F1: Beyond The Grid
80: Technical genius John Barnard on his revolutionary F1 innovations, working with Ferrari, and more
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Episode notes
This week’s guest on Beyond The Grid can stake a claim to shaping all modern F1 cars. Not only was John Barnard responsible for victoriously introducing the now ubiquitous carbon fibre chassis to F1, he also was the brains behind the semi-automatic gearbox that is now an integral part of every Grand Prix car.
On this week’s show he gives us an eye-opening look into these innovations, as well as describing what it was like to negotiate setting up a Ferrari factory in the UK with Enzo Ferrari, what it was like to work with the likes of Michael Schumacher and Alain Prost, and the remarkable story of how he discouraged Ayrton Senna from joining Benetton…
On this week’s show he gives us an eye-opening look into these innovations, as well as describing what it was like to negotiate setting up a Ferrari factory in the UK with Enzo Ferrari, what it was like to work with the likes of Michael Schumacher and Alain Prost, and the remarkable story of how he discouraged Ayrton Senna from joining Benetton…