Adrian
Newey’s written a book – and it’s quite superb. Granted, you
may need a certain all-encompassing fascination of every aspect of F1
including the nuts and bolts to be riveted by it all (which I was),
but How
To Build A Car is so
much more than just what its title implies. It’s also the story,
told with eye-opening candour, of his life and loves.
You
will find in it some of his original freehand drawings of, for
example, the hugely influential Leyton House 881 nose shape, together
with an illuminating explanation of the car’s concept and the
thoughts behind it.
You’ll find every single one of his designs for
March, Williams, McLaren and Red Bull explained and explored. But not
in a dry textbook way; he explains this and everything else within
the context of the circumstances of the team and his life at that
time.
He talks about his creative block when he was a designer at
Beatrice, trying simultaneously to hold down that job, race engineer
Patrick Tambay in F1 and Mario Andretti in IndyCar, keep together
his marriage and be a recent first-time dad.
Little wonder the finer
details of an airbox configuration might have escaped his attention
back then. He will move on from the difficulty of the relationship
with a partner straight into the weakness of a gearbox casing almost
in a stream of consciousness.
He’s
part-nerd, part-rebellious teenager in a middle-aged man’s body,
part-artist and part-creative genius engineer. Turns out he’s also
part-writer. In this latter persona he opens out in a way that his
somewhat shy, reticent front in the spotlight doesn’t allow.
The
Adrian in this book is the one his friends know – like he’s
talking with a group of them over dinner and a few glasses of wine.
He might recount you the tale of how he was expelled from school or
how he popped a wheelie on a Suzuki in the Magny-Cours paddock and
ended up in a heap in the Camel hospitality area.
But there’s some
heavy stuff in here too including, obviously, Senna’s death at
Imola 1994 and he doesn’t shirk from deep self-analysis of that
whole horrible episode and its aftermath.
You
might be fascinated to know how he worked out that there was an
aerodynamic dead zone aft of the front wing on one of his cars –
discovered by physically walking up the wind tunnel when it was in
operation, armed with a cloth and a stick.
He’ll tell you what sort
of pencil he uses for his drawings and you’ll believe him when he
says: “I always try to draw with passion. In other words, I have to
believe what I’m drawing will be the next step forward.”
He’s
also terrific in giving insight into the drivers he’s worked with:
from Mario Andretti to Sebastian Vettel, taking in Nigel Mansell,
Damon Hill, Alain Prost and others along the way. And he’s
fabulously indiscreet about those he feels has done him a disservice
along the way, even those he acknowledges a debt of gratitude to.
Want to know how he really feels about Ron Dennis? Or Patrick Head?
And why? It’s all in here. Also, did you know that Mercedes offered
him a job as recently as 2014?
Get a Copy of This Book Today, CLICK NOW:
Original Review on: http://www.motorsportmagazine.com
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