The margins of success are no smaller in any other sport than in Formula One: a millimetre change to a car’s chassis, or a fraction of a gram reduction in weight, can equate to seconds on the track and the difference between achieving or missing out on a podium place.
With both safety and competition in mind, the sport is ruled by a series of complex regulations that must be adhered to by the competing drivers and teams – with each team working to produce the fastest car, all within a maximum permissible budget and measurements.
Behind every car and driver is a team of engineers working to push the limits, testing and deploying the slightest of changes for a faster, lighter, and more aerodynamic vehicle – and, this year in particular, McLaren Racing succeeded in doing just that, securing the 2024 Constructors’ Championship following a nail-biting season.
The V6 hybrid McLaren MCL38 proved stunningly quick at the hands of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, with the team securing six race wins and 21 podiums in total.
This win marks McLaren F1’s ninth Championship since its foundation in 1963, and is evidence of its commitment to utilising the most advanced technology possible, in order to produce the fastest-possible car – and, perhaps more so than other tech, Additive Manufacturing (AM) is at forefront of this.
To secure an edge in such a competitive environment, McLaren deploys a number of next-generation 3D printers from Stratasys, utilising the company’s advanced technology and knowledge to chase the perfect design for its racing cars.
“Having a very prominent 3D printing partner, like Stratasys, is incredibly important for us,” Piers Thynne, Chief Operating Officer of McLaren F1, told Machinery. “When most of the parts that are made are done with 3D printers, it means that we’re turning around aerodynamic experiments, strategically delivering solutions to our wind tunnel, as fast as possible.”
RAPID PROTOTYPING
For the sport as a whole, the advancement of PolyJet 3D printing technology has changed the game in terms of rapid prototyping and testing. With the ability to quickly create precise parts using photopolymers, UV light, and inkjet heads, Stratasys’ PolyJet technology allows McLaren to print a part from a CAD model in as little as a few minutes.
“Typically used in product development, PolyJet allows you to experiment with something before even putting it into a functional testing environment. It makes a huge difference for these kinds of fast moving environments, to be able to hold a part in your hand or put it on the vehicle, beginning the design analysis very early on,” explained Fadi Abro, Stratasys’ Director of Automotive, Detroit.
“You can get the ultimate realism out of PolyJet. In a scenario where McLaren is testing multiple different iterations of one part, they don’t want to traditionally manufacture one iteration just for the driver or engineers to hold it and say, ‘that’s not the right feel.’ This technology allows you to short-circuit all of that.”
When testing the shape of a new steering wheel, for instance, McLaren 3D printed a range of designs for the drivers to hold, to gauge the immediate feel prior to full-blown testing. To traditionally manufacture a custom carbon fibre steering wheel, Fadi said, is far more time consuming and would cost the team around £50,000, compared to £100 – £150 to additive manufacture the same part.
“In F1, teams are limited in terms of the number of hours of computational fluid dynamic simulation that they can do. Teams want to do iterations as quickly as they can, to do as many trial and error tests and improvements within the window that they have. A very quick solution is critical,” added Yann Rageul, Global Head of Application Engineering at Stratasys, who secured the company’s partnership with McLaren in 2017.
“It’s all about saving a fraction of a second, but with rapid FDM printing, you’re talking about saving potentially hours. With more iterations comes more optimisation, which is a really big competitive advantage on the day of the race.”
ADVANCEMENTS IN AERODYNAMICS
Synonymous with F1, aerodynamics play a huge part in a car’s performance. Beyond other technology such as Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), wind tunnel testing is central to the design and build of a F1 car, as engineers can measure how every surface works together, as an assembly or as a complete car.
Recently investing in Stratasys’ Stereolithography (SLA) technology, McLaren is able to produce prototype parts for wind tunnel testing, which it said can have a huge impact on race performance and overall success rate.
Described as a ‘vat polymerisation’ 3D printing process, liquid photosensitive resin is first poured into a vat or tank. UV light then interacts with the resin, to selectively cure or solidify it, layer by layer until the final object is created.
The team has a number of Stratasys NEO 3D printers in the basement of its HQ Technology Centre in Woking, constantly running to print thousands of parts for numerous front and rear wing programs, as well as large parts of the car’s side bodywork.
Primarily using the NEO 800 printers, McLaren said that the technology has dramatically helped to reduce the lead times of its aerodynamic wind tunnel components and projects. With a build capacity of 800 x 800 x 600 mm, the printer is able to rapidly produce large parts to a high level of detail, definition, and repeatability.
