What do you think?
Rate this book
The Mechanic: The Secret World of the F1 Pitlane
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. That's not to say the F1 crew is just a group of highly skilled technical engineers, tweaking machinery in wind tunnels and crunching data through high spec computers. These boys can seriously let their hair down. Whether it be parties on luxury yachts in Monaco or elaborate photo opportunities in gravity-defying aeroplanes, this is a world which thrills on and off the track. Join McLaren's former Number One mechanic, Marc 'Elvis' Priestley as he tours the world, revealing some of Formula One's most outrageous secrets and the fiercest rivalries, all fuelled by the determination to win. This is Formula One as you've never seen it before.
243 pages, Hardcover
Published November 2, 2017
361 people are currently reading
3365 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 246 reviews
March 18, 2020
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.
All I've learned is that to be a good pit-stop mechanic (ie, change wheels, change nose cone, fuel up) you have to be able to do one thing really well, like hold something up in the air, or wield the gun that takes the nuts off the wheel and to be a team player. He talks about endless testing, but doesn't go into details of what they were testing, what the differences were between what existed and what they were trying to do and exactly how the testing was carryed out.
The author writes about what a lad he was. How he never toed the line if he could get away with laddish behaviour. How many parties he went to, how many hire cars he and his friends deliberately smashed up knowing the rental company would not say anything as they wouldn't want to lose a McLaren contract, how many planes he nearly missed because he was out drinking all night, how many stupid hairstyles he had (dreadlocks, forsooth!), how many cringeworthy team outfits he had to wear.
Why would I care about any of that? I read something over a third of the book and and 2 starred it. 1 to show how awful the book was, and 2 because the writing was actually quite good, I suspect a ghostwriter but one isn't named.
_________________
Notes on reading Jensen Button's How To Be An F1 Driver: My Guide To Life In The Fast Lane was really good (review to come), now a look from the mechanics' side. At Daytona, the boyfriends team were two drivers and seven in the garage (and me in the Corvette, 3 laps!) There's never going to be another billionaire racing car driver boyfriend, I'm never going to be on a team again, but it is likely that I will go to Indy, F1 or Porsche racing again (or even NASCAR, I'm not a snob). So I want to learn more about the technicalities, so I understand more of what I see.
First thing I learned was it takes a pit crew 3 secs to change a tyre, 5 seconds is slow. It took my son an hour and a half last week! In the F1 pits, each tyre requires three mechanics – one to operate the wheel gun, one to take the tyre off and one to put a new one on the hub. There are two people stabilising the car, as well as two people operating the rear and front jacks to lift the machine up when it arrives in the pit box. My son changed my tyre on wet grass on a muddy mountainside without any lighting at night, maybe if he'd had six helpers he could have got it down to...
All I've learned is that to be a good pit-stop mechanic (ie, change wheels, change nose cone, fuel up) you have to be able to do one thing really well, like hold something up in the air, or wield the gun that takes the nuts off the wheel and to be a team player. He talks about endless testing, but doesn't go into details of what they were testing, what the differences were between what existed and what they were trying to do and exactly how the testing was carryed out.
The author writes about what a lad he was. How he never toed the line if he could get away with laddish behaviour. How many parties he went to, how many hire cars he and his friends deliberately smashed up knowing the rental company would not say anything as they wouldn't want to lose a McLaren contract, how many planes he nearly missed because he was out drinking all night, how many stupid hairstyles he had (dreadlocks, forsooth!), how many cringeworthy team outfits he had to wear.
Why would I care about any of that? I read something over a third of the book and and 2 starred it. 1 to show how awful the book was, and 2 because the writing was actually quite good, I suspect a ghostwriter but one isn't named.
_________________
Notes on reading Jensen Button's How To Be An F1 Driver: My Guide To Life In The Fast Lane was really good (review to come), now a look from the mechanics' side. At Daytona, the boyfriends team were two drivers and seven in the garage (and me in the Corvette, 3 laps!) There's never going to be another billionaire racing car driver boyfriend, I'm never going to be on a team again, but it is likely that I will go to Indy, F1 or Porsche racing again (or even NASCAR, I'm not a snob). So I want to learn more about the technicalities, so I understand more of what I see.
First thing I learned was it takes a pit crew 3 secs to change a tyre, 5 seconds is slow. It took my son an hour and a half last week! In the F1 pits, each tyre requires three mechanics – one to operate the wheel gun, one to take the tyre off and one to put a new one on the hub. There are two people stabilising the car, as well as two people operating the rear and front jacks to lift the machine up when it arrives in the pit box. My son changed my tyre on wet grass on a muddy mountainside without any lighting at night, maybe if he'd had six helpers he could have got it down to...
