Book Review – How To Build A Car

How to Build a Car by Adrian Newey is a book that is a lot like the cars he builds – a masterpiece.

In this extraordinary memoir, How to Build a Car looks at Newey’s incredible 35-year career, including the races his cars have won, the teams and drivers he’s worked with in Formula One, and of course, the F1 cars he has built. This book also gives us a look at his early career in IndyCar, but focuses more on Formula 1.

Adrian Newey has had a storied career in Formula One, where he started with March/Leyton House in 1988 before moving to Williams in 1991. Newey was with Williams at the time of Ayrton Senna’s tragic death, before he moved to McLaren in 1997. 2006 saw a switch to Red Bull Racing, and four consecutive Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships with the car he built guided by Sebastian Vettel from 2010 to 2013. Newey was able to help break the Mercedes stranglehold on the sport when Max Verstappen won the Driver’s Championship in 2021, before adding two more Constructor’s Championship wins to his resume in 2022 (RB18) and 2023 (RB19).

Newey is considered to be one of the greatest Formula One engineers of all time, with his resume boasting more than 150 Grand Prix victories and a record-setting 12 Constructors’ Championships.

Although the Newey-designed Red Bull RB6, RB7, RB8, and RB9 cars won four consecutive titles, his time at Williams was the most successful of Newey’s career. From 1991 to 1997 his cars took 59 Grand Prix wins, 78 pole positions, and set 60 fastest laps out of the 114 races in that period. Punctuating the success was four Drivers’ Championships (Nigel Mansell 1992, Alain Prost 1993, Damon Hill 1996, Jacques Villeneuve 1997) and five Constructors’ Championships (1992 – Williams FW14B, 1993 – Williams FW15C, 1994 – Williams FW16, 1996 – Williams FW18, 1997 – Williams FW19).

What We Love About How To Build A Car by Adrian Newey

There is the potential for How to Build A Car to be highly technical and on the boring side, but what we love about this book is that it is anything but!

It is highly engaging, entertaining, and gives the reader an amazing insight into what goes into winning championship-calibre cars driven by the likes of Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, Mika Hakkinen, Sebastian Vettel, and others.

Where To Buy How To Build A Car

You can buy How to Build a Car by Adrian Newey here.

How To Build A Car Product Details

Format Hardback | 400 pages

Dimensions 7.5 x 1.5 x 9.4 inches

Publication date 2nd November 2017

Publisher HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Language English

ISBN-10: 000819680X

ISBN-13: 9780008196806

How many Constructor’s Championships has Adrian Newey won?

Adrian Newey has won a total of 12 Constructors’ Championships throughout his career. The years and teams with which he achieved these championships are as follows:

1. Williams:
   • 1992: Williams FW14B
   • 1993: Williams FW15C
   • 1994: Williams FW16
   • 1996: Williams FW18
   • 1997: Williams FW19
2. McLaren:
   • 1998: McLaren MP4/13
3. Red Bull Racing:
   • 2010: Red Bull RB6
   • 2011: Red Bull RB7
   • 2012: Red Bull RB8
   • 2013: Red Bull RB9
   • 2022: Red Bull RB18
   • 2023: Red Bull RB19

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More F1 Reading

• Book Review – Total Competition: Lessons in Strategy from Formula One by Ross Brawn and Adam Parr
• Book Review – Ayrton Senna: Portrait of a Racing Legend
• Book Review – Senna Versus Prost
• Book Review – Formula 1 Technology: The Engineering Explained

Last update on 2023-11-11 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API