Formula 1, the Chase for Perfection

Formula 1. The sport we all know and love. But what word would first come to mind when you here it being mentioned? Perhaps speed, glamour or maybe even competition. These are some of the most obvious qualities to describe the worldwide sport, but I could think of better. You just have to look a little bit closer.

(c) Vodafone McLaren Mercedes

The sport is always chasing this special something, it’s very particular and something that has to be just right. I am of course talking about perfectionism, which has developed to become a sort of obsession in Formula 1. This has become more evident over the past few years, with teams and drivers constantly chasing to reach it, or even just to get closer. Down to the smallest of details, the chase is always on.

This obsession with the chase has always inspired me. I do not regard myself as a perfectionist, but the chase for that very thing is extremely motivating and keeps you on your toes. It’s good to have goals set, and whilst being perfect is not a necessity you can benefit hugely from trying, and if you get it right then you will achieve. After all, if you don’t strive to meet perfect standards what aims can you have in life? A Formula 1 team is always pushing to win, be the best and amongst other things be the best they can be. These aims are ones that I often think about and set myself in everyday life, as do many others.

The obsession is apparent even in the simplest of things. For example the Formula 1 Paddock is a sprawling space situated behind the pit garages. It often contains the team trucks that carry the equipment and cars across Europe, obviously the trucks are absent from the fly-away races. Now some would say it is just parking a truck, and that it is not really that big a deal. However what people do not realise is that these trucks are parked to specific measurements and areas. They have to be perfect; otherwise the neat, presentable facade will be lost. It really does take a huge amount of skill, for a large lorry the F1 paddock is tight and they have to be within millimetres of the area allocated, it is all about the detail. Once more, after the trucks have dropped of their freight they often park up and get a thorough cleaning. F1 teams expect even their team trucks to be spotless before that tricky parking is done, clean freaks or what! 

(c) Lotus F1 Team

It’s not only the trucks that get a thorough scrubbing; even the slightest of marks or scratches on the surface of a million pound Formula 1 car needs to be cleaned. Some team members in the garage are allocated jobs like polishing the bodywork or (in McLaren’s case) re applying livery stickers. The Woking based team have found an ingenious way of maintaining that super sleek chrome finish between fly away races. There is no time to waste, so a re-spray of the bodywork is not a possibility. Instead they have special stickers printed that can be applied to the bodywork to cover any chips or marks, so the car can look just right. However the work does not stop there, even during practice or qualifying sessions the team expect their car to be immaculately polished, so it looks brand new when it emerges from the pits once more. It really is like an obsession, like OCD that has taken over whole teams at a time.

As I said earlier, it really comes down to the smallest of details. A Formula 1 car is made out of thousands of small, tiny parts that when combined create one heck of a machine. But because of this, it also means that there is no margin for error. One slight mistake can cause retirement, and if you are in the hunt for the title it could prove costly. It often amazes me at how these machines are made, hours, days and weeks of work all boils down to a few hours of fast, dangerous racing. A front wing endplate could take days to design and create, yet by the first corner it could already be lying broken somewhere on the race track. Assembling a racing machine is a delicate process and there are so many things that could go wrong. It is a testament to the teams that reliability in the sport is so strong, but even now such small issues can cause a DNF. It's easy to forget the effort that goes on behind closed doors, and the true level of skill needed to create a machine worthy of lasting the race weekend. The chase is always on.

Attention to detail continues on the grid, as the cars wait for the formation lap. Whilst it may look like a bunch of team colour clad people running to grid bays, they all have tasks to do and astonishingly specific time limits to do them in. It’s a hub of activity as mechanics gather data on laptops monitor the temperatures and evaluate the data from the installation lap. Meanwhile drivers are trying to relax as their engineers go over start procedures, strategy and the main goals and aims. This is all done to time, and even the minutest of mistakes can lead to a team dropping behind schedule. Formula 1 constantly revolves around time and even the grid is no exception.

