Gold Powers McLaren F1 Hopes

While not currently at the front of the grid, the McLaren Formula 1 team use 22 karat gold in strategic positions to optimise performance. It’s all to do with heat shielding. Gold is a super heat reflector, and is used to protect certain parts of the car from heat damage.   

Posting on their Twitter, the Woking based F1 constructor show off how the precious metal is the ideal insulator for their F1 cars. The engine generates an enormous amount of heat, and so gold is used to keep the fuel tank at an optimal temperature, while also shielding drivers like Lando Norris or Melbourne’s own Oscar Piastri from excess heat.

Detractors of gold argue that the precious metal is most often used for jewellery investment purposes. But gold is used in trace amounts in every phone and a wide range of technological products, albeit used as little as possible due to the prohibitive price. If gold weren’t so valuable as money, or if there were more of it, we would see gold used almost everywhere.

Gold appears at the pinnacle of human civilisations. We see gold throughout the ancient world in the tombs of Pharaohs, Kings and Emperors. In the modern era, helpings of the yellow metal coat various parts of space stations and space suits owing to it’s ability to stabilise the temperature and reflect infrared radiation. Gold is used in the circuitry of space stations when the reliability and speed of conduction commands a premium. Gold’s incredible malleability enables it to be processed into a very thin film that coats and protects critical moving parts. When something is too valuable to be left to chance, and budget is not a concern, gold is the go-to..  

Sure, if you are on a budget, go with copper, nickel, zinc or steel. If you are going for absolute conductivity or preserving water, then silver. But when the cards are down, the best in the world use gold. Its overwhelming value is what makes it the ideal store of value in use and money. We here at Ainslie all eagerly await McLaren’s gold-plated hopes, but… even that might not be enough to topple Max Verstappen and the Red Bull garage. Bring on the Austrian Grand Prix!

Credit: the-race.com