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

by Adrian Newey

In response, teams fitted rubber skirts to the cars, but they didn’t work nearly as well because they flexed in a poorly controlled way and wore out – which is something that rubber does when it slides along the ground.

I honestly can't tell if Newey is being funny here or simply reporting a fact as if someone might not know.

People ask me if I feel guilty about Ayrton. I do. I was one of the senior officers in a team that designed a car in which a great man was killed. Regardless of whether that steering column caused the accident or not, there is no escaping the fact that it was a bad piece of design that should never have been allowed to get on the car. The system that Patrick and I had in place was inadequate; that cannot be disputed. Our lack of a safety-checking system within the design office was exposed.

Most of this book so far has me convinced Newey is a bit of a prick, but this chapter on Ayrton is clearly humbling.