Formula 1 has seen many legendary car designers, who have changed the entire landscape of the sport. John Barnard is one of those people whose legacy transcends much beyond the scope of F1. However, there are many people today who don’t even know about the Ferrari designer’s existence.
Barnard was tasked with the resurgence of the Prancing Horse in the late 1980s. When he joined the Scuderia, he made radical changes to car philosophy and design which has trickled down to the customer automotive industry as well today. Barnard was the inventor of the semi-automatic, paddle-shifter gearbox.
When the Briton joined the iconic Italian team in 1987, he was in a dilemma. He wanted to package the car in a more streamlined way and also reduce weight. What he saw, however, was an opportunity to eliminate one of the most fundamental parts of a racing car — its gearbox.
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The lumpy manual gearbox of an F1 car meant that the cockpit and chassis had to be built around it to accommodate its shape. Further, a three-pedaled, manual F1 car was cumbersome as the driver had to lift his hands off the wheel to change gear.
That’s when the 78-year-old came up with the concept of a semi-automatic gearbox, debuting on the Ferrari 640 (1989). The first iteration of the design saw two buttons on the steering wheel, one to shift up and one to shift down. But this was counterintuitive for drivers and so, Barnard evolved that concept into two paddle shifters behind the wheel.
Today, paddle shifters are present in almost all modern racing categories from F1, IndyCar to GT3 and WEC. Moreover, this design has been assimilated into road cars as well and many supercars and pedestrian vehicles come with this method of transmission. The semi-automatic gearbox isn’t the only revolutionary idea that Barnard introduced, though.
How Barnard spearheaded the carbon-fiber revolution in Formula 1
The Briton’s stint with McLaren in 1981 saw him debut a concept that has become commonplace in F1 today — a carbon-fiber composite chassis. In the 1970s, carbon fiber had already made its debut in the sport but was used for only small parts.
The McLaren MP4/1 was the first time that the entire chassis would be built with this material. Why? Well, it would ensure that the chassis was as light as possible yet with the dexterity required to endure a Grand Prix.
Today, almost 85% of a modern F1 car are carbon fiber. Barnard was also responsible for the emblematic coke-bottle rear-end design. This is also something that all the teams employ today to package their cars as aerodynamically as possible.
