The Leading Edge of Design with INEOS TEAM UK
When you first see INEOS TEAM UK's recently launched AC75 race boat for the 36thAmerica's Cup, called 'BRITANNIA', one of the most striking elements are the wing foils.
These wing foils penetrate the water to make BRITANNIA fly and have been one of the key collaboration projects between INEOS TEAM UK and the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team's Applied Science division.
Around 30 members of Applied Science have been embedded with INEOS TEAM UK over the past 12 months to help deliver and accelerate performance on the water.
The wing foils were delivered to Auckland from Mercedes F1 HQ in Brackley, but this is just one of many projects that the Applied Science team has been working on with INEOS TEAM UK - other areas include simulation, manufacturing and control systems.
"The attention to detail at Mercedes F1 is phenomenal," said Nick Holroyd, Chief Designer of INEOS TEAM UK.
"Even the smallest details of design and build can add up to be quite a significant performance gain and they have brought that exactness to our campaign.
"Previously, we have tended to look at the big performance opportunities and how we can manipulate those but with Mercedes F1 Applied Science support we have been able to push to the finest of levels and this can be seen first-hand in our foil wing programme which we have really pushed to the leading edge."
Graham Miller, Director of Applied Science at Mercedes F1, added: "One of the things we bring to the table is extra bandwidth which has meant increased reliability and efficiency and has led to time saving on the project.
"We also noticed there was not a big in-house manufacturing capability within the team compared to our HQ. Therefore, we were able to take the foil build project in-house at Brackley using some of the world's best manufacturing tools to drive the project to meet specific timelines."
BRITANNIA is now based in Auckland and Applied Science engineers are also onsite throughout the build-up and for the 36th America's Cup itself, working alongside INEOS TEAM UK to develop and implement innovations in engineering, human science, simulation and data analysis.
Miller adds: "It was a proud moment for the whole Mercedes F1 team at Brackley to see the wings lifting BRITANNIA out of the water for the first time.
"As the saying goes in the America's Cup 'there is no second' and our Applied Science team in the UK and NZ will be working right up until the last race day to help Ben and team bring the Cup home for the first time."
Find out more about Applied Science by clicking here, and watch BRITANNIA in action in the below video as it took flight for the first time.