To gain the fractions of a second improvement in car and pitstop performance that can mean the difference between a podium finish and an also-ran in an F1 race, the Williams Grand Prix Engineering Chief Information Officer Graeme Hackland sets out to eliminate hours of manual IT intervention. His function's 2017 programme included deploying a range of infrastructure and application development projects to squeeze manual data entry and manipulation out of the organisation's aerodynamics, design, manufacturing and race engineering functions. Hackland has helped the Williams technical community save hundreds of hours a year with new hardware and applications as well as interfaces. Improved reporting capability with in-house tools and off-the-shelf services have delivered insights and actionable intelligence across the F1 car lifecycle throughout the season. The windtunnel, CAD design and manufacturing have all seen performance improvements and better integration to reduce waste and improve productivity. Improvements to quality and fault recording systems drove the development of the 2017 F1 car. And Hackland delighted the chief designer by providing remote access for CAD designers, which has demonstrably increased productivity. In 2017 he ran the team's first DevOps projects with partner Avanade, delivering more new features race by race than ever. His automation of testing and focus on each product owner's priorities allowed fast response to the real-time changing nature of Formula 1. Hackland continues to expand the organisation's human performance data analytics capability with wearable technology and IoT applications, allowing the Williams race team to deliver the fastest pitstop of the 2017 season. [Read next: Williams F1 CIO Graeme Hackland and Arsenal FC IT director Hywel Sloman Q&A – Innovation, emerging tech, cyber security and the fan experience]