I finished working for Chaparral in September 1979, although I had been based back at my father’s house in North-west London since about October 1978. I designed the Chaparral 2K in my father’s front room with another base at BS Racing in Luton, where it was made. Having finished the Chaparral I decided the next move for me was to get back into Formula 1. My deal with Jim Hall was that I would be recognised as the chief designer at Chaparral but when I arrived at the Indy 500 in ’79 I saw a massive billboard showing Jim Hall, Al Unser and the Chaparral with the caption “Master of Ground Effect”. I thought, “That’s not right, not the deal,” and went to talk to Jim. I told him, “That’s not what we agreed,” and it all fell apart.
Al Unser left too, so I was now looking for a job in England and knew I wanted to work in Formula 1. Patrick Head told me, “There’s this chap Ron Dennis looking for someone to design him a Formula 2 car,” but I
