BUSINESS PEELING BACK THE STICKERS NO1: MICROSOFT DYNAMICS
Lotus certainly made the Formula 1 and business world sit up and take notice at the start of the F1 season with the announcement that it had landed a sponsorship deal with Microsoft. The deal, which is for three years, sees the computer software giant’s logo – or more specifically that of its Microsoft Dynamics arm – grace the upper bodywork of the E20 racecar. Neither Lotus nor Microsoft
would be drawn on whether this is just a supply deal, a Lotus spokesperson telling Racecar Engineering that it will not release financial details of its sponsorship arrangements. But it is significant that the original release states: ‘As part of the partnership, Microsoft Dynamics
solutions, which are designed to enable organisations to be more agile and globally competitive in today’s business environment, will be implemented at [the] Lotus F1 Team base to facilitate the team’s business transformation. For the duration of the agreement, Microsoft personnel will work directly with Lotus F1 Team to transform and optimise operations towards a world class facility.’ The word to note here is
‘part’, suggesting that there’s more to this than just a swap of expertise and services for exposure on the car, driver overalls and team uniforms. That said, it is certainly offers a chance to highlight the capabilities of the company
within the ever-changing environment of F1 that is exciting Microsoft Dynamics. Christian Pedersen, general manager, Microsoft Dynamics ERP product marketing, said: ‘This is a sport where every single thousandth of a second counts. Even the smallest parts of a car go through constant enhancements in design, aerodynamic optimisation and structural strengthening. Thousands of evolutionary designs are created during the racing season based on terabytes of logged data, wind tunnel tests, and computerised simulations running on cutting-edge super computers. Bringing out innovations faster and better than competitors
creates an intense sense of urgency in the organisation, where a process from design conceptualisation, procurement, manufacturing, testing and deployment to the car is often counted in days and is critical to the success of the team on the track.
‘Managing a time sensitive
operation like Lotus F1 requires that the people in the organisation are equipped with the right set of tools – tools that are powerful, agile and give people the information they need to do their jobs effectively anywhere and on any device.’ While it’s not known how
much Microsoft is spending, it is worth noting that Hewlett Packard’s similar 2010 sponsorship of the same team – then known as Renault – cost around $1.5m. Of course, an amount such
as that would be a drop in the ocean for a company like Microsoft, which has an income to make even an F1 budget look like small change. It recently announced a staggering revenue of $20.89 billion for the quarter ending December 2011. Microsoft Dynamics is a part of Microsoft’s Business Division.
Dallara’s US aero programme takes flight
Dallara is involved in a project to make pilotless aircraft decoys for the US military, while it has also revealed it will be building an alternative IndyCar aero kit for a single organisation in 2013. The Italian company is making
parts for the US Miniature Air- Launched Decoy (MALD) project, which is an aircraft that duplicates the combat flight patterns and electronic signatures of American war planes. Dallara, which is working with
Raytheon on the project, will bring its racecar design expertise to the table by developing a quick change system for the nose, which will allow users of the MALD greater flexibility in selecting the electronic warfare package they need, and the ability to react quickly to changing situations. The concept is said to be based on the way
racecar nose assemblies are designed to be quickly replaced at pitstops. Meanwhile, Dallara has
confirmed it will be making a new alternative aero kit for IndyCar in 2013, but only for one client. For 2012, all the new Dallara DW12-spec cars will be using its own bodywork but, for next year, any engine manufacturer (or other organisation) is allowed to produce their own aero / body kits for the series. Diversity among the cars was one of the original aims for the new formula and this was seen as a way to provide an element of open competition in the series. Andrea Toso of Dallara has said the company would concentrate on building new cars and providing spares packages for the current aero configuration in 2013, rather than going
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into competition with other manufacturers with a kit bearing its own name. But he also said that it would be willing to build kits for another company under contract: ‘The development of a brand new aero kit is a large investment and Dallara would not be profitable if doing [this] on its own. You have to be humble enough to provide the platform and let them play, though Dallara is interested to provide its engineering resources to develop the aero kit for a third party company that might be looking at this opportunity to promote and activate its own business.’ This has now come to pass, and, while the identity of Dallara’s partner has not been revealed, it’s thought to be a well-known company not currently involved in the automotive industry.
CAUGHT
Chad Knaus, the crew chief on the no 48 Chevrolet in the NASCAR Sprint Cup, has been fined after the Hendrick Motorsports’ car was found to be running with c-posts that did not conform to the regulations. The infractions, which were discovered at the Daytona 500, originally also cost the team 25 points in both the drivers’ and owners’ championships, but both penalties, plus a six-race suspension for Knaus and car chief, Ron Malec, were overturned after a successful appeal. However, Knaus and Malec have been placed on probation until May.
FINE: $100,000 (£62,850) PENALTY: probation – May
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