Beyond the track: The surprising ways F1 innovations are being used in medicine and science

Sascha: [00:00:02] From Equity Mates media. This isThe Dive. I'm your host, Sascha kelly. Ask any Formula One fan what they love about the sport and they'll tell you it's not just about fast cars, competitive team principals and charismatic drivers. It's about innovation. A vehicle that is engineered to travel over 300 kilometres an hour just has to be manufactured with the most incredible precision. But here's a recent discovery of ours that fascinated us. Formula One's technology. It doesn't stop when the 21 grand praise are over and the 20 cars have left the grid. The technology used in F1 cars is improving and used in our everyday lives. With a drive to survive season five just days away. We thought it was the perfect time to find out where that innovation is implemented. It's Wednesday, the 22nd of February, and today I want to know where is the technology developed by Formula One teams being used in my everyday life? To talk about this today. I'm joined by Darcy Cordell. Darcy, welcome to the Dive. And before we kick off a year drive to survive, then. 

Darcy: [00:01:12] I'm not as big a fan as you Sascha, But I will say that I have. I've watched the seasons and I'm right into it. 

Sascha: [00:01:18] I will defend myself. It did land in my life in the middle of COVID lockdown, so I felt like I was just looking for an obsession. But yes, it it has. I am a newcomer to the sport, but I know that it's found lots of drive to survive. Fans like me. And we know that that's helped transform the sport, especially in the USA. And we did a previous episode on the Netflix effect on F1. Check that out. I'm going to link that in the show notes. But today we did decide to go with this different angle because there are just some amazing examples of how F1 is improving our lives in ways that we never imagined. So for those who haven't joined the cult, who haven't watched the TV show, you might need a bit of a refresher. Darcy, Tell me how many F1 teams there are and what their budgets are. 

Darcy: [00:02:08] Sascha There are ten F1 teams and some of these are the biggest names in the vehicle manufacturing. Well, we've got Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull, Alfa Romeo, and back in 2019, Mercedes spent $484 million in one season improving their car. Ferrari in the same year spent $463 million and Red Bull spent $445 million improving their cars. So there is a massive budgets and these are the big teams. They can't afford to spend more than the smaller teams like Haas and Alphatauri, but it's still a massive budget. 

Sascha: [00:02:43] Yeah, I know. Darcy Like back of the envelope. Max That's 1.5 billion almost between the three top teams in one single year. Of course, that is huge money. No wonder that the top teams. 

Darcy: [00:02:57] Sascha, the F1 recognised that and they saw that as a problem. So they've now put a cap on teams budgets of about $150 million per team. Still not chump change, but that's been put in place to equalise the competition. 

Sascha: [00:03:09] Okay. And Darcy, it's important to note that that 150 is the full team budget. It's not just research and development, although that makes up a significant part of that budget. 

Audio Clip: [00:03:20] The notion was that motor racing technology would sooner or later trickle down to road car technology. Since the introduction of hybrid powertrains, F1 cemented itself at the forefront of technology, from consumer electronics to medical technology and smart cities. 

Sascha: [00:03:39] We are massive fans of F1, but we're not necessarily experts. So we did reach out to someone who is across all this information. I had the pleasure of talking to Samarth Kanal, who's a staff writer at F1, and we talked all about this topic today outside of the obvious use cases, which is, you know, these are car manufacturers so they can translate what they're doing with the F1 cars across into the the cars that they're selling for consumers to buy. We've seen F1 tech used in other kind of more surprising areas like city development, helping other sports, reducing emissions and even saving lives. Can you take us through some of those examples, some of your favourite examples? 

