How to Win a Grand Prix

Lifts the lid on how an F1 team really works.

Formula 1 drivers are the public face of Grand Prix racing but behind every driver is a team of several hundred people sharing the same passionate desire to win. On race day it’s the Team Strategist who calls the shots, working under immense pressure to make split-second and crucial decisions. Welcome to Bernie Collins’ world.
​
Through her eyes and experience as a Chief Race Engineer and F1 Team Strategist, Bernie Collins takes the reader behind the scenes of a Formula 1 team - both in the factory and at the races - to uncover what it takes to put two Formula 1 cars on the grid and go racing.

HOW TO WIN A GRAND PRIX gives incredible insight of the entire process from design and construction, through pre-season testing, and how a team prepares for each of the 23 Grands Prix. For race weekend itself, Bernie recreates it hour-by-hour to plunge the reader behind the pit wall and see what it’s actually like to get from grid to podium.

Bernadette ’Bernie’ Collins has been at the sharp end of Formula 1 for over a decade. Hailing from the market town of Maguiresbridge in County Fermanagh, Collins studied Mechanical Engineering at Queens University, Belfast. A career in motor sport was never Bernie’s prime aim, but that changed in 2009 when she successfully applied to be part of the graduate trainee programme with the McLaren F1 team.

The multiple championship winning team gave Collins experience ranging from design and transmissions to race and performance engineering. In 2014, Bernie was Performance Engineer at McLaren for Jenson Button, the 2009 World Champion. From 2015 to 2022 Bernie was Strategy Engineer for Force India/Aston Martin Racing.

In 2023 Bernie Collins joined Sky Sports as a commentator and race analyst for their live F1 coverage.