January 28, 2023
Yup, I still have only managed to have seen 1/2 of a Formula 1 race. But apparently I’m quite an amused fan of one Kimi Räikkönen (because how can you not be???), and the author was a mechanic on one of Kimi’s teams (McLaren, apparently), and my friend was reading this book, and one thing let to another, and now the number of F1 books I’ve read (2.5) is even higher than the number of races I’ve seen (0.5).
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.
And even the non-Kimi chapters were easy to read and entertaining, even if at times it felt like I was reading about a foreign world in a foreign language. After all, a Smart Car is my idea of an ideal vehicle, so I suppose that says everything about my racing car knowledge.
But. But but but. It was a horrified fun, honestly.
Apparently the world of Formula 1 is the world of insane money which leads to exasperated hilarity.
And these guys, in a very dudebro culture, took their partying very seriously, complete with destruction of hotel rooms, rental cars and borderline criminal send off traditions that had me wanting to stick all of these guys into well-deserved timeouts (or maybe a slammer for a few days):
But. But but but. As much as I was vaccilating between fascinated, entertained and repulsedly horrified, I was still having fun reading this. Marc “Elvis” Priestley has an easy narrative style and presentation, and kept my attention throughout. And in addition to learning about dudebro behavior, it was interesting seeing the cutthroat atmosphere that can exist even within the same team, and pernicious intense rivalries (Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso), and high stakes which make sense once you realize the sheer amount of $$$ involved there.
Who knows, maybe one of these days I’ll watch another F1 race? Or maybe just a bunch of Kimi videos 😅
3.5 rounding up (dammit, GR, are half-stars really that difficult???) But these hard-partying guys get 1 star for obnoxious behavior. (Except for Kimi, he gets a pass).
—————
Buddy read with Dennis, who, unlike me, actually understands this sport.
——————
Also posted on my blog.
“With Kimi, though, there’s never been an ego, let alone an inflated one, and the celebrity lifestyle just wasn’t his way.”
“An awkward and uncomfortable style on stage, twinned with his blunt, monosyllabic quotes in front of a microphone should have been a PR nightmare, but it ironically turned into the thing most people loved about him.”
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.
“Kimi kept himself to himself most of the time. If he wasn’t required in the garage, or the engineering truck, while we made changes to his car, you could almost guarantee he’d be asleep somewhere, either in his private room in the team ‘motorhome’, under a bench or on a tool cabinet, in the team kitchen, or the back seat of his hire car. It was always wise to check before removing a pile of coats off the worktop in the spares truck, just in case Kimi was curled up asleep underneath …”
“Mark then had to hope that the story either wasn’t true, or, if it was, convince Ron that it was a journalistic mistake and that Kimi was fine and training hard, not in fact recovering from some mythical event such as a three-day bender involving public nakedness and damage to a well-known nightclub, as was once fairly accurately reported.”
“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.
‘Er, well, its fifty-six, but … Shouldn’t you know that by now?’ I replied, double-checking I wasn’t the victim of some elaborate prank.”
“Kimi, we’ve got a forty-second lead, I want you to back off now and bring the car home?’ said The Reverend on the radio.
Silence.
Another half a lap passed. ‘Kimi, this is serious now,’ warned The Reverend. ‘We really need you to back off and lower the engine mode on the steering whee—’
The comms suddenly exploded into life. ‘JUST STOP TALKING – I KNOW WHAT I’M FUCKING DOING!”
And even the non-Kimi chapters were easy to read and entertaining, even if at times it felt like I was reading about a foreign world in a foreign language. After all, a Smart Car is my idea of an ideal vehicle, so I suppose that says everything about my racing car knowledge.
But. But but but. It was a horrified fun, honestly.
Apparently the world of Formula 1 is the world of insane money which leads to exasperated hilarity.
“But one small incident sticks in my mind that perhaps sums up the financial bubble we existed in: at a test, not long after I joined the team, McLaren chartered a helicopter … in a desperate attempt to dry out a wet track. […] It was quite a spectacle, but the reality was that while it did shift an awful lot of water into the air, 90 per cent of it fell straight back down onto the track …”
And these guys, in a very dudebro culture, took their partying very seriously, complete with destruction of hotel rooms, rental cars and borderline criminal send off traditions that had me wanting to stick all of these guys into well-deserved timeouts (or maybe a slammer for a few days):
“My lasting memory as I left for the airport to fly home was of Kimi cowering in a corner of the room, using his laptop as a pathetic shield, while eggs and slices of toast rained down upon his head.”
