Excel workbook slows down F1 cars
Oh, dear. We’ve been here before, haven’t we? 😫
F1 is a sport that requires a colossal amount of attention to detail. Ultimately, a team’s aim is to construct the fastest car possible within budget constraints and available resources.
There are thousands of parts that make up an F1 car, so encyclopedic knowledge of each is vital — as is organisation.
Yet, for Williams, this has been lacking for a long time.
Let’s remember this is the constructor that won nine world championships between 1980 and 1997. Yet it’s been 27 years of zilch since then.
Blame Excel.
Williams has long used the program to manage its inventory, which includes storing 20,000 parts used to make its cars.
Unsurprisingly, this is indicative of the mess they’ve been in, which includes cobbling together the 2024 car at the last minute and showing up late for preseason testing in 2019.
It all raises far more questions than answers.
- Why did they use Excel as a database?
- Even if they insisted on using Excel, why did they not hire a professional to design and develop a fully functional workbook?
- Why did they not invest a tiny fraction of their $725 million valuation in a robust ERP solution?
- Why did it take the appointment of current team principal James Vowles to recognise the need for a radical overhaul of their internal processes?
It’s unknown what Williams has replaced their inefficient system with, but let’s at least hope it’s a relational database built in Microsoft Access. 😉
