Interview: 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 “graduating” from Lola he went to work alongside Gordon Coppuck at McLaren to develop the M23. In 1975 he joined the Vel’s Parnelli Jones operation in California where he rescued Maurice Phillippe’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 racing’s first carbon composite monocoque, the MP4/1, in 1981. This was developed into World Championship winners for ’84, ’85 and ’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 GP win for a Barnard-designed car. In the first of a multi-part interview, VR Contributing Editor Mike Jiggle sat down with Barnard to discuss his successful career.

You’re rightly attributed as being one of the most influential and innovative designers of the modern era of Formula One.  Where did it all start?