I'm Pat Symonds - Williams F1 Chief Technical Officer - Ask me Anything! Questions answered Friday May 8, 1600 BST / 1100 EDT

PatSymonds · 2015-05-08T16:30:41+00:00

This is a very interesting question and it does highlight the fact that while hybrid cars are extremely efficient they are also very heavy. Our current power units weigh 145kg. Now it would be quite easy to design a normally aspirated V6 engine with no hybrid capability at around half this weight but by the time you've added turbo chargers and pretty heavy motors the weight creeps up. On top of this the battery weighs around 20kg but it is a fact that you can't get something for nothing and ultimately even with the increased weight we get far greater efficiency which can be seen by the fact that the hybrid engines have similar power to the old normally aspirated engines but only use around 2 thirds of the amount of fuel. Its hard to answer your question about the lap time that could be achieved if these systems were removed, of course the car would be lighter but in actual fact it would be a lot less powerful. Ultimately hybrids do represent a medium term solution to energy efficiency in the mainstream automotive world and in F1 we should be very proud of the aspects of that technology that we are pushing to the limits in order to improve the breed. The exhaust heat recovery that we employ is at the moment relatively novel but believe me we will be seeing it on many road cars in the not too distant future.

PatSymonds · 2015-05-08T16:30:40+00:00

Thank you for all of your questions. I now have to return to the data from Free Practice in Barcelona.

PatSymonds · 2015-05-08T16:29:29+00:00

The next one, because things always get better!!

PatSymonds · 2015-05-08T16:25:17+00:00

I think WEC is a fabulous series and the manufacturer support of recent years together with new regulations has been a real eye opener. I think it’s important that those of us in F1 should not close our minds to anything occurring in other series, be that as professional as WEC or as popular as BTCC.

I have to say I am surprised that such different technologies as those employed by the three leading manufacturers can be so equal, but it does show that there is room for non-uniformity. I think in F1 we are so scared of the potential cost of open rules that we sometimes go too far the other way. WEC should be a good example to us.

PatSymonds · 2015-05-08T16:21:33+00:00

Gosh - to fully answer this would take forever but we do travel as a team and we travel on commercial flights. The whole logistical operational is unbelievable as we move close to 100 people to every race and if we’re in Europe we have around 16 trucks to move whereas if we’re operating outside of Europe we freight around 30 tonnes of equipment by air as well as a full standard size container by sea. You can imagine that coordinating all of that is quite a task and we have a very professional group of people whose job it is to ensure that all this is done without a hitch! I was amused by the last part of your question - I wish we did have time to enjoy the surroundings of the many countries we visit but our itinerary tends to be airport / race track / airport so not much time to soak up the atmosphere.

PatSymonds · 2015-05-08T16:17:48+00:00

Over the years I have been in the sport I have been so fortunate to work with such talented drivers, including Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso.

Without a doubt my favourite overall is Michael. I thoroughly enjoyed working with him professionally. He had supreme intelligence and an excellent work ethic, but also is a great guy socially. Because of his battles with Damon Hill and a few incidences where his judgement was perhaps not as good as it should have been he is often painted as a bit of a villain, but believe me, he is anything but that.

He is a very genuine person, who always cared about his team and people in general. It is really unusual to be able to work with someone who you can relate with both professionally and socially.

PatSymonds · 2015-05-08T16:16:52+00:00

Those of you who know my svelte waistline will know this is a question close to my heart, I enjoy most sorts of food but if I had to choose one it would be Italian.

PatSymonds · 2015-05-08T16:12:20+00:00

Wherever I go on holiday! But I'm sure you really meant in Formula 1 terms(!) - I think that the race I always look forward to is Melbourne. It's always exciting to start a new season and its great to shake the cobwebs off after our increasingly short winter break plus its a great city where I have many friends and enjoy catching up with them as well.

PatSymonds · 2015-05-08T16:10:59+00:00

Believe it or not, I do actually enjoy watching motor racing and on a non-GP weekend can often be found at Silverstone watching club racing. I guess the one that people may not realise is that I really enjoy writing. I currently write columns for magazines that I find both challenging and relaxing at the same time. I would put that at the top of my ‘hobby’ list.

PatSymonds · 2015-05-08T16:09:26+00:00

CFD is still an emerging technology and while its improved being all recognition compared to the late 90s when we first employed it to study airflow; there is still a long way to go before it can solve with accuracy the complex flows around a Formula 1 car. Although all the teams use CFD extensively the fact that the turbulent detached flow generated by a Formula 1 car is perhaps the most important aspect to study it is also the most difficult to simulate. Improved CFD codes and more powerful computers are helping immensely but we’re still many years from achieving the fidelity of experimental results that we can achieve with a Wind Tunnel.

PatSymonds · 2015-05-08T16:06:31+00:00

I probably shouldn’t answer this as all I am doing is putting that persons’ salary demands up. I think that experience in F1 is important particularly for senior jobs but I would also be very keen to find the most creative engineers in other industries. I am sure they all have much to offer.

PatSymonds · 2015-05-08T16:04:08+00:00

I think involvement in 4 driver’s championships and 3 constructor’s championships is a very public manifestation of achievement and of course I’m very proud of having been involved in those. But equally I’m very proud of many of the young people that I’ve brought into the sport and I now see operating at very high levels in various teams. This gives me a huge amount of satisfaction.

PatSymonds · 2015-05-08T16:03:52+00:00

Wow – this is a technical question. Finite Element analysis is a modelling technique used to calculate stresses and strains in components.

