Ukrainian defence company UFORCE is involving engineers from Formula 1 teams in the development of drones. CEO Oleh Rohynskyi said this in an interview with DOU.
He said the motorsport specialists’ experience has proved extremely valuable for Ukraine’s defence industry.
“They have an excellent command of the technologies we need: they work brilliantly with composites and carbon fibre, which is what the cars are made from; they know everything about sensors and can optimise both electric and conventional engines,” Rohynskyi explained.
The main advantage of such specialists, he said, is the ability to “squeeze every extra gram of unnecessary weight out of a system and make it as reliable as possible” — and to do it quickly.
“Every time we pair a Formula 1 engineer with our Ukrainian talent and give them a shared task, real magic happens,” Rohynskyi said.
At the same time, UFORCE’s CEO noted that hiring engineers in Ukraine has become more difficult due to a shrinking pool of specialists available on the market. He said the traditional engineering school, which previously was largely fuelled by outsourcing, is no longer supplying the market with the same number of people.
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As a result, the company is once again considering developing overseas R&D centres, while also looking for Ukrainian talent abroad — in particular among Ukrainians working at OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Anduril and Palantir.
Rohynskyi also said they are trying to bring Ukrainian engineers abroad into the work without requiring their families to return to Ukraine. He said many such specialists continue to support Ukraine financially while working at Western technology companies. In Rohynskyi’s view, Ukrainian engineers also have a practical advantage — a deeper understanding of the military’s needs.
By way of reminder, UFORCE recently demonstrated a new MV11 sea drone from the MAGURA family, capable of carrying other unmanned systems.