Career
The engineer who swears by CFD and uses F1 tech to solve real-world problems
by Samarth Kanal
7min read
What happens when a seasoned Formula 1 engineer takes computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and applies it to solve real-world problems in the fields of retail, architecture, transport, and even robotics? Millions of lives could be enhanced.
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Nick Wirth made that bold leap, initially designing Formula 1 cars primarily using CFD and then using that same approach to improve sustainability, performance and aesthetics in other fields.
Wirth was boss of the Simtek team that raced in F1 from 1994-95, before starting his own robotics company, Roboscience, in 1999.
In 2003, he founded his eponymous engineering company, Wirth Research. In 2007, Wirth helped Acura launch its sportscar racing programme and, in 2010, designed an F1 car exclusively using CFD at Virgin Racing.
He tells us why he’s all for CFD over a physical windtunnel, and why his company has used this approach to design solutions for supermarkets, mobility, and even headquarters for Apple.
Nick Wirth in 2010, when he served as technical director for Virgin Racing
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Why Wirth is ‘100%’ for this F1 technology
When Honda brand Acura began its sportscar racing programme in 2006, Wirth was convinced that the windtunnel wasn’t the way forward - and he committed to using CFD instead.
“I do stand by that,” he says.
When his engineering team designed and built an upgrade to the nose of the Acura ARX-01, Wirth felt vindicated.
“The upgrade was literally, just in every way, brilliant. Marco Andretti [Honda IndyCar driver] tested it, and he came back substantially quicker.
“That was the moment where we kind of lost confidence in the windtunnel. So the Acura programme switched to CFD.”
The 2010 Virgin Racing F1 car was designed using CFD - and without the windtunnel
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“And we never looked back.”
Wirth would leave the Honda/Acura sportscar project and, in 2010, he became technical director of Manor Motorsport. That F1 team soon became Virgin Racing, whose 2010 VR-01 was designed purely using CFD.
But the small Virgin team was not the best showcase for CFD technology given the wider issues it faced.
“There was really only one big step in performance we did, which was around Silverstone [2010], where we put a whole new front wing on… we thought we were going to gain a big chunk of time, and it came in almost exactly how we predicted.”
Wirth says funding issues stymied the team’s chase for success and he parted company with it during its second season.
“Politics kind of ran its course before we had the chance to do that. But I have absolutely no regrets. And I have no doubt that we would have been extremely successful, had we been given the chance to continue.”
Virgin Racing didn’t hit its stride in Formula 1 - but Wirth stands by his methodologies
Wirth does ponder F1 teams’ continued investment in windtunnel technology. Although he acknowledges his long time away from F1, he says he’s still “surprised” about the continued reliance on windtunnels in F1 given they only simulate airflow behaviour in a straight line.
“There's just so many compromises in the windtunnel that it does surprise me that there's so much reliance on them.”
Of course, F1 teams still invest in the use of windtunnels as, not only do they provide real-world aerodynamic findings, but they help engineers confirm that their CFD simulations are actually accurate.
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A scale model of an F1 car in the windtunnel - where simulation of airflow in multiple dimensions is difficult
Solving real-world problems using CFD
Robotics was Wirth’s first foray beyond motorsport as he founded Roboscience in 1999. He says that Roboscience attempted to market its own quadcopter drone, but potential clients “couldn’t understand what they were looking at”.
Wirth continued to explore the applications of his F1 experience to further technology well outside the track, as he founded Wirth Research in 2003. Back then, it focused on motorsport design but the company found a new lease of life after the end of its Virgin F1 relationship.
“We'd started transitioning out of motorsport into sustainability around 2012, which would ultimately prove to be the only reason why we're still having this discussion today.
“Had we not transitioned, no form of Wirth Research would have survived [the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 and 2021]. We were happening to be working for people in energy saving, and all our customers were supermarkets, and supermarkets were the only game in town that got through COVID needing stuff.”
Many supermarkets around the world, particularly in the United Kingdom, deploy one of Wirth Research’s most successful innovations: the Ecoblade.
A CFD simulation of a Truechill cabinet
This device eliminates cold air spillage from refrigerators, keeping temperatures down, ensuring food is kept fresher for longer, and reducing energy bills. It does this using two blades to eliminate turbulence at the edge of the refrigerator shelf, preventing cold air from meeting warmer ambient air. This led to the Truechill refrigerator cabinet that encompasses CFD-driven cooling technology.
He says that using F1-style CFD analysis to create energy-saving technology is “low-hanging fruit”.
Airdoor is another example of one of Wirth Research’s innovations. This is a three-sided door of fans that creates a curtain of airflow, trapping warm air inside a shop and keeping pests away.
“We want to do stuff which really moves the dial and allows people to save energy, use energy for more useful things, or reduce the cost, or just make access to energy better, and try and essentially free up more energy for better usage,” he says.
A CFD simulation showing how the airdoor keeps air out by creating a ‘curtain’ at the entrance of a building
The Apple and Bloomberg headquarters
They may not know it, but millions of people have seen Wirth’s work outside of motorsport and the benefits of using F1 technology in the real world. It’s evident in award-winning building designs such as Apple Park in Cupertino, California, USA, and Bloomberg’s headquarters in London, UK.
British architecture firm Foster + Partners enlisted the help of Wirth Research to reduce its clients’ reliance on mechanical heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC).
“A lot of Foster + Partners’ clients were very environmentally conscious, like Michael Bloomberg, and the late Steve Jobs [Apple co-founder] was very passionate about it,” says Wirth.
“That was a very avant-garde topic at the time, which was using natural ventilation to ventilate buildings rather than mechanical HVAC."
Wirth says the Bloomberg headquarters was a “massive challenge” for his team.
The interior of the Bloomberg Headquarters in London, UK, showing its design optimised for effective ventilation
“It was the biggest model we'd ever done, far bigger than motorsport. We were doing billion-plus-cell CFD models on that project back in 2010, 2011, which is about two or three times the size of the biggest race car models we'd done at the time.
“That project was so successful, it led on to us doing probably our most famous piece of architectural work, which was the development of Apple Park… the largest naturally ventilated building in the world.
“That was about 3.7 million square feet, and that was an incredible project. We had to model the whole city of Cupertino and work on controlling the plantation of about 8,000 trees, and model these gigantic buildings and how [the building’s design] would work through different times of the year, day and night.”
Apple’s headquarters in California uses CFD-driven architecture
Wirth Research’s work even goes beyond our planet as it deploys its CFD-led approach to aid space agencies in their off-planet pursuits.
Wirth credits his approach to motorsport development for his team’s success in seemingly unrelated fields.
“All of it is motorsport. Every single innovation.”
Losing the race with Virgin led Wirth to double down on his modus operandi, and it proved transformative.
Now, his work impacts millions of lives every day, and Wirth’s career is a blueprint for turning motorsport’s technological methodology into world-changing innovation.
