I'm a little late with this sad news, from June 2019. If you don't know about Robin Herd, you are missing some great race car engineering stories.

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/o...herd-1939-2019
Quoting from the obit,
> Robin Herd, who passed away on Tuesday after an extended illness, made his name as Max Mosley’s main partner in the March racing constructor. He was the chief designer of the March Formula 1, F2 and Champ Cars of the 1970s/early 80s and was possessed of great intellect, charm and enthusiasm. He was also instrumental in the careers of Ronnie Peterson, Niki Lauda, Jean-Pierre Jarier, Hans Stuck Jr, Vittorio Brambilla, Bruno Giacomelli and Teo Fabi, acting as an early mentor for them all as well serving as their race engineer.
>
> Although an Oxford contemporary of Mosley’s, they knew each other only slightly at that time and arrived in racing via separate routes. After graduating in physics, Herd was recruited to the aerospace industry and in the 1960s was part of the team working on the design of what became Concorde, the first supersonic passenger aircraft.
> ...
> McLaren in its early days needed income and one of the very valuable sources of it was in Can-Am racing where the prize fund was such that money was made rather than spent, as in F1. Herd designed the dominant M8, the basis of the ‘Bruce and Denny’ show in reference to how McLaren and Denny Hulme cleaned up for four years from 1968. At the heart of its success was a hidden aerodynamic secret: its underbody generated ground effect years before it could be applied to F1. “I had a vacuum gauge measuring the pressure of the underbody,” recalled Herd, “and I squeezed in alongside Bruce at Goodwood. And sure enough, as the speed built up so the gauge zoomed around into negative pressure. I was celebrating in the cockpit like I’d scored a goal!”

There is an excellent video interview linked at the end of the article.