It is always good to give a bit back to the future generation of engineers.

Last week R3 Ltd’s Dr David Woodward did just that as he presented a Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) webinar on Motorsport racetrack design in Formula 1 and MotoGP.

The event was organised by the ICE South Asia Early Careers Network who invited Dr David Woodward speak about his experiences in motorsport.

David is Reader in Infrastructure Engineering at Ulster University where he teaches on the Civil Engineering courses.

He is also Senior Scientific Officer for R3 Ltd who offer specialist services for roads, runways and racing circuits around the world.

The presentation offered an insight into the many different issues with particular emphasis on those involving civil engineering input.
It was based on case studies from projects in the UK, Europe and around the world, and was described as ‘the stuff you don’t see on TV.’ when you watch motorsport!

Some of the key elements of his presentation covered differences in highway surfaces compared to racing surfaces; how to facilitate high speed races, initial design through to racing; simulation, construction materials, evolution of the tyre / surface interface to how street circuits compare to permanent tracks.

We used a combination of this data to produce some of the smoothest and fastest tracks in the world.

You can understand more about R3 Ltd’s work in the motorsport sector at: https://r3ltd.com/racetrack-surface-testing