Adding 'skirts' to the cars creates a downwards force that increases cornering speeds. Teams had to find ways around the rules set down by the FIA that limited the use of skirts.

The other thing I introduced to Formula 1 was the increase of down force by putting skirts around the car. I was very good at reading the rules and seeing what they said as opposed to what people thought they meant. You read the rule work out the exact restriction rather than it's intention. The two things are often very different. A rule is written to stop you doing something, but it never stopped me doing anything. This time the loophole was between the word ‘moved’ and ‘movable.’

We were not allowed to have any ‘movable’ aerodynamic devices on the car. But ‘moved’ – which is moved by God or wind or whim – I could see no problem with. I put flexible skirts around my car in South Africa in ’76. I took the day off and went riding my motorbike and, when I got back, my boss had taken them off the car. I said: ‘What are you doing?’ He said: ‘They’re illegal,’ and I said: ‘Well by taking them off you’ve admitted they’re illegal.’ He should have waited until I got back; I used to get very annoyed with my boss.

So we ran the South African race without the wings and I put them back on for the next race. When they came in and saw what I'd done I said: ‘Bugger off, go and get the scrutineers, I don’t need to talk to you.’ I didn’t need Tyrell or Chapman to tell me my car was illegal, I needed to hear it from the organisers. They told me that everything on the car needed to be rigid and I said: ‘What is rigid?’ Are the wings on an airplane rigid? No. Even the engine of the car wasn’t rigid. I persuaded them that the skirts weren’t ‘movable’ but when the wind blew they did ‘move.’ So we got our way and, of course, everyone else started doing it.

We had a wedge-shaped car called the M23, and we put plastic bits on that sucked it onto the road. It was quick, it worked. The physical stress on the driver was amazing, the driver used to throw up and get really ill. I remember Piquet saying: ‘The car is fantastic, it’s fantastique, I can’t see, I can’t breathe, I can’t find the pedals but it’s fantastic.’

• 1943 Alastair's early years
• 1955 Licence to drive
• 1957 Alastair's High School years
• 1959 Evading the police
• 1960 Becoming a mechanic
• 1966 The Tasman series
• 1966 Leaving New Zealand
• 1967 Joining McLaren
• 1967 CanAm Door Catches
• 1967 Monza
• 1968 South Africa
• 1968 CanAm
• 1969 Driving the Formula 1 Cars
• 1973 Fittipaldi joins McLaren
• 1973 McLaren Team manager
• 1974 Montezemolo
• 1975 Hunt replaces Fittipaldi
• 1975 Hunt gets paid little
• 1976 Inventing the Air-Starter
• 1976 Six-speed Gear Boxes
• 1976 Misbehaving in Canada
• 1976 Japan
• 1977 Adidas Uniforms
• 1977 Changing Tyres
• 1977 Leaving McLaren
• 1979 Nelson Piquet
• 1980 Skirts on Formula 1 Cars
• 1981 Leaving Formula 1
• 1982 Making Lists
• 1982 Signing on
• 1982 Creating Space Station
• 1991 Highland Fling
• 1991 Classic Marathon
• 1992 Getting the Austin A35
• 1992 El Salvador
• 1993 Carerra Panamerica
• 1993 Centre of attention
• 1993 Nicest car in rally
• 1993 LeJog
• 2000 London to Sydney
• 2000 Porsche Racing
• 2000 Porsche Crashing
• 2001 Ferrari
• 2001 Inca Trail
• 2004 Berlin - Moscow - Berlin
• 2005 World Cup Rally
• 2007 Norway
• 2008 Liège-Brescia-Liège
• 2008 An Icelandic Odyssey
• 2008 North & West Africa
• 2009 West Coast America
• 2009 London to Casablanca
• 2010 New Zealand Festival of motor racing
• 2010 New Zealand Big Sky Adventure