Time, an on-going battle to slash the seconds.  This is obviously evident in the pit stop process. The banning of fuel top ups and the improvements in technology mean that tyre stops have consistently dipped below the three second mark. It really is incredible; you can sometimes blink and miss it. I find it hard to imagine the pressure put on the shoulders of the pit crew. One slip up in the sports current competitive guise and you could lose a place, maybe even two or three. This was evident in 2012 when McLaren suffered a chain of tardy pit stops, costing them results. The evolution of the pit stop creates new innovations and that is what the British squad did, they tried something new and it took time to get used to. By the German Grand Prix they had serviced Jenson Button’s McLaren Mp4-27 in just 2.3 seconds, a new world record and one that truly represents the pursuit that I keep mentioning.

(c) Vodafone McLaren Mercedes

Of course teams cannot reach their faultless goals without the hiring of a good driver. One of the most important variables in having a strong race weekend is the car set up, which has to be as close to perfect as can be. The perfect set-up is extremely difficult to come by though and it changes from driver to driver. What also changes is how a driver can adapt and work with a set-up that is not suited to them. The evidence is emphasised when you compare team mates. The most obvious example takes us back to 2010, when Jenson Button joined Lewis Hamilton at McLaren. The pairing have since split up but at the time it was incredibly difficult to please both drivers in the cars design and set up due to the immense difference in driving style. Lewis Hamilton is a driver whose style rarely features the perfect turn in, the perfect speed and the perfect line through a corner. The Brit can deal with a far from perfect set up, for example if the qualifying session was wet and the race was dry (meaning the set up would be angled more to one weather condition). Hamilton can handle the back end stepping out and commonly uses oversteer, creating a more aggressive style that harms the tyres. This means that Lewis can deal with difficult set up choices or problems with the car that he can overcome.

However his now former team-mate Jenson Button has a smoother, more precise driving style. Any form of oversteer or understeer is unsettling for Button, who likes to fully feel what the car is doing and rarely needs to correct errors; causing few movements of the wheel. Jackie Stewart has previous said he is “an effortless driver who doesn't bully a car, he smoothly and gently conducts it.” This style helps to preserve tyre wear and when Jenson finds the sweet stop he is often unstoppable. However this seamless driving style is rare due to the Frome born drivers difficult to find the “perfect set up”. He will often spend much of Friday practice finding this the right balance but sometimes fails to discover it, often generating a complaint over team radio.

This constant chase for the perfect set up can affect Button’s race weekends if his thorough search fails. This just emphasises Formula 1’s obsession with creating perfection, because if it’s not then someone will not be happy. Results prove perfection, or the proximity to which you reach. Obviously every team is in it to win it and if they fail to do so, questions will be asked. The whole point of F1 really is to chase for that perfect result, as if you are not willing to try then why enter the sport to begin with? Clearly some teams have to be realistic, but will produce plans and long term aims that they expect to be met. However it is very rare to have the perfect season, have the perfect result and the perfect weekend. The closest that comes to mind was the dominance of Ferrari between 2000 and 2004, particularly 2001 and 2002 where they pretty much developed the perfect car.

(c) Force India F1 Team

In a sport where perfection is so evident, why has it inspired me so much? I’m sure many others would agree when I say that setting goals and aims is extremely motivating, and setting ones that are maybe too over ambitious could set you up for failure. However what I have taken from Formula 1’s chase for perfection is that you must always try your best, reach and aim high, try to be the best you can and never give up. This is clear to see in the sports constant chase and battle for excellence and it is something that I often think about, but maybe that is just me.

There are consequences to failure, loss of jobs, demotivation and perhaps a loss of hope. Many drivers and teams experience this, but on many occasions it only spurs them on. They live, learn and move on. Not everyone can win, so why chase for something if there is a chance that you will not achieve it? Firstly motivation, if you have nothing to work towards then what is the point? Why not use the skills you have and the passion you possess to try and get as close to that point as possible. It will also create self actualisation when teams do well and get closer to their aims, it can be hugely rewarding.

The chase is never ending. As one stops another starts. But that is the thrill, the continuous race to finish on top and achieve perfection. It is truly inspiring and something that one day I hope to witness first hand.