In the past, there was Formula Uomo. John Barnard and Patrick Head speak out

In the past, Formula 1 was a realm where human skill mattered more than software, and cars sometimes failed on track due to poorly designed, poorly built, or simply worn-out components. Today, the single-seaters grind to a halt in the Sepang downpour because of software that sends erroneous signals. The Formula 1 bug that made many fans watching on television smile. These are modern times, and at the end of the day, all you need to do is switch it off and on again, just like when your computer freezes. Taking a trip down memory lane on certain days does you good. The opportunity arises when two of the geniuses of old Formula 1, John Barnard and Patrick Head, arrive at the Mauto in Turin to visit the extraordinary exhibition dedicated to the ‘Enemies of the Drake’. These two designers were long-standing rivals to one another and to Ferrari, even though Barnard later worked at Maranello (or if not exactly at Maranello, at least for Maranello). Today they are two cheerful, fit octogenarians who, accompanied by their wives (Patrick’s is Italian and he lives in Cagliari), are enjoying a short and delightful tour of Italy. Seeing some of their creations and many of their rivals up close brings back a flood of memories and takes us on an extraordinary journey through time.

Patrick Head stands in front of his Williams FW07, which raced from the late 1970s into the early 1980s, winning the World Championship with Alan Jones: “When we designed it, it was just me and perhaps two others. By the time I left Williams, there must have been about twenty people. Today, a technical department has eighty or a hundred people… We designed the whole car on our own; today there are engineers who work solely on a wing, a suspension component or some other part,” he recalls. “When the cars went out on the track, it wasn’t as if we received a lot of data. We relied on the drivers’ feelings and their accounts. Tighten the bar, soften the spring, and so on. Back then, when the drivers finished practice, they were more interested in chasing the girls than reading the telemetry, and we didn’t stay up late into the night on computers analysing data and graphs.” Those were also days when money was tight: “Frank was always skint, and I remember we often slept in dreadful hotels and ate sandwiches – a far cry from the chefs in today’s multi-storey motorhomes.” Yet Head is not one to claim that ‘Things were better in the old days’; he merely wishes to underscore the contrasts. ‘Every era has its own way of working, and I’d never tell an engineer today that they’d be better off working the way we did.’ Those were also days when a single phone call was enough to secure a job, as when Head called Lola after graduating with a degree in engineering. “They put me through to Eric Broadley, who was the big boss. He called me in for an interview; when I arrived, he told me he didn’t have time and that there weren’t actually that many engineers working for him. And then he added: ‘You start on Monday’.” John Barnard had already been working at Lola for a year and a half. They became friends, so much so that Head went on to be John’s best man at his wedding in 1975. “We were friends, but we were always rivals and we worked to beat each other on the track.” Patrick Head became a partner and co-founder of Williams in 1977, whilst Barnard, after working on Indy cars, joined McLaren in 1980 before moving to Ferrari for the first time in 1987.

“My favourite car is the Chaparral 2K, in which Johnny Rutherford won the Indianapolis 500. I designed it in my father’s living room with the help of one person who worked with me full-time and another part-time. We drew every bolt on that car, and although I’ve designed many winning McLarens, that Chaparral makes me very proud. But the car closest to my heart is the Ferrari F89 (the one that featured the first semi-automatic gearbox mounted on the steering wheel), a car that could have gone on to achieve so much more had I not, foolishly, left Ferrari to join Benetton… Ah, if only I’d known that Prost would arrive the following year…”. The ‘Professor’ is his favourite driver, the one who conveyed his feelings to him in the best possible way. An exceptional test driver. Patrick Head confirms this, although he emphasises just how nervous he was and how much he used to bite his nails… Yet the driver closest to Head’s heart is Nigel Mansell, Williams’ most successful driver: “A driver who never held anything back. You used to call him ‘The Lion’ in Italy too…”. It was he who won on his debut in Barnard’s Ferrari. Next to the Ferrari designed by John stands the Ferrari 246, the car in which Mike Hawthorn won the world championship in 1958. A car that brings back another memory for Patrick Head: “My father was an amateur racing driver and would occasionally invite other drivers round to our house. I remember that when I was twelve, I was in my room with a cold, building a model of a Chipmunk aeroplane. At one point, Hawthorn came into my room and promised me a flight in his plane, then gave me a bit of whisky to help clear up my cold…”. A few months later, Hawthorn – who had just become world champion – died in a road accident: “I remember being angry with him; I’d never get into his plane again! But that image conveyed to me the immense fascination of that world.”

Today, Barnard continues to watch the races regularly, whilst Head sometimes misses them (“I have a young wife and a little daughter who aren’t interested”). However, they agree on one point: “The single-seaters are too big, too heavy, but they’re also very fast. Yet it seems that the driver can’t always push to the limit to make the difference himself”. Barnard adds: “Getting the small details right is more difficult. But nowadays you need a lot of space for the batteries; just look at how big production cars have become. It’s true that cars are safer today, both road cars and racing cars, but at least in Formula 1, drivers should be allowed to make more of a difference. They don’t have the chance to show just how good they are.” Patrick Head recalls that a few years ago, straight after the Covid pandemic, Stefano Domenicali wrote to him asking for his opinion: “The first time I met Stefano, he was sweeping the Ferrari garage… Today he’s the big boss. I wrote back to him: ‘Forget it, these days it’s all about electric…’ In short, I hadn’t understood a thing.” Even geniuses can get it wrong. As happened with Ayrton’s Williams – the only name that brings a shadow of sadness to his eyes.

“The cars today are too big and too heavy. Drivers can’t always make the difference.”

“Back then, there were two or three of us designing an entire car. Nowadays, there are people who design just a wing...”