The technology driving innovation at speed: Motorsport panel discussion

We were blown away by the quality and the content of the presentations at Hexagon LIVE Global 2025. One of the highlights was the Innovation at Speed keynote, with super high-profile speakers Morgan Maia, Senior Menager of Technical Partnerships at Oracle Red Bull Racing, NASCAR’s Alba Colón (Hendrick Motorsports Director of Technical Partnerships), and John Church (Managing Partner at JDC MotorSports) with IMSA (International Motor Sports Association). Check it out over on YouTube.

How do you start a Formula 1 car? It’s not a matter of simply turning a key in the ignition. Get it wrong and the whole thing blows up, literally.

This year at Hexagon LIVE Global 2025, Morgan Maia, explained that they design the cars to work at an optimal temperature. The tolerances are so tight, starting up from cold is more than a costly error, it could be life threatening.

The high stakes world of motorsport is where the worlds of precision engineering and advanced manufacturing come together. The engine of a racing car is an incredible feat of engineering.

One of the highlights of Hexagon LIVE Global 2025 was a panel discussion on this precise topic, Innovation at speed: The technology driving racing and modern manufacturing.

Hosted by ex-racing driver turned influencer, Scott Mansel, the panel was made up of Morgan Maia (Oracle Red Bull Racing Technical Director, Formula 1), Alba Colón (Director of Technical Partnerships, Hendrick Motorsports, Nascar), and John Church (Managing Partner, JDC Miller Motorsports, IMSA).

Between them they have more than 70 years’ experience at the cutting edge of motorsport. In this fascinating discussion, they discuss how Hexagon technology has powered their success.

Winning is euphoric, failure is catastrophic…

In motorsport, failure can be catastrophic. The problem is, as race day approaches, there is simply no time to go back and make changes.

Morgan Maia explains how Oracle Red Bull Racing use Hexagon technology in their factory and trackside:

“We can make a part on Thursday, ship it overnight and put it in the car on Friday morning ready for a racing weekend. We have very little time to test, and zero time to send it back and get a replacement. It has to be right, first time.

“In the garage, before the race, we use the trackers to scan the entire car and check the positioning of everything. The dimensions of an F1 car are optimised down to fractions of a micron.

“Qualifying for a race often comes down to hundredths of a second.”

Precision is everything

With NASCAR, the challenges are different, and just as fascinating. The vehicles are heavily modified stock cars. Alba Colón explained that recent regulation changes have meant that the cars consist of around 80% purchased components, and just 20% designed and made by the teams. That makes measuring even more important than ever:

“We have to reverse engineer everything because we can’t always get the technical engineering drawings. We need so many parts, last year we had to measure and scan 3000 different pistons.

“Our team takes each car apart after every race to measure all the components to see what’s happened, what’s changed, what’s moved. We need to make sure everything is still connected.

“We have 7 chassis per car number, and we optimise performance by mixing and matching different components. That means we need them all made identically. Precision is everything.”

Those words of Alba summarise all you need to know. Precision is everything. But that’s not unique to motorsport. Precision and accuracy are how we guarantee quality that goes beyond a legal standard, it touches peoples lives.

Controlling the variables

What we can’t measure we can’t manage, and what we can’t verify we can’t trust. Racing is all about controlling as many variables as possible.

John Church explained that Hexagon technology helps his team guarantee repeatability from one car and one race to the next:

“We come back from a race, and we scan everything. Within hours, we’ve taken the car to pieces and we check every single component.

“Everything comes apart, repairs happen, and it all goes back together again. We need to keep everything as consistent as possible. We’re not just checking for damage. Damage is obvious. We need to see if, how and where things have moved.

“Hexagon products allow us to see that in great detail, and from there we can control the variables. That gives everybody peace of mind that every part will work and the car will perform.”

Hearing these experts talk, it’s clear that Hexagon products are at the heart of motorsport, where submicron precision and accuracy can make the difference on the race track. After all, just a few thousandths of a second can, and frequently do, give teams the winning edge.

All the Hexagon equipment that these teams use to innovate, to optimise and to win, is available to manufacturers in their pursuit of innovation and quality.

Watch the keynote then share this blog with your networks to join the conversation online.