This pair of TAGโ€ˆturbo-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

John Barnard – Part 1

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 โ€œgraduatingโ€โ€ˆfrom Lola he went to work alongside Gordon Coppuck at McLaren to develop the M23. In 1975 he joined the Velโ€™s Parnelli Jones operation in California where he rescued Maurice Phillippeโ€™s 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 racingโ€™s first carbon composite monocoque, the MP4/1, in 1981. This was developed into World Championship winners for โ€™84, โ€™85 and โ€™86, 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 GPโ€ˆwin for a Barnard-designed car. In the first of a multi-part interview, VRโ€ˆContributing Editor Mike Jiggle sat down with Barnard to discuss his successful career.

John BarnardPhoto: Mike Jiggle
John Barnard
Photo: Mike Jiggle

Youโ€™re 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?

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