Three Grand Prix in three weeks. A triple header in Formula 1 represents a completely different kind of triple threat. The Austrian Grand Prix this weekend marks the final stage of the first triple header of the 2021 season. That’s why we talked to Piers Thynne, Executive Director Operations from McLaren Racing, taken to understand how the team rose to the challenge.
When we met with you earlier this year, you explained that January and February are the toughest months for the production team. How does this part of the season compare to a triple header?
Building a new car and preparing for the start of the season is always difficult, but three-time winners come with their own pressures. We are pushing upgrades as quickly as possible while we monitor inventory very carefully and adjust plans due to part issues. The wear and tear posed some challenges for the France-Styria-Austria triple header: We had to deal with some wear and tear on the front wing and floor from the Azerbaijan and France Grand Prix.
Dealing with fluctuation is never straightforward. Some parts require extensive forensic analysis to understand the extent of the damage: whether it is junk or salvage. And even if they can be recovered, you must consider whether the time and resources required to do the repair to get the part back into service are worth assessing.
They say that no plan survives first contact with the enemy, and although we carefully plan a triple header, just as with any race, that plan often needs to be adjusted. This applies to our plan for the first triple header of the season, but we were still able to get the right amount of inventory on track, including six of each critical component, like front wings and bottoms, and deliver the upgrades for use in France and Austria planned.
McLaren F1 Team Principal Andreas Seidl recently spoke about the importance of maintaining strong operational dynamics with good reliability and spare parts management in order to overcome the unique challenges that successive races bring. Can you explain what the challenges of a triple header are and how the team masters them?
Reliability is everyone’s business first and foremost. Every member of the team helps ensure that the car and all of our systems and processes are reliable. On the production team, we have our own operational championship fight, where we aim to deliver the right parts, in the right quantities, and at the right time throughout the season to ensure we are always giving the drivers the best possible car.
Of course, if you plan ahead, you can play out the doomsday what-if scenario and end up puzzling yourself by saying, “Well what if we lose two front wings in Azerbaijan and two more in France and then? two more at the first race in Austria? Where would that leave us for the last leg of the triple header? ‘ Granted, it’s a risk, but the likelihood has to be assessed realistically. For example, you could build 20 front wings and you would be sure you have enough for a triple header, but many of them you will probably never use and they would be Older specification can be out of date quickly.
It’s a constant balancing act between always having enough parts and not too many parts. You need to find that balance and it depends on your experience and knowledge of the routes you will be driving and the likelihood of incidents, as well as the ability to lead project teams and key workshops so that they have enough flexibility to respond and adjust if plans need to change quickly. Everything is backed up by great people and the right processes.
The Red Bull Ring is considered to be the destroyer of front wings, floors and diffusers. Any two of the three races that make up this first triple headset of the season on the ring have a greater chance of running out of parts?
Our goal is to deliver the best possible performance so that both riders can compete and never run out of parts. We always have a fallback option and keep something in reserve because we may never be able to stay in the garage because of a missing part. However, we cannot be greedy with parts because we have to think about the cost cap. We don’t have infinite resources and it takes great collaboration across the team to deliver the optimal quantities. The decision on inventory levels is based on discussions between myself, the program director, and the senior trackside team – and pragmatism is definitely the number one priority!
How does the need for spare parts and possible repairs affect the team below the cost cap? You spoke earlier about the importance of not spending time or resources on things that are not needed. How do you find the right balance between enough parts and capacity to produce new developments and upgrades for the car?
The cost cap made us want to be as lean as possible, which is good because when you are lean you have to be agile and very fast in what you do. Our quantities have been reduced to the minimum we can get away with while still delivering the best possible performance. At the end of the year we look back at how many parts were unused and when everything has been used thoroughly, we know that we have spent our money wisely.
When an upgrade is due, we will reduce production of the old specification so you might only have four of a particular specification of the part and two of the new specification in use on a racing weekend. When you deliver an upgrade, you’re not delivering six brand-new parts at the same time, but rather scaling back the current, soon-to-be-old specification part and classifying the new one. This is where pragmatism comes into play, because the racing team has to decide when and how to use which parts and include this in their running plans.
Speaking of upgrades, how much is still in the pipeline for the MCL35M? How much has the production team’s focus shifted to the 2022 car and how do you decide when to make this change?
Deciding when to switch is very difficult. Andreas, James Key, Andrea Stella and I have been discussing this for some time. There are a number of factors to consider, such as where you are in the battle for the championship and what stage you are at when working in the wind tunnel. Since the wind tunnel time is now regulated, there will come a point at which we no longer want to dedicate anything to the MCL35M and can concentrate fully on the MCL36.
As for next year’s car, we already have MCL36 test parts in production, as well as components that require longer lead time, such as the chassis and gearbox. As the architecture of the MCL36 is constantly evolving, we are developing many parts for wind tunnel testing. To maximize performance possibilities, you will need multiple wind tunnel models, which means our additive manufacturing and aerospace machine shop team are very busy supplying different iterations of parts for the wind tunnel.
The demands on the car during a triple header are one thing, what about the demands on our people? How do you keep them motivated and physically and mentally healthy during these intense periods of the season?
This is a big focus for me and the rest of the management team. We want to make sure that every team member not only feels supported but also feels supported in the best way for them. We do our best to reconcile the health and wellbeing of our employees with the demands of very intense seasons. For example, we build flexibility into shift schedules so that intensive working hours are balanced out with clear absence times, so that our employees have adequate downtime. We also host regular webinars on mental health, working best, and how to combat fatigue and build resilience. All of this is important in dealing with the requirements of Formula 1, but also the challenges of Covid-19 that affect us all.
In terms of motivation, it is important not to underestimate the impact of what is happening on the track. We’re fighting for third place in the constructors’ championship, our pace is competitive and, as we have shown in Imola and Monaco, podium places are not excluded. All of us at McLaren can see and feel this and there is a dynamic that goes with it. It really drives us. And at the McLaren Technology Center, if we win the operational championship and give Lando and Daniel the best car we can at every Grand Prix, we know we have a great chance of achieving our goals on the track this season .
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