Looking for the crucial hundredth of a second: BMW wind tunnel provides skeleton athletes with valuable feedback on the material and riding position.

  • Aerodynamics are the key to success: In the BMW Group’s wind
    tunnel, the skeleton athletes complete final preparations for the Olympics.
  • Technology partner BMW enables the BSD athletes to optimise
    sporting equipment, racing gear and the riding position.

 

Munich. When the skeleton athletes dive head first into the
ice channel, it does not only make for spectacular photos; the lying
position with the head first is also an aerodynamic challenge. The
German Bobsleigh and Luge Sports Federation (BSD) uses the BMW
Group’s state-of-the-art wind tunnel to optimise the material and
the riding position, and to potentially get the crucial split
seconds ahead of the Olympics season.

Last weekend, world champion Jacqueline Lölling, 2015/16 overall
world cup winner Tina Hermann and the German national skeleton coach
Jens Müller paid another visit to the BMW Group’s aerodynamic test
centre. It was an important appointment in view of the Olympic Games
in Pyeongchang (KOR) in February 2018, since the wind tunnel of
technology partner BMW plays a crucial role in the development of the
sporting equipment and optimising the riding position.

Müller describes this intensive process, which has characterised the
work of recent months: “We develop and implement ideas during the
course of the season and directly afterwards. This is followed by the
initial test in the wind tunnel to check whether development is going
in the right direction. In the period leading up to the next test in
the wind tunnel, we rework certain aspects again. We are only able to
implement this working principle thanks to the opportunities that BMW
give us.”

What is being worked on and how is top secret, after all the last
thing you want is to give the competition any hints. But everything is
tested to optimise the aerodynamics. Jacqueline Lölling said: “We test
changes to the material and want to optimise the riding position as
well. It is important to get feedback on what we can work on and what
can give us an extra hundredth of a second or more before the Olympics
season gets underway. We are incredibly grateful to BMW that we were
able to test here. It is a very important part of our sport, in which
every hundredth of a second counts.”

This may be even more true for Tina Hermann; the five-time world cup
winner is one of the lighter skeleton athletes, which means she has
less acceleration. “I need to get the maximum out of aerodynamics to
compensate for the lack of weight,” said Hermann. “So, I am always
excited to see the results of a test like this in the BMW wind tunnel.
It’s only then that you can see whether it was worth changing certain
settings or details. It’s all about fine tuning and getting that last
hundredth of a second.”

The collaboration in the wind tunnel emphasises that the
long-standing technology partnership of BMW and BSD is much more than
sport sponsoring. BMW brings its expertise to Mission Gold; every
detail is fine tuned in close collaboration. “It goes without saying
that we are like a team,” said Hermann. “We have got to know each
other better over the years. Everyone knows where each other is coming
from. The BMW engineers and their families visit us at the track, and
even give us tips on the riding position between the individual runs.
That is like a family.”