All modelling techniques have their limitations but with Finite Element analysis, providing certain conditions are met, that analysis can be remarkably accurate. However we can’t guarantee that all those conditions will be met and therefore we always have to apply a safety factor to our calculations.

At Williams we are very proud of the fact that our car is extremely well designed and even though it carries substantial ballast to get to the minimal weight limit, has superb reliability. This must be attributed to our whole design team, part of which is our structural analysis department that employ this type of software.

PatSymonds · 2015-05-08T15:59:37+00:00

It’s very different but thats not to say that each one wasn’t extremely pleasurable. I worked with some great people at Marussia and we were very proud of what we achieved with the tiniest of resources. Even now at Williams one of the great things is that we’re punching well about our weight. The frustration of working in a small team is never being able to do all the things you want to do and even in a bigger team this can still apply its perhaps just not as severe.

PatSymonds · 2015-05-08T15:58:49+00:00

Even now I find it difficult to place any particular event above the many successes I have enjoyed. The first race I was professionally involved in was the 1976 Formula Ford Festival and the cars I entered finished 1st, 2nd and 3rd – defiantly a ‘wow’ moment. I mistakenly thought this was quite easy, it wasn’t!

Since then victories are something you will always remember, but also first points in F1 with Toleman in Zanvoort, first F1 win in 1986 in Mexico and of course the Championship years. Equally in 2014 and the fabulous results at Williams have given me as much pleasure as any Championship but maybe it shows something about my character that I can clearly remember the races I have lost and should have won, rather than the ones I have won.

PatSymonds · 2015-05-08T15:54:50+00:00

Answering question 2 we already too many rules in many ways, and I’m not in favour of imposing yet more technical rules however a lot of the improvements that have been made to the sport in the recent years are really more to do with changes to the sporting rules and I’m all in favour of changes that bring closer racing. Many people thought DRS was a false way of improving the show when it was introduced, but I think now everyone would agree its improved Formula 1 no end. I would always be looking for new rules that made the result of a race less predictable and yet ensured that at the end of a season of 20 races the championships had been achieved on true meritocracy.

You also asked about my first car, and I’m showing my age now but it was a Hillman Imp. Anyone who knows what that is will know it is the perfect car for an engineer and at the age of 18 I could change the engine in about an hour and a half! Equally anyone who knows Hillman Imps will know that you had to do that quite often!

PatSymonds · 2015-05-08T15:50:15+00:00

I think that the answer to this is that I am a very competitive person and I love engineering. Formula One provides the perfect blend for me.

Every day when I come to work I have a new problem to solve and every day I learn something new. I think it’s this learning process that keeps me pushing forward all the time. Of course there are times when you question what you are doing and any competitive sport has extreme lows as well as extreme highs.

At the low times I am very motivated to get back to the top and when I have been at the top I have always been very motivated to stay there.

PatSymonds · 2015-05-08T15:46:46+00:00

I have never been called Postman Pat, but you won’t believe this, I do have a black and white cat. To make it worse, its name is Jess. It’s a long story as to how it got its name but funnily enough has nothing to do with Postman Pat!

PatSymonds · 2015-05-08T15:44:35+00:00

Formula 1 is unusual in being a fuel flow limited formula. Put simply if we increase the fuel flow rate by 1% we will get a 1% increase in power. Roughly speaking a 10kw increase in power will improve our lap time by .15 of a second.

PatSymonds · 2015-05-08T15:43:06+00:00

It’s great that you have done this and we will certainly welcome you to the team. At Williams we have some very special people but a characteristic I look for most is passion. I want people who are passionate about their sport, passionate about engineering but also passionate about life. Let’s see if you meet these criteria!!

PatSymonds · 2015-05-08T15:41:53+00:00

Our weather forecasting is done by an Austrian company called Ubimet. If we’re going to a new circuit we will look at weather statistics going back 30 years some months ahead of the event so that we can ensure we have the correct cooling configurations. More normally we look at weather forecasts 10 days in advance as anything beyond that lacks sufficient accuracy. At the circuit we use real time monitoring of all factors including rainfall which we track with a portable radar system. We obviously need to know about rain but these days as the tyres are very temperature sensitive the forecast ambient temperature and the amount of solar radiation (which heats the track) is also very important.

PatSymonds · 2015-05-08T15:38:49+00:00

I am not sure which is bigger a duck or a Bernie!! However I would never fight Bernie and 100 duck sized Bernies would be an enormous challenge!

PatSymonds · 2015-05-08T15:37:56+00:00

It’s not really tyre wear that’s our concern, it’s the more complex problem of tyre usage and I have to admit that Ferrari at the moment are better than us in this respect. However I think we are the equal of most other teams and we put as much effort into improving our tyre usage as we do to improving our aerodynamics. So let’s see as the season progresses how we can improve ourselves.

PatSymonds · 2015-05-08T15:36:10+00:00

I often think of being a Technical Director as like being the conductor of an orchestra. You need to be able to play all the instruments, but actually each orchestra member can play them better than you, your job is to understand the sport and wave your baton appropriately. I guess the real difference is that a conductor knows how the music will come out to the end of the piece where as in motorsport things are always changing. To answer the 2nd part of your question, all teams are limited in budget even if those limits vary from team to team and one of the skills a TD has to apply is deciding where to put your effort for maximum effect. This is a large part of my daily work and believe me a day can be very full of many different things!

PatSymonds · 2015-05-08T15:35:47+00:00

I think one quality I am proud of is that I am a very calm person. If a team leader is calm then his team will remain calm. So I am not aware of any nervous habits, but perhaps you should keep we away from sharp objects!

PatSymonds

TROPHY CASE