In a room at the back of Williams Formula 1 team's HQ is a supermarket fridge that is "part of efforts by Williams to spread its technological nous and brand to money-spinning projects outside motor sport," according to Malcolm Moore of the FINANCIAL TIMES. For a year, Williams engineers "have been perfecting a thin strip of plastic, shaped as an aerofoil that attaches to shelves of the fridge." The strip, which channels the flow of cool air and hinders its escape from the fridge, "could save supermarkets tens of millions of pounds in electricity bills." Paul McAndrew of Aerofoil Energy said, "I got an email from Williams saying they wanted to work with us and it had their F1 logo on it. When I spoke to them I said, 'You do realize these are fridges.' They said they understood that and explained they had a department looking beyond F1." Elsewhere in its 150-strong research department, "Williams spends half of its resources working on electric and hybrid cars for the likes of Aston Martin and Jaguar." It designs the batteries for the Formula E electric racing series and "will continue to be the main supplier for two more seasons after this year." In August, Williams Advanced Engineering won a £17M ($25.4M) contract "to design the power and data systems for the British Army's Scout medium weight armoured vehicles." The company said that it was "drawing on its expertise" in logging and analyzing data from its F1 cars during races (FT, 12/27).
