INTERVIEW INTERVIEW CRAIG Paul WILSON
Stein
FULLY-CHARGED
As managing director of Williams Advanced Engineering Craig
Wilson is taking a young company on a voyage of discovery
As a relatively young company Williams
Advanced Engineering knows a thing
or two about developing disruptive
technology and it is using its knowhow
to help others realize their
potential too.
The Engineer is clearly keen to
learn more about how WAE is sharing its
expertise but, as is often the way, the spectre of a
non-disclosure agreement (NDA) makes itself
known and an enquiry into Additive
Manufacturing Technologies (AMT) - a company
bringing 3D printing into the realm of mass
production whilst addressing shortcomings
experienced during post-processing of parts – is
shelved for now.
AMT counts Foresight Williams Technology
EIS Fund as an investor, which itself is a
collaboration between the Foresight Group and
WAE, the technology and engineering services
business that looks set to reach its full potential
under EMK.
EMK acquired a majority stake in WAE from
parent company Williams Grand Prix Holdings
in December 2019. It was a deal that raised
capital for the Williams F1 team and, according
to WAE managing director Craig Wilson, allowed
WAE to invest in its core technologies and IP.
“We recognised at board level that Williams
Advanced Engineering had been…subdued in its
ability to really grow and exploit technology
development through lack of investment,” he
said. “We were doing, and have done, quite well
with some modest investments… but we really
needed to be able to ratchet it up.”
Williams Grand Prix Holdings retain a
minority stake in WAE which in 2010 joined
Jaguar as a development partner on the C-X75,
an all-wheel drive, plug-in parallel hybrid
electric vehicle (PHEV) with – in the words of
Jaguar - the world’s highest specific power
engine. C-X75 also marked Jaguar’s first foray
into using a carbon composite monocoque
JASON FORD reports
chassis.
“There were five functional prototypes built
and we had a complete integrator role in that
programme and specific responsibility for the
power train, the electric propulsion system
development amongst the aerodynamics and
everything else…which encompasses the battery
systems work.”
Despite the promising start, Jaguar decided
against taking the C-X75 to market due to what is
saw as unfavourable global economic
conditions.
“Until the Bond film Spectre no one really saw
it, unless you were an enthusiast,” said Wilson.
“It was never really talked about.”
The good news for the young company was
that Formula E wanted them to produce batteries
for every car in the new race series, which gave
them an opportunity to ‘really put something out
July 2020 / www.theengineer.co.uk 22
project for a very young company, it
demonstrated our very high engineering skills in
that area,” said Wilson. “To produce the product
that we did - and the package base was already
defined - and to have the reliability that we had
was really astounding. I think that even
Alejandro Agag was on record as saying that
Williams Advanced Engineering was the reason
his Formula has become a success…without
Williams Advanced Engineering there would be
no Formula E.”
During their time with Formula E WAE learnt
how to push the limits of battery management
after a request to increase battery performance
over three consecutive years.
“We developed from years three and four a
very advanced prognostic capability, where we
were able to detect early – and we’ve used it as a
development platform – the degradation of the
I think even alejandro agag was on record as saying
that wae was the reason his formula has become a
success. Without Wae there would be no Formula e
there
as a product, showing our skills and capabilities’.
The bad news was that they only had 12 months
to deliver a 50kW/h battery system that could be
airfreighted around the world to freight
certification standard UN38.3, be able to
withstand some challenging thermal conditions
on route and in terms of where some of the races
were being held, and ultimately develop a system
worthy of a high-speed race series that began in
Beijing in September 2014. As a measure of WAE’s
success, in four years only two cars paused to
stop during a race, and they were both due to a
loose connector on a bumpy track at Long Beach,
California.
“Not only was Formula E a foundation
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