Pressure

Sky F1's lead presenter goes behind the scenes with experts and professionals from the grid to the boardroom, to find the raw human passion that turns the wheels of the fastest sport on the planet As lead presenter for Sky Sports Formula One live coverage, Simon Lazenby is at the centre of Grand Prix race-weekend action. In this book, he takes us off camera to give us rare, behind-the-scenes access to the people who power this multi-billion-pound sport. Drawing on over a decade's accumulated first-hand knowledge and connections across the paddock, Simon talks to key experts and professionals within the teams and the overall organisation, who each reveal how they operate, how they compete, the skills they've learnt to navigate the challenges they face. Among the insiders who let us into their world are Max Verstappen's Race Engineer, whose voice we hear on the driver's cockpit radio communicating key strategic decisions, and the Aston Martin mechanic, who oversees the team responsible for assembing the F1 car from 14,5000 different components before each GP. There's the Performance Coach who has to ensure that the drivers' necks can withstand the equivalent of 24kg of weight (helmet + head + g force). George Russell talks about life at Mercedes as their new lead driver. And at the top of pyramid are Zak Brown, CEO of current contenders McLaren and James Vowles, Team Principal of Williams who are breaking through. We see split-second, mid-race decision-making at the pitwall, lightning physical and technical efficiency in the pitlane, high-level politics and boardroom maneouvres, emergency medical interventions, genius design innovation and much more inside track action. This is a unique, first-hand insight into human performance under extreme pressure at the highest level of motorsport, bringing man and machine together to compete at speeds of 230 miles per hour.