How to Build a Car: The Autobiography of the World’s Greatest Formula 1 Designer

by Adrian Newey

But who among us is above a bit of strategic emotional blackmail at times?

Even Emerson, this hugely respected driver, was just as fallible as the rest of us.

the insight to approach a design from a holistic point of view,

nothing can dim the joy of a child’s birth,

I was starting to feel as if I was out of my depth, as though I was about to be rumbled for not being as good as everybody thought I was;

pressure can, if managed, kick the old grey matter into a more creative and productive state. Sadly, the extra step to exhaustion has the opposite effect.

I just didn’t see the point of going to work on another car until we understood the problems.

Evolution is often the key once the spark of a good direction has been set.

I’ve found that personal life and work life seem to echo each other. If one goes sour, the other goes sour, and if one’s going well, the other goes well.

Even so, I prefer to think of myself as ‘absorbed’ rather than selfish. After all, I’m not thinking about myself, I’m thinking about product.

Bernie had gone from leading the small British teams against the might of the grandees led by Ferrari, to being desperate to keep them in the sport and ensure they were successful. And, at the same time, to teach the British teams a lesson. Anybody read Animal Farm?

I was having to force myself rather than it coming naturally – never a good sign.

It is all about the employees and creating a working environment that plays to and enhances their individual strengths.

He might say he wants to do well for the team, and of course that’s true, but it’s more selfish than that. He wants to do the best for himself.

Features such as that do not make the leap from track to road these days. Instead, motorsport is used by big engineering companies, particularly aeronautical ones, as an environment in which we can test their products in a much accelerated timescale compared to that in normal industry.

try to keep extending one’s vision beyond the immediate little bubble in front of one.

How can I do this better?