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

by Adrian Newey

I felt comfortable simply driving it. After all, it’s actually relatively easy to drive a Formula One car.

The challenge is doing it faster than everybody else without losing control. That is an entirely different level.

Tragically I was to learn how it felt the hard way. I’ve had one driver die in a car I’ve designed. Ayrton.

rule, which is that we sit on an idea for a day or so, throw it around and talk about it, but don’t do anything concrete until it has been critiqued. Does it still stand up after 24 hours? If the answer’s no then we chuck it in the bin.

True, I was taking a big drop in salary from $400,000 to £140,000 plus a percentage of any prize money, which meant a likely income of less than half when you take the exchange rate into consideration, but for me this was a secondary consideration compared to the chance of pursuing my Formula One dream.