Oscar Piastri about his working day at the McLaren base

      On the McLaren team's website, publications periodically appear under the heading "A Day in the Life...", and today in such a text, Oscar Piastri talks about his daily life at the base in Woking.

      Drivers regularly come to the McLaren Technology Center, usually during breaks between races, and spend two to three days there, although they do not have personal offices. But they don't need them, as during these workdays, which last many hours, they mainly work on the simulator and communicate with engineers.

      "The simulator is a complex system that embodies the most modern technologies," Oscar explains. "To make the simulator reproduce everything as accurately as possible, serious efforts and hard work were required. The picture it models is realistic in many ways, but unfortunately, the only thing that cannot be well reproduced is the G-forces..."

      The simulator is serviced by a special group of specialists, but they mainly deal with test drivers and racers, whose task is to work on the simulator. They also interact with the main drivers, but when Oscar or Lando Norris takes the wheel, their race engineers get involved.

      Overall, the process is quite comparable to what happens during tests on a real track: the driver makes a run, during which adjustments can be made to the settings of the virtual car, after which the analysis of telemetry data begins with the engineers. This cycle then repeats.

      "This is how I learn: I study graphs reflecting parameters such as speed, throttle input, and braking force – this is how we prepare to immediately gain a good pace on the real track. Right now, the simulator is the only tool used for testing. We are not allowed to practice on the real track as much as we want, so working on the simulator is crucial.

      During the day, we hold meetings. The topics can vary widely – driving style, car settings, working with technical innovations in the process of chassis modernization. After such sessions, engineers analyze the collected information, after which we usually return to discussing it on the track – on Thursday before the start of the race weekend.

      Psychologically, you have to tune yourself in the same way as when driving a real Formula 1 car. Although, of course, the physical demands on the simulator are not quite the same..."

      It often happens that working on the simulator involves clarifying certain points that the team identified in the previous race. They may be related to some difficulties, but it can also be the other way around – the team tries to develop certain strengths.

      "My task is to help Oscar interact with the car as effectively as possible," explains engineer Henry Fidler, responsible for the performance of the MCL40 with the number 81. "We study a large volume of telemetry data from our teammate, as well as other drivers, conduct comparative analysis, and try to understand how to go faster. All our work is based on the application of IT methods..."

      "We discuss the tasks facing the driver, everything that is important to pay attention to in the preparation for the next race to do everything right," adds engineer Amir Sampat, Fidler's colleague. "Usually, Oscar is quite receptive to the information we provide him. And although the volume of this information is very large, Oscar takes it all quite calmly, as he always has something to ponder."

      The text ends with the phrase: "And if this work does not take up all the time that the drivers are at the base, then we have a great gym."