This pair of TAGโturbo-powered McLaren MP4/2Bs, driven by defending World Champion Niki Lauda (1) and Alain Prost (2), were the second generation of Barnard-designed cars featuring the revolutionary carbon composite monocoque and carried Prost to his first F1 crown in 1985.ย Photo: BRDC
Involved with mechancial things virtually all his life, John Barnard first worked in racing at Lola, then a fertile training ground for many men who would impact racecar design. Upon โgraduatingโโfrom Lola he went to work alongside Gordon Coppuck at McLaren to develop the M23. In 1975 he joined the Velโs Parnelli Jones operation in California where he rescued Maurice Phillippeโs VPJ4 for F1 and then adapted it into a winning Indycar design. Next came the landmark Chaparral 2K Indycar for Jim Hall, and upon returning to McLaren he broke further ground with racingโs first carbon composite monocoque, the MP4/1, in 1981. This was developed into World Championship winners for โ84, โ85 and โ86, but then he left for Ferrari where his paddle-shifted electronic gearchange system became another F1 standard. During a stint with Benetton he designed the car in which Michael Schumacher won the first of his 91 GPs, and then returned to Ferrari, where Schumacher scored the last GPโwin for a Barnard-designed car. In the first of a multi-part interview, VRโContributing Editor Mike Jiggle sat down with Barnard to discuss his successful career.
John Barnard Photo: Mike Jiggle
Youโre rightly attributed as being one of the most influential and innovative designers of the modern era of Formula One.ย Where did it all start?