The Mechanic: The Secret World of the F1 Pitlane

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Then, casually, just a few seconds before I had to leave the grid ahead of the race start, he asked me how many laps the race lasted for.

The Mechanic: The Secret World of the F1 Pitlane by Marc The Mechanic: The Secret World of the F1 Pitlane by Marc

This book is a celebration of immaturity. I'm mad about racing. I want to know about the cars, the metrics, how the jigsaw of a team produces a win at a Grand Prix event and I thought this author might go some way to explaining this. But the book was misnamed. It was about The Mechanic, the author all right, but less about the F1 pitlane. Of course Kimi was the highlight of this book, aided by me having seen the awesome YouTube clips of Kimi Räikkönen’s delightful monosyllabic awkwardness (not to mention these umlauts I have a weakness for), and reading about his over-the-top antics was strangely yet expectedly entertaining.From my position in the garage I was involved in some of the most dramatic moments in F1’s recent history. I worked with world-class drivers like Mika Hakkinen, Kimi Raikkonen and David Coulthard, but I was also right there as the controversial battle between Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso unfolded in 2007. It was fascinating to watch as Lewis developed from a young rookie into a potential championship-winning superstar; a potential that was realised not long after a damaging fallout with Fernando which would tailspin into part of one of the sport’s biggest scandals: Spygate. This is an enjoyable inside account of the day to day realities of what it is like to be a mechanic in an F1 team. Marc Priestly was a mechanic at McLaren from 2000 to 2009, before he left the team to pursue a career in media, working for the BBC and Sky Sports among others and writing articles for magazines like Autosport and F1 Racing.

The Mechanic: The Secret World of the F1 Pitlane - Priestley

The anecdotes that involve Kimi Raikkonen and the crucial season with Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton were the highlights, but the rest of the book is also so enjoyable that you will finish it in a short amount of time with a smile on your face. If ever anyone left the race team after a significant length of service, either to retire or move on, it was our longstanding tradition to physically abuse that person after their last race. This would generally happen in a horrifically degrading manner, and often in front of the entire pitlane. Over the years I’ve seen people tied to the pit wall fence and covered with leftover food slops (which had been saved up during the week in preparation). People were doused in liquids that should never have been publicly seen outside of the human body. And I’ve watched, horrified, as one mechanic was set on fire before being hosed down with the enormous pitstop foam fire extinguisher.” It contains lots of interesting stories of what it is like to work in F1 and the camaraderie between mechanics. A bit more tell all info in places, particularly about Ron Dennis would have been nice but what there were was very interesting. It was very interesting to read a mechanic’s view of the feelings about having an unproved rookie in the form of Lewis Hamilton in the team and the challenging 2007 season. I tried not to panic and almost instantly the team calmly reassured me the broken nut would not present a safety risk and I should prepare as normal.In the high-octane atmosphere of the Formula One pit lane, the spotlight is most often on the superstar drivers. And yet, without the technical knowledge, competitive determination and outright obsession from his garage of mechanics, no driver could possibly hope to claim a spot on the podium. These are the guys who make every World Champion, and any mistakes can have critical consequences. Apparently the world of Formula 1 is the world of insane money which leads to exasperated hilarity. There was one instance when he actually bent to the will of the team. After he had been found, passed out on a rubber dolphin, in front of a night club on Gran Canaria, the team felt a public apology was required. Kimi ultimately relented but still did it the Kimi-way: