Newey reveals his sneaky trick for spying on Ferrari

Teams use various ploys and tactics to spy on each other, but when it comes to gamesmanship in F1, Adrian Newey is an old hand.

In a new book which chronicles his career in Grand Prix racing, F1's most prestigious designer, who penned winning cars for Williams, McLaren and Red Bull, offered some insight on how he's able to pierce some of his rivals' secrets.

"After a race is completed, cars are subject to scrutineering checks to ensure they've raced in a legal configuration," Newey writes in his book 'How to Build a Car'.

"Once those checks are complete, there's an hour of parc fermé during which the cars are held in a compound. If a rival team wishes to make a protest during that time, it can do so.

"Related to this point, there's a lot of gamesmanship that takes place when cars are held on what we call the dummy grid before a race.

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"Engineers such as myself take the opportunity to have a look at other cars. Mechanics, when they see a senior engineer from an opposing team - e.g. me - in the vicinity, will swarm around their car, attempting to obscure the bit I'm looking at.

"Ferrari, in particular, are a veritable hive of activity when I wander in their direction.

"As a result, what I do is amble towards a section of the car I'm not particularly interested in, thus attracting the mechanics my way, like bees to honey, while one of our photographers snaps away at the bit I really want to see.

"Ferrari still haven't rumbled that one."

Newey says he makes the most of any opportunity to look at and dissect rival designs, even if it's just for a sneaky moment.

"It's all a bit of a game, to be honest. If I really want to look at a car, I need only wait until after the race, when the cars are held in parc fermé, where nobody's allowed to touch them for an hour.

"They're often parked right under your nose, and with all the mechanics busy packing up, you can look at them as much as you like.

"As I say, that's when the teams can raise a protest if there's something about the car they don't like."

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