“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.”
“There’s another story involving the same anonymous perpetrator, which took place well before my time, but it’s now part of F1 folklore. One of the lads was stripped naked, tied securely to a tyre trolley and paraded up and down the pitlane as all comers were invited to contribute something to his dousing. He was painted in all the usual mess, but then our friend decided to raise the shock levels by a considerable amount. He set the trolley down on the ground, his victim lying on his back unable to move and then proceeded to take a shit on the poor bloke’s chest. The parade continued until Michael Schumacher noticed what was going on, and, understandably disgusted, went to the circuit offices to complain about the ‘savage McLaren team’. It didn’t go down well internally and when Ron found out some serious reprimands were handed out.”
But. But but but. As much as I was vaccilating between fascinated, entertained and repulsedly horrified, I was still having fun reading this. Marc “Elvis” Priestley has an easy narrative style and presentation, and kept my attention throughout. And in addition to learning about dudebro behavior, it was interesting seeing the cutthroat atmosphere that can exist even within the same team, and pernicious intense rivalries (Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso), and high stakes which make sense once you realize the sheer amount of $$$ involved there.
Who knows, maybe one of these days I’ll watch another F1 race? Or maybe just a bunch of Kimi videos 😅
3.5 rounding up (dammit, GR, are half-stars really that difficult???) But these hard-partying guys get 1 star for obnoxious behavior. (Except for Kimi, he gets a pass).
—————
Buddy read with Dennis, who, unlike me, actually understands this sport.
——————
Also posted on my blog.
February 25, 2023
This was much better than I expected it to be.
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.
To be honest, I didn't read this book because I wanted to learn about the life of a mechanic, but rather because my favorite driver at the time, Kimi Räikkönen, was at the peak of his career during his McLaren years, which happen to intersect nicely with Priestley's time at the team. Plus there's the controversial 2007 season which saw a fierce rivalry between the two McLaren drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, spiral out of control and McLaren having to pay a record penalty of $100 Million because of Spygate. Those were rather interesting times. And Priestley was there for all of it.
Turns out that in fact Kimi, Ron Dennis, Alonso and Hamilton are the most interesting characters in this. However, I came to appreciate, and I guess hadn't really thought about it previously, how much pressure to perform is on the mechanics also in this high performance business. Plus, pit stops are terrifying from a mechanic's perspective. I also learned that there was quite a bit of camaraderie between the McLaren and Renault mechanics, even while the two teams were fighting for the championship in 2005. That was surprising. Other than that it was mostly twenty-somethings doing twenty-something things and enjoying the benefits of the unique environment they were in. Frankly, a lot of it is quite silly.
Ron Dennis' rather special personality (I always found him fascinating) was the much more interesting aspect of this book in the early chapters. Some parts of this reminded me of reading about Steve Jobs, another interesting character. And then Kimi arrived at the team and the book became immense fun.
It confirmed a lot of thoughts I'd had about Kimi Räikkönen's early career and how he approached work at McLaren. Which is to say, he showed up, drove fast (or was fast asleep somewhere when there was no driving to be done) and afterwards went partying with the boys. That his personality didn't change one bit when he became a star in Formula 1, that conformity never became part of his vocabulary even with all the pressure from sponsors and the huge sums of money that different parties invested into F1*, that he never got caught up in all the politics and personal agendas and that in a sport of such fine margins he managed to just have fun and, frankly, be a bit lazy and still very succesful kind of makes him stand out among the modern world championship winning drivers. Or all drivers since the turn of the century really. He's a throwback to the old days, when everything was less serious, albeit - in this particular case - much more dangerous. His nonchalant approach to life in general also makes for an interesting contrast when pitted against the control freak that was Ron Dennis. If there was one thing I wished for from this book, then it would be to have gotten a bit more about the struggle that two such contrasting personalities must have meant for each other. Although, one of them probably didn't care.
Kimi was clearly also much loved by the mechanics, as he was just one of the guys and they had a lot of fun together. Some of the pranks were quite ridiculous and I couldn't help but laugh. Then came 2007 though. Enter Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton. Kimi had left for Ferrari that year and oh, how the atmosphere changed within the team. Now there were some big egos to be dealt with.
