Hidden away within the internal corridors of the McLaren Technology Centre, where access is strictly limited, is our simulator.

A small but dedicated group of our team operate the simulator, and it has multiple purposes. It's used for car development and by Lando and Oscar to get a head start on an upcoming race, but during Grand Prix weekends it takes on another responsibility – hundreds or thousands of miles away from where the action is taking place.

Oliver Turvey has made the MTC simulator his second home for the majority of his motorsport life, having joined the team as a Test and Simulator Driver back in 2009, meaning he's racked up thousands of miles in the darkened room.

Alongside Will Stevens, Oliver is one of two Test and Simulator Drivers at McLaren. Wherever Lando and Oscar are in the world - be it the streets of Las Vegas this weekend, the sweeps of Suzuka, or the twists of the Hungaroring - the simulator team are playing a vital role back home at the MTC.

Oliver is midway through one of these shifts and has taken a break from his busy schedule to provide an insight into how he and the team operates within a virtual landscape for real-life performance gains.

“We follow all the sessions live, so that means we are listening to all the radio communications, and are looking at all the data from the cars,” Oliver says. “We listen to the debrief after the session from Lando and Oscar and really take whatever issues they have with the car, and try and solve them as best as possible.

“I try all the different set-ups in the simulator and then pass back my feedback to the race team and try to give them my preferences on the best setups that can help both drivers at the track.”

Replicating the real world

Our next-gen simulator is a state-of-the-art piece of technology. Oliver sits in a replica chassis in front of a 180-degree wide screen, which replicates the circuit layout and its characteristics remarkably closely. That includes the type of track surface and the design of the kerbs, which both influence the behaviour of the McLaren MCL38.

Oliver will also “run through a lot of different setup options on a Thursday” in advance of Friday’s pair of practice sessions, collaborating with the team to ensure Lando and Oscar can hit the ground running in the MCL38s in the best way possible.

“There's many aspects on a Formula 1 car that you can change,” explains Oliver. “It's really fine-tuning the balance of the car. Certain tracks induce more understeer, some more oversteer, and you’re trying to solve which axle has the least amount of grip, and trying to use the tools on the car and the setup options that the engineers have, to be able to improve it. It’s just looking for the best option, by trying different ones too.”

Track time in modern Formula 1 is an ever-depleting commodity, with only three one-hour Free Practice sessions before set-ups are locked in ahead of Qualifying on Saturdays. While parc fermé rules were relaxed for 2024, there is even more pressure at the six Grands Prix at which Formula 1 Sprints take place, with Free Practice 1 the only running in advance of crucial track activity. That places an additional reliance on external guidance.

“On a typical Thursday, we probably drive between 150 to 200 laps,” reckons Oliver. “On a Friday of a race weekend, we will probably spend nearly 12 hours in the sim - not continuously but 12 hours from start to finish.”

That leads to some quirky working hours, where Oliver and the team pick up the baton from their trackside colleagues once the post-Friday debrief has come to a close. The ambition is to put the MCL38 into an even stronger operating window for when Lando and Oscar get back behind the wheel for Saturday’s Free Practice 3, the final session before parc fermé is implemented once Qualifying begins.

For races in Asia or Australia, that may mean arriving at the MTC in the middle of the night, while for events in the Americas, Oliver’s time in the simulator can begin in the early hours of the morning and continue long after the sun’s rays begin to dazzle the MTC lake in Woking.

“That's part of the role,” says Oliver. “All the engineers at the MTC are time shifting as well for the sessions – and it gives you a thrill of working through the night sometimes and really even working on the setup and trying to get the most out of it for the team.”

The Test and Simulator Driver position requires patience, and a high level of immersion, in order to fully embed themselves within that weekend’s Grand Prix. They must also have the ability to be in tune with regular set-up changes in a short space of time while also providing feedback that is detailed and reliable.  

“We do a couple of hours then break for a couple of hours – it's not like driving continuously for that time,” Oliver explains. “But you do have to keep your concentration through the day - that comes with experience, but it can be quite mentally challenging sometimes, because it’s quite intense, and the feedback is important.”

Building on experience

Oliver has worked with a breadth of drivers throughout his 15-year journey with McLaren Racing, including the likes of Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton, and consequently, having an innate understanding of particular requests and driving styles is a fundamental part of his remit.

“I think it's important in my role to understand their driving,” Oliver explains of his relationship with the race drivers.

“Especially this year, we've put more effort into really working more closely with Lando and Oscar to try and understand that, and to understand their main limitations of the car. We had a Driver Development test in Barcelona, where we spent some time with Lando and Oscar, which was really beneficial in terms of understanding their main limitations, their driving techniques, and how they drive in the actual car.

“By gaining a better understanding of that, we can work on driving in the same way in the simulator. Different drivers sometimes want different things. Even on setup choices, certain drivers might want a different type of car or a more stable car – it's trying to understand what they want from the car, and I think that's key.”

Oliver’s longevity with McLaren is such that regulations have come and gone, names and faces have changed, while Formula 1’s relentless development battle has resulted in the continuous advancement of technology.

Oliver picks up: “I think experience is always beneficial. You always remember things that you've worked on in the past. I've driven all the tracks so many times, and I think also then the engineers trust you on your feedback. That’s fairly valuable in the role because it's important to make the right decisions on development items or setup choices on a race weekend.”

When Oliver first joined McLaren he was a fresh-faced 21-year-old, contesting the GP2 Series - the forerunner to Formula 2 - while Formula 1 had just welcomed back slick tyres, was getting accustomed to new-fangled hybrid devices - then called KERS – while other innovations were still years away. He has been in the midst of the Championship’s evolution through the 2010s and first half of the 2020s.

“I think Formula 1's changed in that time,” Oliver says. “The cars have changed in that time. The cars have become much more advanced in the time that I've been involved with the team as well. I think the simulators had to follow that development and advancement in technology. The simulator programme has got more and more advanced, in terms of the analysis and set-up work we do, and the development - it’s just always evolving and constantly improving. You’re always trying to improve the simulator.”

So next time you finish watching Lando and Oscar lap the circuit at the close of Free Practice 2, packing away their overalls, helmets and gloves for the day, a long stint behind the virtual wheel is only just about to begin for Oliver.