SOFIAH NICHOLE SALIVIO

News Editor

Dynisma has completed the installation of its DMG-1 driving simulator for the McLaren Hypercar Team at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking. The simulator will support development of McLaren’s MCL-HY Hypercar programme.

The agreement gives the McLaren Hypercar Team a dedicated Driver-in-the-Loop simulator as it prepares to enter the FIA World Endurance Championship’s Hypercar class and return to top-level endurance racing at Le Mans.

The DMG-1 is now supporting the team’s development work from McLaren’s base, where engineers and drivers are using the system for vehicle development, driver preparation and engineering evaluation.

McLaren’s Hypercar effort centres on the MCL-HY, the car it plans to race in the championship’s premier category. The programme marks the group’s return to endurance racing’s top class after a long absence.

Development tool

Simulation is now a standard part of modern motorsport programmes, allowing teams to test set-ups, assess vehicle behaviour and prepare drivers before track running begins. For endurance racing teams, that work is especially important because of the complexity of car set-up, tyre management and multi-driver preparation across long-distance events.

Bristol-based Dynisma makes full-motion driving simulators for motorsport teams and carmakers. The company was founded in 2017 by Ash Warne, a former Formula 1 driving simulation engineer who previously led simulator development at Ferrari and McLaren’s Formula 1 team.

The business has grown to more than 180 staff at a technology and manufacturing campus in Bristol. Its customers include teams and manufacturers across Formula 1, Formula 2, Formula 3, the World Endurance Championship, IMSA and Formula E, as well as automotive manufacturers.

For McLaren, the installation adds a core engineering tool as it builds a new works-style programme around the MCL-HY. The car is designed by McLaren, built by Dallara and will be operated with United Autosports.

James Barclay, Team Principal of the McLaren Hypercar Team, outlined how the team expects to use the new system ahead of track activity.

“As we continue developing our Hypercar programme, access to a dedicated Driver-in-the-Loop simulator with the capability and fidelity of Dynisma is an important asset for our engineering and driver groups. High-quality simulation allows us to accelerate learning, evaluate development directions efficiently and maximise preparation for our on-track testing programme. The correlation delivered by the system will provide valuable confidence in the work that the team will do in testing and racing,” Barclay said.

Driver input

Teams rely on simulator sessions not only to model vehicle changes but also to gather driver feedback in a controlled environment. This helps engineers compare data with driver impressions before committing time and budget to circuit testing.

Mikkel Jensen, one of the drivers involved in the programme, said simulator realism matters because it affects how quickly drivers and engineers can move from familiarisation to useful development work.

“Simulator work is a key part of modern endurance racing programmes and having a platform that provides immediate, natural feedback makes a big difference. The realism of the motion cues and vehicle response allows us to focus on genuine vehicle development rather than adapting to the simulator itself. It gives drivers and engineers a highly effective environment to prepare and make progress before arriving at the circuit,” Jensen said.

For Dynisma, the McLaren deal adds another top-tier motorsport customer in a market where teams are placing more emphasis on detailed simulation and data correlation. Motorsport organisations are increasing spending on tools that can reduce the need for physical testing while improving preparation for race weekends and long-distance events.

Graeme Cook, Chief Executive Officer of Dynisma, linked that demand to rising expectations from teams and manufacturers.

“Dynisma is proud to support McLaren Hypercar Team as the team develops its FIA World Endurance Championship Hypercar programme. High-fidelity simulation is now fundamental to modern motorsport, with teams demanding ever greater levels of realism and correlation from their simulator environments. The DMG-1 has established itself as a trusted platform across top-level motorsport, and we look forward to seeing the team benefit from its capabilities throughout the development of the programme,” Cook said.

McLaren Racing remains the only team to have completed motorsport’s Triple Crown through wins at the Monaco Grand Prix, the Indianapolis 500 and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Botley Road was closed at the rail bridge in April 2023 and is expected to reopen on August 31 following repeated delays – initially the road was only expected to be shut for `12 months.

Roadworks have been taking place in Botley Road as part of a major Network Rail scheme to revamp Oxford station – so far construction work has cost an estimated £237m.

READ MORE: Countdown to Botley Road reopening

A new rail bridge was lowered into place in February and a new southern walkway opened on Friday – replacing a temporary walkway on the other side of the road.

Network Rail insiders have indicated there could be an announcement this week about the future of the project to upgrade the station, which includes plans to create a new western entrance which are not yet fully funded.

The new walkway has been welcomed by traders in Frideswide Square as its entrance is nearby and they now expect footfall to their businesses to increase.

The new walkway in Botley Road (Image: Andy Ffrench)

Chris Nash, senior sponsor for Network Rail, said: “The opening of this new walkway is an important step forward for people travelling to and from Oxford station.

“Once the project is completed, there will be two new, wider walkways/cycleways, providing safer and more convenient routes for pedestrians, cyclists and scooter users.

“We know the Botley Road closure has had a significant impact on local residents, businesses and passengers, and we’d like to thank everyone for their continued patience while we complete this complex programme of work.

“With the project now nearing completion, we’re focused on delivering the final stages of work that will improve access through the area, support future rail services and create a better experience for everyone travelling through Oxford.”

