Optimising for speed as an F1 performance engineer: CFD simulations and relentless real-world testing

Two things decide whether a Formula 1 car is quick: a simulation, and a stopwatch.

Mohamed (Mo) Aly Sayed has worked between them as a performance engineer at Audi F1, after a PhD at EPFL in Lagrangian particle tracking in complex turbulent flows. He takes us through what optimising for speed looks like from the inside: the CFD simulations that come before anything is built, the relentless real-world testing that decides whether the simulation was right, and the highs and lows of a sport that rewrites its own rules every season.

Expect the honest version of a high-paced, continually evolving and fiercely competitive industry: where the opportunities sit, what it costs to keep up, and how a team decides what to change next when everyone around them is changing something too.

You leave with a clear picture of how engineering decisions get made when the feedback arrives as a lap time, and a sense of which parts of that loop travel to work that has nothing to do with cars.

Wednesday 7 October 2026, 17:30 at Ship26, Schifflände 26, Zürich. Free, and open to everyone - register through the button above.