In an extraordinarily bold act, Ferrari has granted author Peter Wright and illustrator Tony Matthews the opportunity to examine and analyze the Ferrari F1-2000–the car that ended Ferrari's 21-year drought by bringing Michael Schumacher his third World Championship.

The level of unprecedented access to the car that was granted for this book surprised even the author. In the two years after the car captured the championship, its engines and gearboxes were laid out for extensive inspection, photography, and drawing. The company also supplied its own actual working drawings along with aero maps, tire curves, component and system specifications, and sufficient data to model the car and make a performance analysis. The results are compared with actual track data from Schumacher's qualifying laps at several Grand Prix circuits.

But Ferrari Formula 1: Under the Skin of the Championship-Winning F1-2000 is about more than just technology. Interviews with Michael Schumacher, Jean Todt, Ross Brawn, Paolo Martinelli, Rory Byrne, and other key members of the Scuderia show that the success of the F1-2000 and its successors lay in more than the good design and latest technologies applied by the design and engineering departments. The atmosphere at Ferrari—the way in which everyone, both Italians and team members of other nationalities, is focused on the clear objective of winning, and the enjoyment derived from doing the job better than anyone else—is unlike anything the author has come across in more than 35 years of involvement in Formula 1. Technologies and personalities are mixed inextricably in the F1-2000, and this uniquely detailed analysis shows just how effective that mix can be.