Samarth: [00:04:21] Yeah. So actually the saving Lives thing, I think during COVID 19, which obviously hit every country really hard. So there was something called Project Pitlane. So a lot of the F1 teams are based in the UK. I think it's seven F1 teams are based in the UK, so they will construct their chassis, they'll construct the engine if they're an engine supplier in the UK. So during COVID when there wasn't much F1 racing, what happened was that they pulled together their expertise, they worked with the NHS, the UK Health Service, and I think the military in some cases because a lot of medical use cases are also used in the military, right? So I think the best thing that came off Project Pitlane, one of the best things was. Sadie's high performance powertrains, which builds Mercedes Brace winning and championship winning engines. They made a device called the CPAP, which is essentially a ventilator, and they use their F1 technology to make sure that it would. It was lightweight. It would help patients breathe better than, you know, the oxygen mask that you see in the oxygen tank and the big ventilators. So it was lightweight, cheaper as well. So they started rolling those out during COVID. So the machines that were actually used to make pistons, baby crankshaft, stuff like that. They repurposed them to make little ventilators, send them across the world. So they even made the plans for those available online. So a hospital in Pakistan could download that plan, manufacture it themselves so that the plans include how to fabricate. The thing is that saves lives itself. It was amazing, you know, during COVID to repurpose a machine that builds engines into a ventilator machine. It wasn't just Mercedes, but Red Bull and Ferrari had their own designs as well. 

Sascha: [00:05:54] I keep reading McLaren in particular, coming up as a company that has lots of use cases outside F1, what are some of their examples? 

Samarth: [00:06:03] Well, outside F1, I mean McLaren are innovate so much and it's not just them, it will be Williams, McLaren, Red Bull of their own. So everyone has, but everyone wants to kind of take F1 technology and spread it as much as possible. So. McLaren Not only do they have the F1 powertrain, it's actually supplied by Mercedes, fine, but they supply Formula E with a ton of battery technology, an energy technology like that, which is great designing sustainable. And I think they also run a extreme team. So extremely is an all electric offroad racing series and that's quite cool because they promote sustainability all over the world. There's nothing to do with F1 really. But McLaren have their own team there. 

Sascha: [00:06:42] I've got to say, Drive to Survive is like been my entry way into following F1, but most of the sports, I'm not not so much up to speed with. What about supermarkets? I've heard about Williams Racing Air Aerofoil seems to be an example that people talk about. 

Samarth: [00:06:59] Yeah, that's a classic one. So now I wish my engineering dream was a bit better for this, but I know in the UK Asda, which is owned by Walmart and Sainsbury's, have this technology and is Aerofoil technology. Basically it means that the fridge can recirculate air more efficiently. They set it up to 25% more efficient. So it's saving a ton of energy, especially now for supermarkets as a big deal. So they're using F1 aerodynamic technology and transferring that into a refrigerator. Pretty cool technology. 

Sascha: [00:07:27] Let's take a quick break there, but in a moment, I'll be back with more of my conversation with Samarth when we talk about the new rules in place for F1 that are starting in 2026, and these are going to have a focus on sustainability and net zero emissions. We're going to talk about the impacts of those new regulations in just a minute. Formula One is the most technologically advanced sport in the world, with hundreds of designers and engineers at every team constantly striving to shave another fraction of a second off the lap time of their cars. Welcome back to the Dive. I'm your host, Sascha Kelly. And today we're talking about F1, not just anything about F1, about how the improvements and innovations on the grid actually leave and have felt in our everyday lives. I'm having a conversation with Samarth Kanal, who is a staff writer at F1. But before we get back to that conversation, just a quick reminder to please fill out our community survey Equity Mates Community Survey You might win $500 if you fill that out. And it also just makes a huge difference to us here at Equity Mates HQ helps us allocate resources. It helps us understand what you want so we can better serve that. Let's get back to my conversation with CMOs. The rules of F1 change all the time, and the rules of F1 are going to be changing for new regulations coming in in 2026 that do have this focus on sustainability and having net zero emissions. So what technology are we seeing the teams working on at the moment that are working on that as a goal? 

Samarth: [00:09:01] The F1 rules changes for 2026 are just engine base and they've been frozen now. So that means the teams aren't spending a ton of money to develop their engines as they used to do. So they're not spending so much money because the rules are being what they call frozen. That means that now new suppliers like Audi and Ford are going to come in for 2026 and there's always talk of more. I'm sure there's a lot of interest. But so we're going to see Audi and Ford back in the sport, which is amazing. And sustainability is a big part. So from 2026, it's going to be three times the electrical power, I think from the power unit. So that that reduces the combustion side of things. But that doesn't mean there's less power. It means that the figure could hover around 1000 BHP still, which is amazing. So it means more electrical power, more efficiency, but the same kind of high speeds that we see already. I think the engines are going to be simpler, which is cool. I want to say is the MCU H The taking out, which is a part of the engine, it's called a motor generator Unit eight, which would store high energy and convert it into whatever energy goes into the engine, makes the car move with a simpler engine. It means that you can tempt the likes of Audi and Ford to come in because then they can use that F1 to energy and bring it to their road car. So simple is always better. It also means that if Ford is making an F1 engine or at least working with Red Bull to perfect that F1 engine, they can take that technology back to a Ford Fiesta or Focus or a ute and then, you know, and have a more safe, efficient and sustainable road car. That's great. It's great for everyone. 

