you're involved throughout. Then, before you know it, you're on to the next one. With individual components, you can go through the entire design and manufacturing cycle in days.

"It's like a factory of ideas. The F1 team will try out any and every idea in an effort to achieve just a fraction of a percentage improvement in performance, which is something we can't do at BAE Systems, where everything is longterm.

"We tend to be very comprehensive in our analysis, going that extra mile to cover every eventuality. The F1 timeframe means they have to make the best decision possible, based on the available amount of data at a given moment in time. Obviously, the nature of our industry means that we could never operate quite like that, but there's no doubt that we can learn from the F1 environment. In particular, the experience of working at McLaren has helped me to become a better decision-maker."