Ultimately, with two all time great drivers like Alonso and Hamilton battling it out for supremacy and with their respective characters at the time, things became toxic. Seen from the outside, Alonso looked like the bad guy to me back then. But there also was something a bit off about Hamilton. He just appeared fake to me. In the end that's confirmed by this book too. Although I do think that Hamilton in particular has grown quite a bit as a person since then. After all he was only 22 years of age. But boy, those McLaren guys missed Kimi for sure. I guess you could call it poetic justice that the two McLaren drivers were squabbling so much with each other that in the end Kimi snatched the title from under their noses in 2007. And after all the battles, the good times, the successes on track as well as the disappointment of not quite getting it over the line at McLaren, old friends hadn't forgotten each other.
Then in 2008 McLaren finally won another championship, with Lewis Hamilton at the wheel. And that was quite the dramatic season as well. But I think at this point it has become clear that I was mostly here for the Kimi stories. And I have not been disappointed.
On the whole, 3.75 stars. It was fun.
*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:
"I'm sorry," he began. “I had a few drinks. I was dancing. Why was I riding an inflatable dolphin? Because why not?”
Oh, Ron must have loved that.
Buddy read with Nataliya, who enjoyed this more than I thought she would.
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.
To be honest, I didn't read this book because I wanted to learn about the life of a mechanic, but rather because my favorite driver at the time, Kimi Räikkönen, was at the peak of his career during his McLaren years, which happen to intersect nicely with Priestley's time at the team. Plus there's the controversial 2007 season which saw a fierce rivalry between the two McLaren drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, spiral out of control and McLaren having to pay a record penalty of $100 Million because of Spygate. Those were rather interesting times. And Priestley was there for all of it.
Turns out that in fact Kimi, Ron Dennis, Alonso and Hamilton are the most interesting characters in this. However, I came to appreciate, and I guess hadn't really thought about it previously, how much pressure to perform is on the mechanics also in this high performance business. Plus, pit stops are terrifying from a mechanic's perspective. I also learned that there was quite a bit of camaraderie between the McLaren and Renault mechanics, even while the two teams were fighting for the championship in 2005. That was surprising. Other than that it was mostly twenty-somethings doing twenty-something things and enjoying the benefits of the unique environment they were in. Frankly, a lot of it is quite silly.
Ron Dennis' rather special personality (I always found him fascinating) was the much more interesting aspect of this book in the early chapters. Some parts of this reminded me of reading about Steve Jobs, another interesting character. And then Kimi arrived at the team and the book became immense fun.
It confirmed a lot of thoughts I'd had about Kimi Räikkönen's early career and how he approached work at McLaren. Which is to say, he showed up, drove fast (or was fast asleep somewhere when there was no driving to be done) and afterwards went partying with the boys. That his personality didn't change one bit when he became a star in Formula 1, that conformity never became part of his vocabulary even with all the pressure from sponsors and the huge sums of money that different parties invested into F1*, that he never got caught up in all the politics and personal agendas and that in a sport of such fine margins he managed to just have fun and, frankly, be a bit lazy and still very succesful kind of makes him stand out among the modern world championship winning drivers. Or all drivers since the turn of the century really. He's a throwback to the old days, when everything was less serious, albeit - in this particular case - much more dangerous. His nonchalant approach to life in general also makes for an interesting contrast when pitted against the control freak that was Ron Dennis. If there was one thing I wished for from this book, then it would be to have gotten a bit more about the struggle that two such contrasting personalities must have meant for each other. Although, one of them probably didn't care.
Kimi was clearly also much loved by the mechanics, as he was just one of the guys and they had a lot of fun together. Some of the pranks were quite ridiculous and I couldn't help but laugh. Then came 2007 though. Enter Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton. Kimi had left for Ferrari that year and oh, how the atmosphere changed within the team. Now there were some big egos to be dealt with.
With Kimi, though, there’s never been an ego, let alone an inflated one, and the celebrity lifestyle just wasn’t his way.
Ultimately, with two all time great drivers like Alonso and Hamilton battling it out for supremacy and with their respective characters at the time, things became toxic. Seen from the outside, Alonso looked like the bad guy to me back then. But there also was something a bit off about Hamilton. He just appeared fake to me. In the end that's confirmed by this book too. Although I do think that Hamilton in particular has grown quite a bit as a person since then. After all he was only 22 years of age. But boy, those McLaren guys missed Kimi for sure. I guess you could call it poetic justice that the two McLaren drivers were squabbling so much with each other that in the end Kimi snatched the title from under their noses in 2007. And after all the battles, the good times, the successes on track as well as the disappointment of not quite getting it over the line at McLaren, old friends hadn't forgotten each other.
