Bernie Collins’ ‘How to Win a Grand Prix’ | Book Review

It’s that experience which she shares in her book, How to Win a Grand Prix, a deep dive into not only the many stages of a grand prix weekend, but the behind-the-scenes work it takes to get the team there in the first place. And somehow, it seems to be even more work than you’d imagine.

If you’re looking for the story of Collins’ life then you need only read the first couple of chapters, which cover her decision to study Mechanical Engineering at Queen’s University Belfast in 2007, where she became involved in Formula Student, all the way through to handing in her notice as Head of Race Strategy at Aston Martin in 2022.

After that, the focus turns to detailing the F1 journey, from design stages to the chequered flag, and it’s here that the book leans away from its autobiographical slant to being a guide not only to Collins’ role, but to the various other jobs which establish an F1 team. I say leans away, because there always seems to be a toe dipped in to the personal amongst the professional explanations, which can sway from the amusing – how the Free Practice 1 session always starts with breakfast at the track – to the distracting, such as a chapter covering packing and flying routines which just feels like it’s taking up pages when sandwiched between the experience of working trackside and off-season learning.

This book is a bit muddled at times, unsure exactly of what form it’s supposed to take. It’s not that the personal anecdotes are unwelcome, rather that the title of the book would have you think that this is a guide to grand prix racing, not about losing your bags at the airport.

Collins wrote the book with Maurice Hamilton and at times it does feel a lot like a conversation that has been written up, though without always enough consideration for how it would read on the page. There are many instances of just listing questions a strategist would be working around at any given time which can be tiresome to read, repeated occurrences of “(I’ll cover [this] in more detail later)” which left me wondering if a glossary would be more convenient, and the liberal use of exclamation marks, undoubtedly there to convey Collins’ enthusiasm in speech, were irritating as a reader nonetheless.

I had to wonder at times who the target audience for this book is. With such a detailed depiction of the Formula 1 experience, this is unlikely to be the best introduction for a novice to the sport, yet a mention of a pit-stop would be followed by “(or ‘box’),” as if I had never heard a team radio call during a race before. 

What the lists of questions does make clear, however, is that there are endless considerations strategists need to be mindful of. It’s a job where the attention will usually only be on you if your decision-making proves wrong, particularly when it is time to ‘box’. “Of the hundreds of decisions I’ve referred to,” Collins writes, “the pit-stop call is the most visible, and the strategist’s reputation can take a hit because of it.”

This book is at its most engaging when recalling instances made in recent grands prix. The 2021 Russian Grand Prix is one example, where the weather took a sudden turn for the worse causing leader Lando Norris to spin after not switching tyres. Collins explains how she called for her drivers, Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll, to pit, but they ignored her under the belief the pit entry was dry and realised their error too late.

Reference to the 2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, meanwhile, highlighted lessons learnt regarding communication, how Force India drivers Esteban Ocon and Sergio Pérez collided, requiring both to pit, but they swapped position on the way in so preparations in the garage were being readied in the wrong order.

It’s these examples that it pays to bear in mind when it’s finally time for Collins to tell the story of her sole grand prix victory. Circumstances surrounding the Sakhir Grand Prix seem to go against all the prep work a strategist would do – there was no history of racing on the circuit to pull from. Sergio Pérez wins the grand prix having recovered from an early incident to climb up from the back of the pack, benefitting from the puncture a chasing George Russell suffered in the closing stages to hold off his pursuit.

At first glance it can be easy to say this result was just good luck, but as the saying goes, you make your own luck. The depth of detail that goes into not only strategy, but all the aspects which make up an F1 team shows just how switched on you have to be all the time to even have a chance of winning.

As Russell and Valtteri Bottas looked set for a one-two finish for Mercedes, an opportune safety car gave both the window for a cheap stop. But both stops were a disaster, with chaotic radio calls muddling the order in which each driver came in, resulting in Russell being fitted with Bottas’ tyres. Clear communication and split-second decision-making can make or break a race. As Collins writes, it’s all about “doing the absolute best with what you’ve got and being in a position to pick up what others leave on the table.”

For all the times this book felt long and listy, it changed the way I watched a race. As the weather grew wild during the recent Brazilian Grand Prix, I found myself thinking what a nightmare it must have been for the strategists and engineers, trying to second-guess the rain to pick the optimum time to run or pit.

The depth of information presented in How to Win a Grand Prix is vast and comes from an authoritative voice in the industry, someone who has worked through self-doubt and learned lessons in real time, all of which paid off when it came to finally guiding the way to a first-place finish. Make it through the lists, and the real-world anecdotes are enlightening for a fresh perspective on watching F1, and this book was worth reading just for that. 

Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.