Even though it may “sound crazy,” it’s a commercial agreement that Williams F1 has announced today after the signature of a license agreement exclusively with a US Golf equipment company, Golf Club. The aim is that with this union “Williams” succeeds in the golf business.
The combination of engineering capability of Williams F1 with the design established by Golf Club and the Sports Williams team production expertise, is going to create a partnership that will upgrade golf clubs’ design to a new level in 2010 and beyond.
The purpose of this partnership is the injection of Formula One Williams’ technology for the design and manufacture of golfing equipment. The initial areas will the aerodynamic profiling of golf club shafts and the application of composites and alloys materials science in club design.
With current limitations on modern golf club design, aerodynamics and materials are now the most important aspect of research and development.
Aerodynamics and carbon fiber compound technology are fundamental in Formula One. Aerodynamics is Formula One’s performance key differentiation factor. In addition to the traditional experimental disciplines, as the wind tunnel tests, the sport brings together predictive capacity based on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD).
The sport has also pioneered the application and use of low weight, high strength carbon fiber since the 1980s, developing race cars that withstand ten annual penetration, static and dynamic crash tests to ensure driver safety while not compromising performance. Together with carbon fiber, several other materials that are critical for racing car performance will be presented in Sport Williams product line. The clubs will feature tungsten inserts that will be used for fine tuning of weight distribution, which is a process used in Formula One. High nickel content super alloy, used in the manufacture of the lightweight racing car exhausts, will be the featured material in the Qualifier Series of Williams Sports irons.
Frank Williams, Williams F1 Team Principal, said: “We are at the start of a fascinating period of business development. [..].I have great hopes for its potential to revolutionize design in golf equipment.”