Page 34 - Australasian Paint & Panel Magazine Sep-Oct 2019

Winning formula
34
PAINT&PANEL SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2019 WWW.PAINTANDPANEL.COM.AU
WINNING FORMULA
JIM FOXALL FINDS OUT WHAT IT TAKES TO KEEP THE MCLAREN F1 CARS TRACK-WORTHY AND LOOKING GOOD.
I
MMEDIATELY AFTER THE
Chinese Grand Prix, Russian Formula One driver Daniel Kyvat wouldn’t have wanted to come face to face with McLaren’s Glen Washington. With some muscular driv- ing at the first corner of the race, the Toro Rosso man had singlehandedly wiped out McLaren’s two-car challenge. It wasn’t just the sight of both British ma- chines heading for the pits that revved Washington up like racing engine, it was
the impact on McLaren’s work load. Washington is paint shop manager for the McLaren Formula One team. It’s his job to ensure McLaren can compete with two cars whose appearance meets the high standards demanded by 21st
century Formula One. When that takes in 21 weekends on circuits from Austral- ia to Azerbaijan, Singapore to Silver- stone in the UK, it’s no mean feat.
TIME POOR
Unlike most road-going machines, For- mula One cars present a series of unique challenges to their painters. Washington explains: “F1 is like no other industry. There is very little or no time to test your components apart from on the track. The cars are continually updated every week of the year so we only make prototype quantities of everything. As a result, we never get to optimise what we do on a particular part so we try to standardise our generic processes where we can.
The weekly bodywork changes throughout the year come about as the designers and aerodynamicists develop new parts that will hopefully make the cars faster. And these components are made from carbon composite materials rather than metal or plastic. But those are all practical considerations; aesthet- ic appeal is vital too. Formula One cars are 200-plus mph billboards and paint- work must reflect the sponsors who pay for it in the best possible light. To achieve this, McLaren is in partnership with Sikkens AkzoNobel.
Getting the pair of Papaya Spark Or- ange and Vega Blue MCL34 racers to look as good as they do before facing the rough and tumble of the track over a