Amanda Suliman-Bell of Rainbow & Spoon boutique (Image: Andy Ffrench)

Amanda Suliman-Bell, who runs Rainbow & Spoon boutique in Frideswide Square is among businesses welcoming the new walkway.

The new northern walkway on the station side of Botley Road is expected to open later this year.

Businesses and residents have suffered more than three and a half years of misery as a result of the road closure.

One community campaigner, Julian Le Vay, who lives off Botley Road, has estimated that the loss to businesses in the area could amount to as much as £50m.

The new walkway in Botley Road (Image: Andy Ffrench)

Labour city councillor Susanna Pressel said earlier: “There are a lot of people who are counting down the days until Botley Road reopens – local residents, local businesses, people who live out to the west – and countless other people whose lives have been disrupted by this endless project.”

Residents are looking forward the reopening of the Botley Road at the end of next month.

One said: “I am so physically and emotionally tired of getting off one bus, walking to St Aldates and catching another bus to work.”

Another added: “The thought of not having to cross five additional roads when walking after getting off a bus and also not getting stuck behind slow walkers because I’m no longer kettled in by barriers is making me giddy.”

HM Treasury has published research on operational resilience in retail and hospitality, highlighting a gap between boardroom confidence and expectations of rising disruption.

The survey of 101 senior leaders in UK consumer-facing businesses was conducted with FreedomPay and Retail Economics. It found that 81% of respondents believe their organisation’s investment in resilience is broadly sufficient, even though 60% expect operational disruption to increase over the next three years.

The data focuses on businesses in retail, leisure and hospitality, where payment systems and customer-facing operations are directly exposed to outages. The report warns that this mismatch between confidence and risk expectations could leave companies vulnerable if cyber incidents, geopolitical shocks or systems failures interrupt trade.

Cyber attack was cited by 51% of leaders as a top risk shaping resilience strategy over the next three years, making it the most frequently named threat in the research. Geopolitical instability followed at 42%, while 82% said global political developments had already increased their focus on resilience.

The findings also suggest senior management is not uniformly convinced that resilience spending delivers wider commercial value. Nearly half of respondents, 48%, said executives in their industry think too much is already being spent on resilience, while 45% said executives do not fully appreciate its value.

Confidence gap

A smaller but significant share of leaders acknowledged gaps in current spending. Seventeen per cent said their organisation’s investment in resilience was insufficient.

That figure rose sharply among larger businesses. A third of large companies said investment was insufficient, compared with 15% of small businesses and 14% of medium-sized firms.

The results suggest larger organisations may have a clearer view of exposure across complex systems, supply chains and customer operations. At the same time, 67% of respondents said it is easy to secure board backing for resilience spending, indicating that access to budget may be less of a barrier than how directors judge the return on that spending.

Another measure in the research underlines that tension. Sixty-four per cent agreed that resilience investment reduces risk but delivers limited additional business benefit.

That view is significant in sectors where the commercial impact of an outage can be immediate. If payment systems fail, shops, restaurants and leisure venues can lose the ability to process transactions even when physical sites remain open.

Board priorities

The report argues that resilience is still often seen as a defensive cost rather than a core part of daily operations. In practice, that can make it harder for management teams to justify spending on systems designed to prevent events that may never visibly occur.

For boards, the challenge is compounded by the nature of resilience itself. Successful investment often means avoiding disruption rather than creating a visible new asset, making it harder to measure in conventional financial terms.

The research comes as the government has set out an economic agenda focused on stability after a prolonged period of political turnover. In that context, the findings raise questions about whether private sector businesses are placing enough weight on the systems that allow them to keep trading during disruption.

Retail and hospitality groups are particularly exposed because customer transactions sit at the centre of daily revenue. A payment outage, even if short-lived, can stop trade, affect consumer confidence and delay recovery if businesses cannot restore systems quickly.

The survey suggests many leaders already expect recovery times to lengthen in the coming years. That sits uneasily alongside the majority view that existing resilience investment is sufficient.

Sector exposure

The sample covered senior decision-makers with direct responsibility for risk management or membership of risk and audit committees in businesses with turnover above GBP £6 million. That means the findings reflect the views of executives responsible for assessing operational threats rather than a wider cross-section of employees.

Even so, the numbers point to a common concern across customer-facing sectors: threats are rising, but many boards remain comfortable with current levels of preparation. The result is a planning contradiction in which companies predict greater disruption while still judging present safeguards to be adequate.

Kevin Carson, senior vice president at FreedomPay, commented on the findings.

“This research shows a clear disconnect between how prepared businesses believe they are and the reality of the risks they themselves are forecasting,” said Kevin Carson, senior vice president at FreedomPay.

“Resilience cannot be treated as a box-ticking exercise or a cost to be minimised. As the new government takes over plans for the UK economy, it must address the invisible vulnerabilities in our business infrastructure. Resilience must be built into the everyday running of a business, particularly at the point where a business interacts with customers and takes payment. That is often the first thing to fail during a disruption, and the first thing customers notice. Closing this confidence gap now, before the next shock arrives, should be a priority for every UK boardroom.”