There was a reflection of the season in the way we all partied that night. Fernando disappeared, never to be seen again. Lewis gathered together his own ever growing entourage in an exclusive private VIP area, none of us from the team were invited. Instead we dragged the night away with the new Formula 1 World Champion somewhere in Sao Paulo. I say somewhere because I really can't remember much about it. I do remember we ended up at Kimi's hotel, the sun rising, none of us able to stand or talk, but it was so nice to finally be able to share part of that incredible achievement with him. I couldn't help but feel that even though he was no longer driving for us, in our own inimitable chaotic McLaren way we'd made a substantial contribution to his world championship season and a tiny part of me had to have a laugh about that.
Then in 2008 McLaren finally won another championship, with Lewis Hamilton at the wheel. And that was quite the dramatic season as well. But I think at this point it has become clear that I was mostly here for the Kimi stories. And I have not been disappointed.
On the whole, 3.75 stars. It was fun.
*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:
"I'm sorry," he began. “I had a few drinks. I was dancing. Why was I riding an inflatable dolphin? Because why not?”
Oh, Ron must have loved that.
Buddy read with Nataliya, who enjoyed this more than I thought she would.
May 11, 2019
I recently got into F1 due to the Netflix docu series and was instantly hooked. I have to admit I was quite judgemental of F1 before and thought the sport was over rated, the Netflix series does a great job of exposing new comers to the sport.
The book offers great insight into the world of F1 and specifically as the title says, the daily ins and outs of an F1 mechanic, plenty of great stories and an easy read. Highly recommend to anyone who enjoys the sport, and I recommend both the book and Netflix series to anyone interested in becoming a fan!
The book offers great insight into the world of F1 and specifically as the title says, the daily ins and outs of an F1 mechanic, plenty of great stories and an easy read. Highly recommend to anyone who enjoys the sport, and I recommend both the book and Netflix series to anyone interested in becoming a fan!
June 3, 2022
I really enjoyed jumping into the Formula One world while reading this book! Thanks to the F1 doco series on Netflix I’m now a bonafide obsessive & was desperately looking for a good book for more behind the scenes insight. And this didn’t disappoint… written by a pit crew mechanic who was in the game for almost a decade - it gave a great inside view of how things run inside a top F1 team (McLaren). My favourite chapters were ones towards the start & the end - the former being centred on the actual mechanics of the cars, how the pit crew work together & report up to the managers. The latter were about the introduction of Lewis Hamilton to F1 & his bitter feud with Fernando Alonso - all of which was great! There was a lot about what drunken messes the pit crew were after each Grand Prix - smashing up hotel rooms & team vans (ridiculous), and how much they all prank each other - all stuff I could’ve lived without probably. That stuff would’ve been better served in a “How to be a lad” book! But all in all, a fun read!
June 8, 2018
Formula 1 is the pinnacle of motorsport, the teams have multi-million-pound budgets, some of the drivers are household names and for those looking in from the outside, it is seen as a high octane exotic sport. I have been an F1 fan since about the age of eight and the team that I have supported since then is McLaren; mostly because I lived in the same town as them.
Even though the drivers are immensely talented they would be nowhere without the teams of engineers and mechanics to ensure that they are in the best position to win. In its heyday, McLaren under Ron Dennis was seen as the best and most professional team in the paddock, most because of his obsessive attention to detail. AS the budgets were so enormous, they would think nothing os flying the entire test team back from a track for a Christmas party and flying them back, slightly worse for wear and day later. They even used a helicopter to try and dry a track out to test a component.
In this high-pressure environment was Mike 'Elvis' Priestley. He joined them as a mechanic and worked his way up from being the guy to fit a nose cone in a race to become one of the men changing the wheels in the lightning fast 3-second pit stops. They would sometimes have to pull a-l night shifts after the drivers had wrecked the car, change engines when the had blown and ensured that their driver had the very best car at their disposal.
This work hard mentality also meant that they played hard and also drunk hard too and Priestley's book is full of stories about the races and the aftermath after a successful weekend, of hire cars trashed, the continual practical jokes that they played on each other and the drivers. He also gives the inside story on the Spygate scandal that engulfed McLaren and the fierce rivalry between Alonso and Hamilton. Priestley tells a good story and this is an entertaining read of the slightly murky reality that lies behind the pristine world of F1.
Even though the drivers are immensely talented they would be nowhere without the teams of engineers and mechanics to ensure that they are in the best position to win. In its heyday, McLaren under Ron Dennis was seen as the best and most professional team in the paddock, most because of his obsessive attention to detail. AS the budgets were so enormous, they would think nothing os flying the entire test team back from a track for a Christmas party and flying them back, slightly worse for wear and day later. They even used a helicopter to try and dry a track out to test a component.
