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Zak Brown

👤 Speaker
942 total appearances

Appearances Over Time

Podcast Appearances

Uncanny Valley | WIRED
The Tech Behind McLaren Racing’s F1 Dominance

So it's about putting a bunch of aero and downforce.

Uncanny Valley | WIRED
The Tech Behind McLaren Racing’s F1 Dominance

So you've got your aerodynamicists, you've got your design team, you've got your vehicle dynamics team.

Uncanny Valley | WIRED
The Tech Behind McLaren Racing’s F1 Dominance

It's amazing watching a race car that has 80,000 parts that lives in a prototype world.

Uncanny Valley | WIRED
The Tech Behind McLaren Racing’s F1 Dominance

So we don't just build it and go, that's what we're racing for the year.

Uncanny Valley | WIRED
The Tech Behind McLaren Racing’s F1 Dominance

We build it.

Uncanny Valley | WIRED
The Tech Behind McLaren Racing’s F1 Dominance

And by race one, by race two, it's changing.

Uncanny Valley | WIRED
The Tech Behind McLaren Racing’s F1 Dominance

Race three, it's changing.

Uncanny Valley | WIRED
The Tech Behind McLaren Racing’s F1 Dominance

So it's constantly evolving.

Uncanny Valley | WIRED
The Tech Behind McLaren Racing’s F1 Dominance

If you take the car at the beginning of the year that qualified first and you didn't touch it, by the end of the year, it would be last.

Uncanny Valley | WIRED
The Tech Behind McLaren Racing’s F1 Dominance

So that's the pace of development of the entire race.

Uncanny Valley | WIRED
The Tech Behind McLaren Racing’s F1 Dominance

So we live in a prototype world.

Uncanny Valley | WIRED
The Tech Behind McLaren Racing’s F1 Dominance

We're chasing perfection, but you never actually catch it because you can always, we're done with that.

Uncanny Valley | WIRED
The Tech Behind McLaren Racing’s F1 Dominance

Let's put it on the car.

Uncanny Valley | WIRED
The Tech Behind McLaren Racing’s F1 Dominance

Now let's keep working on it to make it perfect.

Uncanny Valley | WIRED
The Tech Behind McLaren Racing’s F1 Dominance

Better, lighter, faster, more aero, whatever the case may be.

Uncanny Valley | WIRED
The Tech Behind McLaren Racing’s F1 Dominance

And so it's amazing watching it all come together.

Uncanny Valley | WIRED
The Tech Behind McLaren Racing’s F1 Dominance

You know, it's close to $100 million just to develop and build these race cars.

Uncanny Valley | WIRED
The Tech Behind McLaren Racing’s F1 Dominance

One car?

Uncanny Valley | WIRED
The Tech Behind McLaren Racing’s F1 Dominance

Two cars.

Uncanny Valley | WIRED
The Tech Behind McLaren Racing’s F1 Dominance

You ultimately end up building up about four or five over the course of the year because the chassis will flex out or have accidents, things of that nature, and you need spares.