A variety of top-shelf carmakers are helping athletes reach new highs.
Khodrocar - It appears that the bobsleigh is the new battle ground for carmakers.
Several high-end automakers are lending their F1 expertise to Olympic teams, with the bobsleigh high-up on the agenda.
McLaren seem to be the big mover-and-shaker in the Olympic-carmaker crossover game, with the British supercar maker using its McLaren Applied Technologies division to help design and collect data on a number of sports.
The British brand has had a hand in helping develop bobsleighs for the British Olympic team for a number of years. The company's engineers are helping improve the aerodynamics and structural integrity of the downhill racers.
Similar to F1, McLaren apply the same mantra of aiming for little gains rather than revolutionary design – improving the product to gain the slight advantage over the competitors. Bobsleighs, like F1, also has a large number of restrictions and rules to stick to, making world-changing designs next to impossible.
However, the British company isn't just sticking to bobsleigh design but it also helping the Great Britain team's skeleton teams in the same way.
McLaren utilised an array of sensors to evaluate the sleds strengths and weaknesses with the overall goal of making them as fast as possible.
And again, similar to F1, McLaren utilised wind tunnels and computer data to help improve the overal design to shave milliseconds off times. Handling and cornering – a specialty of the supercar maker – was another area where they strived to improve the sleds.
But if you think the winter games was the only domain that McLaren applied its wares, think again. In the lead-up to the Olympic Games in London in 2012, Mclaren gave assistance to the Great Britain Cycling team.
While McLaren didn't design the bicycles, it analysed the data of how the athletes worked together with the machines and the track in the same way it does with F1 in an attempt to shave seconds off times. Again, McLaren wasn't looking to reinvent the wheel, but rather give Team GB a unique competitive edge.
It has been reported that for the Beijing Olympics in 2008 – when the British cycling team commenced its domination of the velodrome – that the McLaren research team made upwards of 1700 alterations to equipment and clothing.
Now there is another reason to have kept local manufacturing!
McLaren isn't the only one assisting athletes; BMW has built a bobsleigh and a skeleton for the German 2018 Winter Olympics team.
Much like McLaren, the Bavarian automaker has helped improve aerodynamics, structural integrity and researched new materials.
BMW went about creating a bobsleigh in much the same way it would a car; it first made a computer generated version of the sled and optimised it using computer simulations. A mould is then created so that a carbon fibre version of the sled can be identically reproduced.
BMW's head of technology transfer, Thomas Hahn, who worked on the sleds said that one of the biggest changes was to the seating position, and customising it for each individual of differing size on the team.
"Changing the seating positions is nowhere near as trivial as one might think. Such optimisations change the centre of gravity and the handling, among other things. But we are very pleased with the result. Identifying and implementing the optimum compromise is a challenge that has to be mastered every day in car manufacturing.” said Hahn.
BMW has also applied its motion tracking and data analysis to the US swimming team. It helped the world's dominant swim team improve its dolphin kick, which is an important thruster after the dive and during lap changes.
The data collected helped the US swim team develop better techniques so that they could maximise the power of each swimmers dolphin kick. Again milliseconds count for a lot in competitive sport.
Ferrari has also been a a big proponent of the bobsleigh, helping the Italian national team develop its sleds.
Much like the other manufactures, Ferrari helped develop the ideal aerodynamics and structural integrity.
So the F1 rivalry doesn't stay on the racetrack but goes all the way to the icy slopes of the Winter Olympics.
Carmakers' Olympic influences
McLaren – Bobsleigh, Skeleton, Cycling
BMW – Bobsleigh, Skeleton, Swimming
Ferrari – Bobsleigh
Several high-end automakers are lending their F1 expertise to Olympic teams, with the bobsleigh high-up on the agenda.
McLaren seem to be the big mover-and-shaker in the Olympic-carmaker crossover game, with the British supercar maker using its McLaren Applied Technologies division to help design and collect data on a number of sports.
The British brand has had a hand in helping develop bobsleighs for the British Olympic team for a number of years. The company's engineers are helping improve the aerodynamics and structural integrity of the downhill racers.
Similar to F1, McLaren apply the same mantra of aiming for little gains rather than revolutionary design – improving the product to gain the slight advantage over the competitors. Bobsleighs, like F1, also has a large number of restrictions and rules to stick to, making world-changing designs next to impossible.
However, the British company isn't just sticking to bobsleigh design but it also helping the Great Britain team's skeleton teams in the same way.
McLaren utilised an array of sensors to evaluate the sleds strengths and weaknesses with the overall goal of making them as fast as possible.
And again, similar to F1, McLaren utilised wind tunnels and computer data to help improve the overal design to shave milliseconds off times. Handling and cornering – a specialty of the supercar maker – was another area where they strived to improve the sleds.
But if you think the winter games was the only domain that McLaren applied its wares, think again. In the lead-up to the Olympic Games in London in 2012, Mclaren gave assistance to the Great Britain Cycling team.
While McLaren didn't design the bicycles, it analysed the data of how the athletes worked together with the machines and the track in the same way it does with F1 in an attempt to shave seconds off times. Again, McLaren wasn't looking to reinvent the wheel, but rather give Team GB a unique competitive edge.
It has been reported that for the Beijing Olympics in 2008 – when the British cycling team commenced its domination of the velodrome – that the McLaren research team made upwards of 1700 alterations to equipment and clothing.
Now there is another reason to have kept local manufacturing!
McLaren isn't the only one assisting athletes; BMW has built a bobsleigh and a skeleton for the German 2018 Winter Olympics team.
Much like McLaren, the Bavarian automaker has helped improve aerodynamics, structural integrity and researched new materials.
BMW went about creating a bobsleigh in much the same way it would a car; it first made a computer generated version of the sled and optimised it using computer simulations. A mould is then created so that a carbon fibre version of the sled can be identically reproduced.
BMW's head of technology transfer, Thomas Hahn, who worked on the sleds said that one of the biggest changes was to the seating position, and customising it for each individual of differing size on the team.
"Changing the seating positions is nowhere near as trivial as one might think. Such optimisations change the centre of gravity and the handling, among other things. But we are very pleased with the result. Identifying and implementing the optimum compromise is a challenge that has to be mastered every day in car manufacturing.” said Hahn.
BMW has also applied its motion tracking and data analysis to the US swimming team. It helped the world's dominant swim team improve its dolphin kick, which is an important thruster after the dive and during lap changes.
The data collected helped the US swim team develop better techniques so that they could maximise the power of each swimmers dolphin kick. Again milliseconds count for a lot in competitive sport.
Ferrari has also been a a big proponent of the bobsleigh, helping the Italian national team develop its sleds.
Much like the other manufactures, Ferrari helped develop the ideal aerodynamics and structural integrity.
So the F1 rivalry doesn't stay on the racetrack but goes all the way to the icy slopes of the Winter Olympics.
Carmakers' Olympic influences
McLaren – Bobsleigh, Skeleton, Cycling
BMW – Bobsleigh, Skeleton, Swimming
Ferrari – Bobsleigh
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