In this high-pressure environment was Mike 'Elvis' Priestley. He joined them as a mechanic and worked his way up from being the guy to fit a nose cone in a race to become one of the men changing the wheels in the lightning fast 3-second pit stops. They would sometimes have to pull a-l night shifts after the drivers had wrecked the car, change engines when the had blown and ensured that their driver had the very best car at their disposal.
This work hard mentality also meant that they played hard and also drunk hard too and Priestley's book is full of stories about the races and the aftermath after a successful weekend, of hire cars trashed, the continual practical jokes that they played on each other and the drivers. He also gives the inside story on the Spygate scandal that engulfed McLaren and the fierce rivalry between Alonso and Hamilton. Priestley tells a good story and this is an entertaining read of the slightly murky reality that lies behind the pristine world of F1.
November 16, 2019
I expected this to be a light snack that I would forget about quickly, but it was actually more entertaining and informative than I thought. "Elvis" Priestley gives us not only his own story, but also that of McLaren during some of their most important years.
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.
I do think that you have to love Formula 1 to appreciate this book though, and the sections where the author talks about the juvenile things he and the other mechanics did during race weekends are a bit too gleeful.
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.
I do think that you have to love Formula 1 to appreciate this book though, and the sections where the author talks about the juvenile things he and the other mechanics did during race weekends are a bit too gleeful.
Read
January 31, 2025dnf @ 57%
sometimes in my little susie wolff, f1 academy world i forget what a ‘man’s world’ formula 1 is/was. this book kindly reminded me.
i couldn’t even get to spygate. it’s a good job i loved the sport before this because if this had been my introduction i’d have fucking despised it.
sometimes in my little susie wolff, f1 academy world i forget what a ‘man’s world’ formula 1 is/was. this book kindly reminded me.
i couldn’t even get to spygate. it’s a good job i loved the sport before this because if this had been my introduction i’d have fucking despised it.
June 26, 2022
I did the audiobook for this one; it's narrated by the author. For some reason, I kept getting the impression Priestley was trying to sell me something; everything was so overhyped and every single moment so forcibly intense, it lost a little bit of its overall oomph.
Let me narrow down the target audience for you: if you're not into F1, you won't like this. If you hoped, judging by the title and Priestley's more technical role, that there would be anything more in-depth in here about F1 engines or specifics about pit stops and race strategy, you're going to be disappointed.
If like me you're a big fan of F1, but on a casual level - not a mechanic or anything - you'll probably enjoy this.
Many amusing anecdotes about Lewis Hamilton, Ron Dennis, the Iceman, crazy parties all over the world, pranks and intense world champion races. Priestley was at McLaren during the 2007 season, which was just one the craziest seasons overall.
Would I re-read: no.
Let me narrow down the target audience for you: if you're not into F1, you won't like this. If you hoped, judging by the title and Priestley's more technical role, that there would be anything more in-depth in here about F1 engines or specifics about pit stops and race strategy, you're going to be disappointed.
If like me you're a big fan of F1, but on a casual level - not a mechanic or anything - you'll probably enjoy this.
Many amusing anecdotes about Lewis Hamilton, Ron Dennis, the Iceman, crazy parties all over the world, pranks and intense world champion races. Priestley was at McLaren during the 2007 season, which was just one the craziest seasons overall.
Would I re-read: no.
October 11, 2021
I can’t imagine a better entry book into the world of F1. It’s catchy, always falling from one interestng story to another with a little glimpse of backstage politics of F1 teams. I would love to hear any story from him any day of the week about the sport and what comes with it. Technical details are just the right amount to not bore casual reader and if you are hungry for details, they are one google away.
January 1, 2023
Pierwsza książka o F1 jaką przeczytałam, zdecydowanie polecam każdemu kto chce wejść do świata Formuły 1 🤌❤️
February 17, 2023
Obsahově nemám téměř co vytknout. Kniha mě bavila, dozvěděla jsem se něco nového, připomněla si, co už jsem věděla. Jednu hvězdičku jsem strhla pouze proto, že mi přišlo, jako by autor občas trochu zmateně přeskakoval z jedné události na druhou, ale nebylo to nic hrozného.
Co však bylo dost hrozné, byl překlad (četla jsem českou edici). Zdá se mi, že knížka nebyla přeložena z původní angličtiny, nýbrž ze slovenského překladu – občas se v textu vyskytovaly slovenské výrazy. Dále některé věty měly špatnou skladbu, jiné zase vůbec nedávaly smysl, kulturní narážky byly vpodstatě jen strojově přeložené (Cheshire Cat opravdu není cheširská kočka, ale kočka Šklíba), některé zaužívané formulové termíny také nebyly přeloženy úplně nejlépe.
