Tyler Alexander: A Life and Times with McLaren

I should note that I have had the pleasure of briefly meeting Tyler Alexander at the Indianapolis airport on a Monday morning following the 2007 or 2008 Grand Prix. Many of the McLaren team members were lined up to check into coach class. There were recognizable by their uniform clean cut appearance and their Hugo Boss made travel uniforms and luggage. I had bought my daughter the "Mac and Lauren" book set written by Lisa Dennis, the now ex-wife of McLaren CEO Ron Dennis. In one of the books, there was a spread-page overhead view of a pitstop and I suggested to my daughter that she ask the McLaren guys for autographs on that page. In the stratospheric world of F1, where contact between fans and the team is difficult at best (the Ferrari team had their own private departure lounge) the first man my daughter approached squatted down to get eye level with her and explained that he did the left front wheel and he autographed just over the wheel. He then got all of his buddies to autograph their spots too. One man, a data engineer, asked if he could draw on the book, to show the data port. Then he got his boss, Tyler Alexander, who was standing in the First Class line to come over and autograph it too. That was a very special thing for them to do.Tyler Alexander's book is thick and heavy, printed on high quality paper with great photographs, many by Tyler Alexander himself. The book is a linear history of his life in racing, from the SCCA to Can-Am, F1 and Indycars. Alexander was involved at the very start of McLaren's (the man and the team) history, and it is here that he provides us with the most amount of detail and the most color.Alexander is a man of many talents and is driven to do his best all of the time. He describes the all-nighters required to rebuild a racecar or diagnose a gearbox issue. He takes us with him on the incredible travels required to run races in both the US, Europe and Australia and New Zealand - often in a very short period of time. He takes us also into the tragedy that occurred all too often in racing in the 60s and 70s. The death of Timmy Mayer, which lead to his involvement with McLaren, and many of his friends along the way, Bruce McLaren, Peter Revson and Ayrton Senna included.Alexander changed with the times - from doing whatever needed doing, from sweeping up to welding to machining to making himself an early adopter and expert in data engineering. He ran McLaren's "Battle Stations" - the huge complex of servers required to analyze the data from the car's telemetry.As a Formula 1 fan for more than 40 years, I eagerly read the book and it was fascinating to learn the background on some of the events that I remember watching on TV. The only reason I didn't give the book the full five stars is that Mr. Alexander gives his impressions of several key players pretty short shrift. I know he still attends races and I suspect he'd like to hold on to his FIA credentials, so we don't get a lot of information about his relationship with Ron Dennis or Bernie Eccelstone. We do know that he doesn't care much for Ferrari or for Michael Schumacher (for good reason).I will say that if you are a fan of Formula 1 and/or McLaren, this is a book you must add to your library.

Well, what an amazing, thoughtful portrait of the career of Tyler Alexander. I worked with Tyler (and a lot of other very talented guys) in the 80’s at Mayer Motor racing. Although Tyler’s talents were above and beyond in racing his greatest benefit to me (and I suspect many others) was being a mentor in how to live my life with great work ethics and integrity, which I hope I have passed on to my children. It’s true Tyler seemed to have no ego - he was the same to everyone and had a calming presence in all situations, which is more than I can say about Teddy.

I was a bit disappointed. As a long time McLaren fan I was expecting to hear more about the cars, the company and the people. Instead it read more like a travel diary with very little detail or explanation of events. Of course Tyler had a very long career with McLaren and to have covered it all in some level of detail would have been difficult.

Tyler Alexander was a legend in the racing world in sports cars, Formula One and Indy cars. There must have been so many stories to be told, but he told so few. Instead reading the book became a trial as all it seemed I was reading was his race notes and nothing more. I expected much more from someone that contributed so much to the sport of racing.

I so looked forward to A LIFE AND TIME WITH McLAREN. Wow, a tome from an under represented American racing insider, a career covered both sides of the Atlantic. From Who Possesses Much, Much Is Expected was my expectation. I will say whatever Tyler has, he earned them the old fashion way-the hard way with much sacrifices, but I was looking to revelations and clarities in the mode of Ermanno Cuoghi, John Wyer, and Steve Matchett. While Tyler the Man has much to be admired, A LIFE AND TIME WITH McLAREN lacks meats and flavors, and reads like a resume of Tyler's career. A case of A Man Who knew Too Much is Saying Too Little.

The book died about the same time as Bruce did.The later chapters are a simple race by race account of what happened that year. There is a sentence or two about some of races but no details which I would have expected the author would have been easily able to use to entertain the reader. The constant references to gearbox softwear got very boring too.Apart from the photography which saved the book I'd wouldn't even bother with the Kindle version.

I eagerly awaited this book, pre-ordering it when announced. While it was more (pagination-wise) than expected, it was less content-wise. His memoirs of the early, formative days of Team McLaren (1960's-70's) was lacking, whether from memory or absence I don't know. At their peak (1967-70) they were involved in F1, F2, Can-Am and F5000 but he only spent about 7-8 pages for each year, discussing only F1 and Can-Am for the most part. For the '80's-2000's, when they were only in F1, he spends about DOUBLE the number of pages (about 14) for each year, years that were well covered from a media standpoint (TV, print, internet). The early period had an almost total lack of media coverage here in the US and that's what I hoped to glean from his book. And if you were looking for more if his great period photography here, you'll have to buy his previous photo book; he uses mostly stock photos here. Throughout the book there are sidebars from his acquaintances which, although complimentary, don't really tell all that much about the man, in my opinion. There's more about hotels, eateries and points of interest he experienced in his travels than engineering details about all the cars he was involved with, which to me was another disappointment. And there was a picture of Kimi in his McLaren driving suit, captioned as taken in 2007, when he won the championship driving for FERRARI. And this book lacked a good editor, as the text was a bit rambly. As I said, OK but a disappointment as well.

a good read, unknow facts.

Sadly if you expect an insight into Bruce McClaren you won't find it here! Nor much about Ron Dennis. A very disappointing book made up mostly of dates and results from the races Tyler attended. Its a lavish and very expensive book good for a coffee table! Maybe I was spoilt by the other much better books out in 2018 from Adrian Newey, Ross Braun and even The John Bernard biography.

Is the story of two teams - Bruce McLaren racing where Tyler was one of a small team who made it all happen. Then he returns for the battle with Ferrari and run-ins with the rule makers from the late 80's. Remakrable how much detail is shared and how thoroughly documented the events are.

I'm sure He will find it enjoyable & interesting!

If you really want to know what it is like to work at the top level of motor sport then I recommend this superb book by one of the real legends of the sport.I have followed the story of the McLaren team from its the beginning and no one is better placed to tell the story of it rise and its periodic falls than Tyler.

Excellent look behind the scenes of the McLaren team for fifty years from its conception. A good insight into the changing nature of the sport from its more simple and varied beginnings to the complexities of modern times, from somebody who was an integral part of that team and its evolution. One or two punches pulled, but not many!