“Every race track is different, every environment is different, and every race teaches you something. Highly competitive, elite performers like McLaren need to take these learnings from every race, and apply them to the vehicle,” Fadi said. “If the team is able to change the angle of a tiny part, to lead to better performance, better drag, better drift, they’re going to take advantage of it. This is an area where our SLA equipment is leveraged every day at full capacity, to help improve the aerodynamics of the vehicle.”
The value in terms of speed, cost and advancement is clear, with McLaren stating that the NEO is the only SLA machine where parts can be taken off of the printer and put directly into the wind tunnel – removing the need for additional sanding or modification.
Primarily printing with the company’s Somos® PerFORM material, the race team can produce strong, stiff, high temperature-resistant composite parts that are ideal for rapid tooling and wind tunnel testing. With the lowest viscosity of any composite stereolithography material, parts made from PerFORM are faster to build and easier to clean, again reducing overall time and cost.
PRINTED TOOLING AND COMPONENTS
Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) 3D printing is often used further along the production process, for tooling and direct component printing in particular.
Printing from a CAD design, the FDM process begins by heating, melting and extruding thermoplastic filament through a thin nozzle, which is deposited at the bottom of the printer platform to solidify. As the process continues, the next extruded layer fuses with the layer below, building the part from the bottom up.
“For fixturing and tooling, you’re printing something that helps put the car together: something that helps you make a part, fix a part or assemble a part. It’s a 3D printed assembly aid,” Fadi explained.
“McLaren also uses FDM to directly print components – things like bracketry, ducting and air control parts that are more complicated and difficult to do with traditional manufacturing. With FDM, you can save on weight, save on time, and most importantly, just be free to design what you need for better functionality.”
The technology clearly enhances all parts of the production process, from trialling ideas, testing and producing finalised components – with the racing team even deploying a FDM printer trackside during races, Yann noted, reaping the benefits of being able to rapidly print parts and tools.
THE FUTURE OF AM IN F1
“There’s a lot of confidentiality in our partnership with McLaren, but what I can say is we are always supporting them with best practises on how to use our assets. Our application engineers are working with the racing team to see how they can maybe remove a bit of support material, to use less material and print faster,” Yann explained.
“They are the type of customer we are always looking for: one that is always looking to make things better and better, never satisfied with what is ‘good’ now. They have to put their limits at the glass ceiling.
“The team is open to testing new material, technology and processes, because obviously, everything they try could provide them with an even further competitive edge versus their competitors.”
Many F1 teams, including McLaren, are looking to adopt a broader range of Additive Manufacturing technology, with Yann predicting the rise of Digital Light Processing (DLP) in the seasons to come.
While SLA 3D printing cures one spot of resin in the vat at a time, DLP uses a digital light projector to project an entire layer of the object onto the surface of the vat all at once, solidifying the liquid photopolymer resin as one to produce the object in a much faster time.
“It can also print with elastomer material, which teams could use to print a small part that could attach to a cable to stop it vibrating in the vehicle, for instance. It sounds simple, but could be the difference between engine failure. The accuracy of the technology is really amazing, we’re talking multi-microns of accuracy, similar to the level of injection moulding.”
And as with the majority of sectors, Fadi believes that Formula One engineering and the Additive Manufacturing sphere as a whole will continue to be advanced by software development and the strengthening of AI.
“I’d say over the last ten years, the focus has been on material development: making stronger, better 3D printing materials that can behave like traditional manufacturing ones. While still not completely accomplished, I think the industry has made some really impressive strides in that regard,” he said.
“In the next five years or so, I think we will be aiming to improve throughput, how fast we can print something. If we can print ten times faster than a CNC machine, then we can unlock new applications.
“Looking ahead to ten years’ time, though, it will be all about software. We’ve made the material stronger, the process faster, but now we have to make the workflow and customer experience better. Software, workflow, easy buttons, automation – these are the things that are going to propel the industry forward.”
With F1 entering into an era of lighter, smaller, and more agile cars – in light of the FIA’s latest technical regulations for the 2026 season – we are sure to see Additive Manufacturing revolutionising the sport even further.
Teams across the grid will continue their unrelenting pursuit of technical development, with AM and technology like AI set to push the capabilities of F1 cars, and the automotive industry as a whole, miles ahead of what is possible now.
“That’s the reason we love these motorsport partnerships, because they’re leading the way for the traditional autos. The rate of change is amazing, and we’re proud to be involved.”
