McLaren F1 raced to IT swap-out in nine days

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The Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Formula One team took nine days to do a five-month job in swapping out their IT environment, according to the McLaren Group information systems director Ian Robinson.

Working with Lenovo, the team sought to reorganise its IT infrastructure, which included old UNIX workstations, with fresh systems and machines.

Speaking at a press event organised by Lenovo, Robinson described the old set-up as a “patchwork”, but once the new environment was brought in, the team engineers were “blown away” by the kit.

Robinson admitted that the nine days it took to complete the IT overhaul were long ones and said that the operation required “a small army”, but the improvements were clear.

For example, the new Lenovo D20 ThinkStations allowed for a 60 per cent increase in the number of simulations the team could carry out per second. F1 teams will run through scenarios, such as fuel issues or safety car interruptions, around a week before a race.

One of the issues that McLaren is dealing with now - and is going to have to tackle in the future - is cost reductions in the sport, and the IT side will play a part.

Robinson said: “The governing bodies are trying to take the cost out."

“What we are really trying to achieve, which I don’t think is rocket science, is a lot more with a lot less," he said. "So that’s a cost as far as initial purchase, it’s the cost of ownership, it’s also the power consumption we have."

“Enabling a team of 400-500 engineers to do that repeatedly and reliably is a real ask.”

Of course, not all businesses will have the resources of McLaren or will be able to radically change their IT systems in such quick time. However, Intel's Grant Peters, a member of the technical marketing team, is an advocate of refreshing an IT infrastructure on a more regular basis.

Also speaking at the event, Peters claimed that in the long run, it is cheaper for a company to replace their systems with more efficient technology rather than using old machines.

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