Following his retirement from McLaren, Elvis's first broadcast role was as pitlane reporter for BBC Radio 5 Live, where he was able to share his vast technical experience of the cars and equipment with listeners. Since then, Elvis has become an integral part of Sky's F1 coverage. He is now a co-host on the channel’s studio-based chat show, The F1 Report, as well as attending a number of Grand Prix events. 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. It is quite general so is not too technical which is positive for the casual F1 fan or those who are not mechanically minded. It casts McLaren in a new light showing that it is not entirely the ultra professional team they wish to portray and that at least the mechanics can have a laugh.

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

Marc ‘Elvis’ Priestley worked for McLaren Racing as a Formula One mechanic and member of the pitstop crew from 2000-2009. He worked with a distinguished list of drivers including Mika Hakkinen, David Coulthard, Kimi Raikkonen, Jean Alesi, Juan Pablo Montoya, Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton. The principle is sound, as are the author’s credentials… [A] genuine attempt to reflect the day-to-day realities of a relentless life on the road. And it is relayed by someone who doesn’t feel duty-bound to toe the corporate line MotorsportIt 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. 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. Apparently the world of Formula 1 is the world of insane money which leads to exasperated hilarity. 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. The principle is sound, as are the author’s credentials... [A] genuine attempt to reflect the day-to-day realities of a relentless life on the road. And it is relayed by someone who doesn’t feel duty-bound to toe the corporate line" ( Motorsport)

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

There are lots of fun stories of the mechanics behaving badly, of particular interest is the story about filling Kimi’s gloves with blue dye and Kimi’s subsequent revenge. It shows that Kimi can be a warm and friendly guy and is up for a laugh. As ever, I had to put my trust in the guys who knew that car inside out, and as the five red lights began to light up one by one on the gantry to start the race, I confirmed I was happy to go for it and put any worry out of my mind. I had absolute faith in my team.

Meet Marc 'Elvis' Priestley: the former number-one McLaren mechanic, and the brains behind some of Formula One's greatest ever drivers. 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.” unreservedly accessible pdf archives on the Internet. We don't have any document on our server. In the event The principle is sound, as are the author’s credentials… [A] genuine attempt to reflect the day-to-day realities of a relentless life on the road. And it is relayed by someone who doesn’t feel duty-bound to toe the corporate line" - - Motorsport

The Mechanic - The Secret World of The F1 Pitlane by Marc The Mechanic - The Secret World of The F1 Pitlane by Marc

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. 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).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. 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. 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. 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.

The Mechanic; The Secret World Of The F1 Pitlane - LinkedIn The Mechanic; The Secret World Of The F1 Pitlane - LinkedIn

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Find out what really happens in the heat of a Formula One garage from McLaren's former Number One mechanic.