Autosport Plus

The story behind F1's invisible advantage

Sandwell UK specialises in an engineering process few will have heard of, but it's one used by F1 teams up and down the grid. Its founder, Colin McGrory, has worked with Adrian Newey and Ross Brawn, and is keen to highlight the benefits of shot peening

Engineering

Our experts' guide on how you can become a better racing driver

Thriving surface engineering company Sandwell UK was only ever meant to be a fallback option in the event that Jackie Stewart's efforts to launch a grand prix team for 1997 didn't come to fruition.

That's just one of the startling revelations from a frank chat with its founder and technical director Colin McGrory about his career in Formula 1, which spanned more than 20 years before he grew tired of the internal politics at Jaguar and left to focus on his growing business, which today services almost every F1 team on the grid.

Share Or Save This Story

Author James Newbold

James Newbold is Autosport's Plus Editor, responsible for coordinating website feature content.

In a sign of things to come, having completed his Politics and International Relations degree at the University of East Anglia in 2015, he left his graduation ceremony early to catch the last train to Brussels for the following day's Spa 24 Hours.

After a period as a freelancer, he joined the Autosport staff in 2018 and won the Motorsport UK young journalist of the year award. He initially edited Autosport magazine's Performance and Engineering supplements before joining the website team in his current role in 2020.

A keen enthusiast of anything that can be categorised unusual or niche, he enjoys unearthing little-known stories across all branches of motorsport, but has spent most of his career covering sportscars and is a regular part of the Le Mans 24 Hours reporting team.

He lives with his wife and children in Plymouth, England.