INTERNATIONAL WOMEN IN ENGINEERING DAY 2020

On International Women in Engineering Day, we celebrate a selection of women at McLaren Racing who worked on the VentilatorChallengeUK (VCUK) consortium project – a collective of UK-based Formula 1 teams, engine manufacturers and their respective technology arms – who have worked hard to answer the UK Government’s calls for additional ventilators in response to the covid-19 crisis.

My main role was sourcing harnesses, electrical components, fabricated items and injection information technology vs computer science plastic parts. We used many of our F1 suppliers to help support this project with one key example being our harness supplier in Norfolk. This supplier worked well outside of their comfort zone making up to 500 harnesses a week to support the build, when our usual F1 order is a maximum of six sets a year.

The team worked collaboratively educating other teams at speed in terms of ways of working and problem solving. For example, some teams were working with mould tools that had never been designed to withstand the level of output now being expected. McLaren design and the machine shop teams’ support were crucial in the manufacture of a brand-new mould tool to help expedite manufacture and improve part quality. We worked closely with our consortium team members daily to ensure that we had parts to supply the build line.