BEYOND SURFACES

Technology & Innovation the night in the car park so that they can bring the finished parts to their team without wasting time!” Is it even necessary to ask what still fascinates him about his work after two decades? He laughs: “Imagine, I’ve had the same desk in the same office for 21 years! I was born and raised in Limoges, studied mechanical engineering there and got my first job with Sorevi. Today the company is called Oerlikon Balzers. Last year, we celebrated our 30 th anniversary, and I celebrated my 20 th anniversary at the same time — it was very emotional!” no noise, no smell. But extremely exciting. In motorsports, a distinction is made between “racing” and supersports. The first category includes Formula 1 — which is dominant mainly in Europe — the American NASCAR series, and rally or motorcycle series such as Moto-GP and Superbike. “Supersports” include races with high performance vehicles used on the road, such as super or hyper cards and also motorcycles. For the past several years, races with electric drives as opposed to traditional combustion engines (Formula E, E-Rallyecross and electric motorcycles) have been added to both types. How now — Formula 1 and electric in the same breath? Marc laughs. “Yes, I know what you’re thinking! At my first E-Race, my first thought was: Children’s toys! I mean, they had to change their battery in the middle of the race! And then, no noise, no smell … it was awful!” Today he is convinced that electric and hybrid drives are the future — in motorsports. For himself and his team, however, this also means that they are developing solutions for a completely new group of customers with completely new applications: “This is extremely exciting!” Coatings for an industry that wants to become sustainable In general, sustainability is driving the entire industry. The question is: How do you put even more power on the track without harming the environ- ment? When Marc started selling coatings for racing 20 years ago, that was no question at all: “Back then, we drove with twelve-cylinder engines, and it was not unusual for four engines to be worn out during a race weekend. For us as supplier that meant high volumes, many parts, low-cost coat- ing. Today, it’s completely different: the cars run with six-cylinder engines, and they have to deliver top performance 9 Beyond SURFACeS 02|2020