Meet the Team: Ed Wood
13 March 08
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Meet Ed Wood, the team's Chief Designer. Having joined the team at the end of the 2006 season, Ed is responsible for the whole design process of the Williams cars.
PERSONAL:
Age: 39
Star sign: Aquarius
Start date at Williams: April 2006
Previous jobs in Formula One: Research and development engineer at Ferrari (1998-2000) and Renault (2000-2002). Engineer or racer? I’ve always been driven by engineering as much as racing, and I think the lure of engineering is why Formula One remains at the pinnacle of motorsport. The sport is well funded, so we are able to push the boundaries of technology.
Why Williams? I joined primarily because it's an engineering-led company. We are a group of people with similar engineering philosophies and although we're not a manufacturer team, there has been a hell of a lot of inward investment over the years so we have everything we need to develop the car.
Inspiration outside Formula One? Technology involved in other areas of design. But there aren't many ideas outside F1 that you can apply directly to an F1 car. There’s a lot of inspiration to be drawn from technology and the history of technology.
Hobbies? There isn't much time for hobbies! Most of my free time is focused on my family, but I've always been very keen on motorcycles and I still do a little bit of Enduro and Motocross.
PROFESSIONAL:
Describe your working year: The start of the year is quite busy because we're sorting and developing the new car, while at the same time laying down the main targets for the following year's car. The design process for each car is quite long and it’s an involved one, so we like to start early. In the case of FW31, the 2009 car, we have a lot of rule changes to think about, so it's more challenging than a typical year. Throughout the Spring and early summer of 2008 we will run parallel development programmes between FW30 and FW31, then the new car will suck in an increasing number of people as the year progresses.
How much of the car do you design, or are you more of a facilitator? It depends on how you quantify design. I no longer produce any detailed drawings, but I do a lot of up front calculation work - outside of the aerodynamics - which allows me to think about the concept of the car. I always think about ways in which we can best achieve whatever it is we're looking to achieve.
What’s the most challenging aspect of your job? The technology. Managing a large group of people and a design process is very demanding in itself, but it's trying to find better ways of doing things that presents the greatest challenges and the greatest obstacles.
Do you agree with F1's plan to introduce green technology? I think it’s very good. It’s not that I don't see KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) as significantly green, but it’s going to create the right environment to develop pioneering types of technology. It’s really good that F1 is going to be the catalyst for that.
Will the use of KERS affect lap times? As the regulations stand, the difference between a perfect KERS system and not having one is probably 0.3s-0.4s, which isn’t big - but if you haven’t got it, you’re certainly not going to be competitive. KERS could give much bigger lap time benefits with greater deregulation on how we use it, which could happen over the next 10 years as the cars become more dependable on that type of technology.
