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Can you imagine a Formula One car so advanced that it was made of materials that repaired themselves after collisions? Or one whose aerodynamics were sculpted by the same computer programmes used to design Stealth aircraft? Or one whose traction control settings were tweaked automatically via satellite GPS systems?
If that sounds like the stuff of far away fantasies - especially in this day and age when the sport is trying to cut back on technology - well, think again. Because, if a behind-the-scenes project between Williams and leading military experts come off, then these technologies could well be finding their way into F1 sooner than many think.
When Williams signed a technical partnership agreement earlier this year with QinetiQ, the company that was spun out of the Defence Evaluation Research Agency (DERA), it passed by without too much fanfare from many within the sport.
Since then, however, much work has been taking place both at Williams's Grove headquarters and QinetiQ's headquarters at Farnborough, England, to find ways of transferring the latest military technology and applying them to F1. Forget the hype that F1 is the one of the most technologically advanced fields in the world, the military is actually streets ahead in some areas.
