HarperCollins buys Formula One designer Newey

HarperNonFiction has bought the memoir of Formula One designer Adrian Newey.

Publishing director Jack Fogg bought world rights to How to Build a Car from Gordon Poole at the Gordon Poole Agency. Co-written with Andrew Holmes, the book will be published on 2nd November.

Newey is described by the publishers as “one of the greatest car designer in the history of Formula One” following a 35-year career. He revealed he has used the book as an “opportunity to exorcise a few ‘demons’”.

Newey has worked in both Formula One and IndyCar and worked as a race engineer, aerodynamicist, designer and technical director. After designing championship-winning Formula One cars for Williams F1 and McLaren, Newey moved to Red Bull Racing in 2007, where he is currently the chief technical officer. He has won 10 Formula One Constructors' titles (more than any other designer), helped drivers achieve more than 150 Grands Prix and was awarded an OBE in the 2012.

A HarperCollins spokesperson said: “Beautifully illustrated with never-before-seen drawings, How to Build a Car encapsulates, through Adrian’s remarkable life story, precisely what makes Formula One so thrilling – its potential for the total synchronicity of man and machine, the perfect combination of style, efficiency and speed.”

Fogg said: “Over the course of an incredible 35-year career at the pinnacle of the sport, he has consistently been able to outperform his rivals and deliver championship-winning cars time and time again. This is a unique book – as well as being a brilliantly written and peerless sports memoir, How To Build a Car also teach one the basics of car design and will introduce readers to a whole new engineering vernacular.”

Adrian says: "Writing this book has given me the opportunity to offer what I hope is a behind-the-scenes, insider’s look at the sport as well as an insight into what I do at my drawing board.”

He added: “Not only that, but I’ve used the opportunity to exorcise a few ‘demons’.”