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John Barnard | |
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| Born | John Edward Barnard (1946-05-04)4 May 1946 (age 79) Wembley, London, England |
| Occupation(s) | Race car designer, Formula Oneaerodynamicist, engineer and former technical director. |
| Known for | Introducing the first semi-automatic gearbox, the first carbon fibre compositechassis and the "coke bottle" shape of the rear bodywork. |
John Edward Barnard,RDI (born 4 May 1946)[1] is an English engineer andracing car designer. Barnard is credited with the introduction of two new designs intoFormula One: the carbon fibre compositechassis first seen in1981 withMcLaren, and the semi-automatic gearbox with shift paddles on the steering wheel, which he introduced withFerrari in1989.
Barnard gained a diploma fromWatford College of Technology in the 1960s and unlike many of his contemporaries he did not follow a lengthy academic career, instead choosing to joinGeneral Electric Company. In 1968, Barnard was recruited byLola Cars inHuntingdon as a junior designer and began working on many of the chassis manufacturer's projects, includingFormula Vee racers and numerous sports cars. While at Lola, Barnard was introduced toPatrick Head, who later helpedFrank Williams found theWilliamsFormula One team. The two engineers became good friends and Head was best man at Barnard's wedding in the early 1970s.
In 1972, Barnard joined theMcLaren Formula One team and remained for three years working alongsideGordon Coppuck on the design of the Championship-winningM23 chassis and other McLaren projects, including the team'sIndyCar. By 1975, Barnard had been hired byParnelli Jones to work withMaurice Philippe designing the team's Formula One racer (the Parnelli VPJ4) which campaigned from 1974 to 1976. The cars best finish was 4th byMario Andretti at the1975 Swedish Grand Prix. After Philippe leftVel's Parnelli Jones Racing, Barnard modified the design for the Indycar circuit. Further Indycar designs followed and in1980 the Barnard-designedChaparral2K chassis tookJohnny Rutherford to the prestigiousIndianapolis 500 and theCART drivers title.
His success in the United States brought Barnard to the attention of new McLaren team bossRon Dennis, and in 1980 he joined the team and began working on theMcLaren MP4 (MP4/1), the firstcarbon fibre composite chassis inFormula One,[2] alongside theLotus 88 designed byColin Chapman. The chassis itself was built by team sponsorHercules Aerospace in the US, after former Hercules apprentice and then McLaren engineerSteve Nichols had advised Barnard that the US-based company might be their best choice. Barnard, along with Dennis, had been unsuccessfully searching in England for a company willing to take on the job.
The MP4/1 quickly revolutionised car design in Formula One with new levels of rigidity and driver protection. At the1981 Italian Grand Prix atMonza, the strength of the MP4/1 was given a very public test whenJohn Watson suffered a massive crash in his MP4/1 coming out of the second Lesmo turn. The strength of the carbon fibremonocoque (which many in F1 had been sceptical of) saw Watson emerge unhurt to the surprise of many, not the least being Watson himself and Barnard.[3] Within months the design had been copied by many of McLaren's rivals. In1983, Barnard pioneered the 'coke-bottle' shape of sidepods still visible to this day.
During his time with the team, McLaren became the dominant force within Formula One, taking drivers titles forNiki Lauda in1984,[4] andAlain Prost in1985 and1986, with the first two seasons seeing constructors honours and the team narrowly missing out toWilliams in1986 for a third. The 1984 season also saw McLaren drivers Lauda and Prost win an amazing 12 of 16 races with theTAG-Porsche poweredMcLaren MP4/2 (Prost won 7, Lauda 5, but Lauda scored in more races and won the championship by only half a point from his teammate). By the time Barnard leftMcLaren forFerrari at the end of1986 his cars had won 31Grands Prix for the team.
The 80°V6 TAG engine had been financed byMansour Ojjeh of Techniques d'Avant Garde (TAG) and was built by Porsche to Barnard's specification for theMP4/1E and its highly successful replacement theMP4/2. After debuting in Lauda's new MP4/1E at the1983 Dutch Grand Prix with approximately 700 bhp (522 kW; 710 PS), power steadily rose until the 1.5-litre turbocharged engine named the TTE PO1 produced around 950 bhp (708 kW; 963 PS) at the end of its life in1987.
By1986, the working relationship between Barnard and McLaren boss Ron Dennis had deteriorated. This led to speculation that Barnard would leave the team, and it came as no surprise when it was announced before the1986 German Grand Prix that he would be joiningFerrari in1987. The Scuderia had not won a Grand Prix sinceMichele Alboreto had won the1985 German Grand Prix, and the designer had been able to name his terms. Given a large sum of money by the team to set up a design office inGuildford in England, Barnard founded the Ferrari Guildford Technical Office in early 1988 and began work on returning Ferrari to regular winning (according to Barnard, the name of the Guildford office had been a play on words of one of Ferrari's road cars, the GTO).Gerhard Berger won the last two races of the1987 season, and followed this by a lucky victory at theItalian Grand Prix in September 1988, in a season of total domination by McLaren, whoseHonda-poweredMP4/4 had been designed by former colleague Steve Nichols, with some help from Barnard's replacement in the team, long timeBrabham designerGordon Murray. Ferrari finished 4th in the Constructors' Championship in 1987 and 2nd in 1988.
Of theGustav Brunner designedFerrari F1/87 and the updated F1/87/88C used in the 1987 and 1988 seasons, Barnard stated that the car had a different design than he would have chosen given the regulations, but that by the time he arrived at the team work had already begun on the cars' construction and little could be done to change things without considerable expense. Also, with 1988 being the last year for turbo powered cars, his main focus was on designing the1989 car to conform to theFIA's new regulations which required all Formula One cars to use a 3.5-litrenaturally aspirated engine.
While at Ferrari, Barnard ruffled a few feathers with his way of doing things. Despite being the team's Technical Director, he alienated himself from the team when he decided to set up his office in England and not at the factory inMaranello as had been the tradition even with non-Italian members of the team (like the team's chief engineer at the time, fellow BritonHarvey Postlethwaite). Barnard reasoned that it would allow more work to be done on designing the1989 car without the distractions of the factory and the Italian press who had been known to be scathing on any Ferrari failures. He also put a ban on the team's long-standing tradition of having wine at the mechanics' lunch table during testing, something that proved unpopular with the team's mostly Italian mechanics.
In 1989, Barnard pioneered the electronic gear shift mechanism – now known as asemi-automatic gearbox – which was operated via two paddles on the steering wheel. This revolutionary system had proved fragile in testing since early in 1988 and many in F1 were expecting it to fail. However, new team recruitNigel Mansell took the newV12-powered Ferrari 640 to victory first time out at theBrazilian Grand Prix in Rio de Janeiro. Barnard had instigated his second technical revolution, and by1995 every team was running a copy of the Ferrarigearbox. This would unfortunately be the only finish recorded by either Mansell or Berger until Round 7 when Mansell finished second in theFrench Grand Prix atPaul Ricard. The new gearbox had been the cause of many DNF's for the team but by the time they got to France the problems had been solved (not enough power from the battery that powered the electronic gearbox) and the semi-automatic gearbox started to show its advantages.
One such advantage of the new system was put to good use by Gerhard Berger after he suffered a fiery high speed crash at theSan Marino Grand Prix. His car hit the wall at the Tamburello curve at close to 180 mph (290 km/h) and with an almost full fuel load burst into flames, leaving the Austrian (who was knocked unconscious) with burns on his hands. His injuries kept him out of the next race inMonaco, and would normally have kept him out for longer, but being able to make gear changes without his hands leaving the steering wheel he was able to return inMexico, just two races after his crash. Berger and team bossCesare Fiorio told the press in Mexico that had the Ferrari not been equipped with Barnard's revolutionary gearbox, Berger's injuries would not have allowed him to return to racing so soon.