Neberte mě špatně, jsem ráda, že vychází více formulových knih také v češtině, proto jsem taky sáhla po českém vydání, chtěla jsem tuto iniciativu podpořit. Ale tohle se prostě nedalo pořádně číst. Jak chce nakladatelství tímto udělat formulovým knížkám reklamu?
Co však bylo dost hrozné, byl překlad (četla jsem českou edici). Zdá se mi, že knížka nebyla přeložena z původní angličtiny, nýbrž ze slovenského překladu – občas se v textu vyskytovaly slovenské výrazy. Dále některé věty měly špatnou skladbu, jiné zase vůbec nedávaly smysl, kulturní narážky byly vpodstatě jen strojově přeložené (Cheshire Cat opravdu není cheširská kočka, ale kočka Šklíba), některé zaužívané formulové termíny také nebyly přeloženy úplně nejlépe.
Neberte mě špatně, jsem ráda, že vychází více formulových knih také v češtině, proto jsem taky sáhla po českém vydání, chtěla jsem tuto iniciativu podpořit. Ale tohle se prostě nedalo pořádně číst. Jak chce nakladatelství tímto udělat formulovým knížkám reklamu?
April 7, 2024
Such a cute book with very well done writing and narration! Love this inside look into the crazy lifestyle of pit mechanics in the early 2000’s!!
Read
July 19, 2023As a Formula 1 lover, I thought this was a really fun and interesting read. the F1 world back in the early 2000s is SO different to the one we are familiar with today, it was a lot crazier and Priestley really exposes the wild side of the sport after hours. He had some pretty wild tales from his time as a McLaren pitlane mechanic and I never wanted to be a trades girlie so bad LOL.
My favourite part of the book was definitely all the Kimi content. I LOVE Kimi Räikkönen, he drives like a motherfucker and is absolutely hilarious with how little he cares about everything. I so desperately wish he was still on the grid today, but all good things must come to an end :'(. Elvis (God I feel weird calling a random man named Marc ELVIS, but it's what he goes by so I will concede) developed a personal relationship with Kimi as he was his personal mechanic and he had some pretty funny stories to tell about him. I am definitely biased, but I thought it was the best part of the book.
Priestly also worked for McLaren during Spygate and the Lewis and Alonso season which is insane and I loved hearing an insider's experience of that crazy year. It's also nice to see how far both Lewis and Alonso have come, they are some of the greatest drivers the sport has ever seen and finally seem to have mutual respect for each other now in 2023. I mean it's only been 16 years lmfaooooo.
Anyways, if you care about F1 at all, I recommend, but it really is about the behind the scenes of the mechanic end of the sport (as the title suggests) than the actual racing, but the racing crumbs are delectable.
My favourite part of the book was definitely all the Kimi content. I LOVE Kimi Räikkönen, he drives like a motherfucker and is absolutely hilarious with how little he cares about everything. I so desperately wish he was still on the grid today, but all good things must come to an end :'(. Elvis (God I feel weird calling a random man named Marc ELVIS, but it's what he goes by so I will concede) developed a personal relationship with Kimi as he was his personal mechanic and he had some pretty funny stories to tell about him. I am definitely biased, but I thought it was the best part of the book.
Priestly also worked for McLaren during Spygate and the Lewis and Alonso season which is insane and I loved hearing an insider's experience of that crazy year. It's also nice to see how far both Lewis and Alonso have come, they are some of the greatest drivers the sport has ever seen and finally seem to have mutual respect for each other now in 2023. I mean it's only been 16 years lmfaooooo.
Anyways, if you care about F1 at all, I recommend, but it really is about the behind the scenes of the mechanic end of the sport (as the title suggests) than the actual racing, but the racing crumbs are delectable.
July 16, 2023
Reportaż opowiedziany naprawdę wspaniałą narracja.
Wiele słyszałam o Elvisie, ale miło było posłuchać całej historii bezpośrednio od niego.
Niesamowity człowiek z niesamowitą pasją
Wiele słyszałam o Elvisie, ale miło było posłuchać całej historii bezpośrednio od niego.