Sascha: [00:10:31] It really plays into that idea where you are saying better competition just always ends up with a better result for everyone, doesn't it? 

Samarth: [00:10:38] Yeah, for sure. I mean, one thing I love about Formula One is there's so many untold stories in a way. 

Sascha: [00:10:44] Are there any other particular favourite stories or use cases? You said there's so many like hidden stories that you can think of. [00:10:50][6.4]

Samarth: [00:10:51] Yeah, it's I mean, my brother is a doctor and they still teach this medical school, I think. But it's the the Ferrari crew. One is really famous one now. I don't have a medical degree, so when I explain it to is going to be lacking detail. But basically I think it was handing over a patient from surgery to intensive care. And sometimes in doing that, it could be a little mistake sometimes. Faisal You know, which is which is horrible. And they used the Ferrari pit crew. I think there's a long time ago, I will say, and pets that also become even faster now. So hopefully they're up to date with the pit stops. So they took that use case into hospitals and said, well, why F1 pit stops so efficient, quick and generally quite safe. Sometimes you'll see someone take a tumble, but they're really safe and they brought that to hospital. So when they're handing over a patient from surgery to intensive care, they do it in the same way as an F1 pit stop, where they have everyone has their own little bit, everyone does their own little check. And when the green light is given, you know that every single check has been done and that patient is safe. It's brilliant. So that's an awesome one, I think. 

Sascha: [00:11:59] Before we go, who's your pick for the upcoming season? It would be good to know we're on the on the eve of it all. Start kicking off. It'll be coming to Australia soon, which is really exciting. So be great to know what the inside track is, pardon the pun, or your thoughts. 

Samarth: [00:12:17] So it's difficult. We just had a new era of regulations and Red Bull nailed it. So they're the ones to beat. And I think Max Verstappen's driving an incredible level. I mean, last year he's a record with victories. You know, something very few drivers even get to do. So I would say for stop and still amount of beat that doesn't mean Mercedes and Ferrari won't be right on their tail. We also have exciting rookies, Oscar Piastri, He's Australian and there's also the Rookie of the Year contest. I'm looking forward to to see how Piastri fares against Logan Sargeant, who's American. It's good to have an American on the grid again and Nick DeVries, who's a fellow Dutchman just like this happened. So it's really exciting. So many storylines. Yeah. 

Sascha: [00:12:57] Thanks so much for your time today, Samarth. If you want to read more of his writing, then go to Formulaone.com or follow him on Twitter. I want to make sure to put his handle in the show notes. I really appreciate your time today, Darcy. What did you learn from that conversation? 

Darcy: [00:13:14] I think the key takeaway is just the variety of use cases for F1 technology. It's pretty incredible. Samarth mentioned there's energy storage aero for all technology that improved our fridges and you can see them in supermarkets all around the world. Of course, there's hospitals that are helping save lives with learnings from F1 teams. It really just shows that outside of the entertainment and the drama of F1, the technology being developed is genuinely improving our lives and. Planet. And it's going to be fascinating to see how the new regulations and budget cap might impact this going forward. 

Sascha: [00:13:48] Well, we might leave it there for today. Only two more sleeps, Darcy, until chapters come out. Not that I'm counting or anything, and I kind of watch it and I watch the season, so I know what's going to happen before I go. A quick reminder that FinFest is back for 2023, the 11th of November. Make sure that you register. Go to Equity Mates dot com, put your details in and then you can be the first to keep up to date. Access the Earlybird ticket prices. Find out about the schedule, all the inside information. And if you want to keep the conversation going with us at the dive, then contact us by email thedive@equitymates.com or hit, follow or subscribe wherever you're listening right now and then you'll never miss an episode. Darcy, thanks so much for joining me today.

Darcy: [00:14:32] Thanks.

Sascha: [00:14:33] Gervase Stepan. Until next time.