UK motorsport sector success needs to connect better with aerospace industries

Citation

(2008), "UK motorsport sector success needs to connect better with aerospace industries", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 80 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.2008.12780aaf.005

UK motorsport sector success needs to connect better with aerospace industries

UK motorsport sector success needs to connect better with aerospace industries

A new survey of the UK motorsport sector has revealed a vibrant British business success story that offers innovative energy efficient technology but needs to connect better with the aerospace, defence, automotive and high-tech engineering and petrochemicals industries if it is to have sustainable success in the future. The survey has shown that 34 per cent of motorsports companies sell their innovations into the aerospace industries.

Recognised for its culture of innovation, the UK motorsport sector is currently said to be the world leader, and provides an iconic success story which flies the flag for the whole UK £50 billion high performance engineering sector. But its development of transferable technologies, especially those related to energy-efficient and low-carbon innovations such as ultra-light materials and bio-fuel performance, needs to be more systematically marketed to non-motorsport markets, amongst which aerospace is a key sector.

The new survey, motorsport 100, that will track the industry's fortunes every quarter, was commissioned by public- private partnership motorsport development UK (MDUK), and carried out during May/June 2007 by independent researchers Experian. The survey revealed that sales are on the increase both in core markets and in non-motorsport applications. However, the success of the industry needs to be secured for future years in the light of strong foreign competition, especially from Europe.

Greatest growth seems to be coming from non-motorsport customers, where innovative technological advances developed for the racetrack are transferred into important wider- market applications in sectors as diverse as aerospace, domestic appliances and medicine.

However, the UK motorsport sector also recognises that it needs to improve and extend its marketing skills and the ways in which it connects to other industries in order to systematically, comprehensively and rapidly grow in non-motorsport markets. The survey also revealed that two-thirds of respondents are not taking advantage of available grants and government support. This situation is being actively addressed by MDUK, working to improve skills, make other sectors aware of the industry's potential and create the climate for technology transfer, in order to create sustainable future success.

Energy efficiency and the “carbon footprint” – once a challenge thrown at the motorsport industry – has been converted into a technology opportunity through the sector's thirst for innovation. Respondents to this issue of motorsport 100 emphasised their conviction that energy efficient and low-carbon developments would be at the heart of future transferable technologies coming out of the industry.

Bob Gilbert, Chairman, MDUK, notes, “One of the greatest challenges facing British motorsport is the environmental one, both in terms of fuels used and noise. Motorsport is a good development testbed for experimenting with new ideas which can be transferred back for use in the automotive sector and other industries in efforts to make the motor car more acceptable and fuel efficient. The industry is facing many challenges, not only from overseas competition, but from threats to the sport which it serves. Environmental challenges, the fact that the British motorsport relies heavily on unpaid volunteers to facilitate its operations, and the fact that new entrants into British motorsport, particularly the young wishing to engage in four-wheel motorsport, face considerable barriers to entry, are threats which it and the industry need to recognise. As a country, we have a fantastic success story on our hands – one that needs to be reliably sustained in the future both for its own sake, and as a symbol of British engineering and entrepreneurialism.”