Following Mansell's second place in France and the car's newfound reliability, results improved dramatically. Podium places were intermixed with Mansell winning theHungarian Grand Prix, and Berger winning inPortugal. After only scoring 21 points in the first half of the season (all to Mansell), the John Barnard designed 640 rose to the occasion and scored 39 in the second half (21 of them to Berger who scored his first finish of the year with a second place atMonza), giving the team 3rd place behind McLaren and Williams in the Constructors' Championship.
For1990FrenchmanAlain Prost was signed in an effective swap, sending Ferrari favouriteGerhard Berger to McLaren. Despite his friendship and good past working relationship with Prost at McLaren, Barnard opted to leave theMaranello based team and joinBenetton. Seeking a new challenge, and relishing working again for a team based in England, he would be free from the Italian press, where the numerous failures during testing of the semi-automatic gearbox in 1988 had often made headlines, despite being minor.
As the team's new Technical Director, Barnard assisted chief designerRory Byrne with Benetton's1990 challenger, theFordV8 poweredBenetton B190, which debuted at the1990 San Marino Grand Prix, and late in the season took 2 wins in the hands of tripleWorld ChampionNelson Piquet, which were the last 2 races of the season inJapan andAustralia (the Australian Grand Prix was also the 500th World Championship Grand Prix held since the championship had started in1950).
Barnard also helped design theBenetton B191 for the1991 season, assisted by the team's new designerMike Coughlan. The B191, which was the first Benetton to use the raisedanhedral front profile pioneered by theTyrrell team in 1990 (theTyrrell 019 was designed by Harvey Postlethwaite) and has since become standard on nearly all open wheel racing cars, carried Piquet to his 23rd and final Grand Prix win inCanada. After completing theBenetton B192 for the1992 season (with assistance from Rory Byrne andRoss Brawn), in which future 7 time World ChampionMichael Schumacher would take his first ever Grand Prix win inBelgium, Barnard left Benetton after a dispute with team bossFlavio Briatore over money.
After working for a short time on the stillbornToyota F1 project, in mid-1993, Barnard returned to Ferrari, who were once more in a slump, having failed to win a single race since 1990. Once more Barnard was able to name his terms and opened a new technical office inSurrey named Ferrari Design and Development (FDD). From his UK office Barnard began work on the412T1B which ultimately returned Ferrari to the top of the podium at the hands of old team favouriteGerhard Berger.
Barnard continued to design Ferrari's Formula One racers for four seasons, including the 412T2; which tookJean Alesi to his only race win. By1996 however major changes were underway at the Italian team. With Berger and Alesi removed, and reigning world championMichael Schumacher installed as lead driver, team managerJean Todt set about building a design office inMaranello. Unwilling to re-locate to Italy, Barnard's 1997F310B was to be his last design when Todt appointed South AfricanRory Byrne as Chief Designer andEnglishmanRoss Brawn as Technical Director. In the summer of 1997 FDD was purchased from Ferrari and became B3 Technologies ending Barnard's association with Ferrari. Although no longer part of the team, the designer's F310B chassis took Michael Schumacher tantalisingly close to the title and his victory at theJapanese Grand Prix was to be the last for a Barnard car.
In 1998, B3 Technologies began working for theArrows Formula One team, but the deal soon descended into dispute when theProst team also subcontracted the R&D outfit. TheArrows A19 scored the last points for a fully Barnard-designed car whenPedro Diniz placed fifth in the chaotic and rain-soaked1998 Belgian Grand Prix. Ultimately, Barnard worked as a technical consultant for the Prost team until its demise in 2001 when he chose to move into motorcycle racing, becoming Technical Director of theTeam KRGrand Prix motorcycle racing team.
On 29 February 2008, Barnard sold his company, B3 Technologies to 3 people, one of whom had previously worked for him, and moved into furniture design with leading designer Terence Woodgate. B3 Technologies was put into administration in late 2008.
In 2018, Barnard's biographyThe Perfect Car was published by writer Nick Skeens, with the close co-operation of Barnard and input from many of his associates, drivers and rivals.[5]
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