Niesamowity człowiek z niesamowitą pasją
February 2, 2023
Síce moja prvá kniha o zákulisí F1, ale aj keby to zrovna nebolo o tom, čo ma baví, napísané to bolo super (dobre, možno som trocha biased). Každopádne vykreslenie fungovania bakstagu formule 1 v McLerene, keď miešal karty na predných pozíciách, sa čítalo veľmi dobre a ťažko sa od toho odtŕhalo. Ak vás Drive to survive na Netflixe bavilo, toto bude baviť rovnako.
March 11, 2023
JA SIĘ PORYCZAŁAM WA DA FAK
October 13, 2024
behind the scenes into the life of a mechanic on the McLaren pitwall during some of their glory years .. a very fun read 🙂↕️
June 7, 2021
The perfect pit stop. That can only happen when every individual, every piece of equipment, every process and task the planning and preparation comes together at exactly the right moment in a Sunday afternoon.
September 2, 2024
Throughout the book I kept thinking wow he not only excelled to the top of his field as an F1 mechanic but he's also randomly a fantastic writer and storyteller and narrator—what the hell. I didn't know that after his retirement from McLaren, he started writing about F1 and was so good at it that it led to a second-wind career in sports media. Makes total sense. Even the way he read the audiobook was so engaging.
November 14, 2019
A really interesting read on what it was like to be in the inside of Formula One during when Red Bull had came into the sport and ignited the parties and drunken behaviour. But also an interesting insight into the Mclaren team.
It was well written and super easy to follow along with. Interesting throughout and couldn’t really put it down.
It was well written and super easy to follow along with. Interesting throughout and couldn’t really put it down.
September 12, 2023
Mam rada f1, tak to radsej neohviezdičkujem. Ale akoze aj horsie by mohlo byt.
September 25, 2023
2,5
Imprezowe wątki dość niesmaczne, zdecydowanie mogłoby być ich mniej. Książka interesujaca, nawet jeśli nie jest się wielką fanką F1.
Imprezowe wątki dość niesmaczne, zdecydowanie mogłoby być ich mniej. Książka interesujaca, nawet jeśli nie jest się wielką fanką F1.
December 16, 2024
This is a great example as to why we need women in motorsports because it’s amazing how long this “boys club” atmosphere existed and continues to exist. The level of hazing and insane things these men are able to get away with just because they are so good at their jobs only confirms to me why Christian Horner was able to keep his job this year. Outside of all the crazy party stories and pranks, this was great insight though into the world of an F1 mechanic in the 2000s and gives you a small glimpse into the glitz and glam that is Formula 1, behind the scenes of what we see on TV every weekend. I can’t say I wasn’t entertained by the recounting of the chaos that was the life of an F1 mechanic at that time, but once you start putting it in perspective, it’s crazy how childish some of these stories seemed to be and what they got away with. In a world with inordinate amounts of money, at the forefront of engineering, and with a focus on inhuman levels of performance, it truly was just boys playing with cars who drank too much, partied too hard, and pulled demeaning pranks. I’m glad to see that things have been changing since those years and that the level of professionalism has improved drastically to become more representative of the work that everyone puts into these teams. (4.5/5)
April 22, 2023
The sweetest gift from mum and mitchy <3 5-stars because I had such a fun time reading this. The glitz glamour and chaos of 00s F1 is front centre in this autobiography, but it never felt like a brag, more like charming recollections from a different time. it also made me wonder who will write the defining autobiography of the 10s or the current era.
If you’re looking for pure sports and stats vibes this might not be your favourite book, but I thought it had a lot of heart and human touch and that’s what made it a step above a generic sports biography for me !
If you’re looking for pure sports and stats vibes this might not be your favourite book, but I thought it had a lot of heart and human touch and that’s what made it a step above a generic sports biography for me !
January 13, 2025
first book of 2025!! I love learning about the history and especially the behind the scenes of my favourite sports and Elvis does exactly this!! Really enjoyable read! My favourite memoirs are the ones that make me feel like we’re sharing a beer and they’re telling me a story and that’s the exact vibe this has :)
January 10, 2022
Having already read "How to design a car" by Adrian Newey it was pretty interesting to get a completely different look on F1. I wish less emphasis was put on the partying, etc. But overall it was still a good read
August 28, 2020
Książkę czyta się błyskawicznie, jest wciągająca, ale czasami autor za bardzo się powtarza. Brakowało mi też trochę uporządkowania chronologii, a ciekawostek spodziewałam się więcej.
May 7, 2022
приключения белого раздолбая в топовой спортивной лиге в самой её безлимитной эпохе. я успел подзабыть, каким фантастическим был сезон 2007 года(
August 29, 2023
Skvelý pohľad do vnútra F1.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 246 reviews