Books to Read
I didn't want to do this. I didn't want to turn this site to a "product review" site, but one book pushed me to make recommendations to my visitors.
And when you think about it, what can go wrong if I recommend some good books for Formula 1 fans and professionals.
Few days ago I got my hands on the David Hayhoe book "Formula 1 The Knowledge". And what a mine of information, what an amazing work! I thought I had a “‘reasonable understanding” of the history of Formula 1 since 1950, but it has managed to surprise me with quite a few facts I was not aware of. The author is well known to have a passion for both history and the current day (not easy) and it shows. David Hayhoe has been the statistician for "Autocourse", “The World’s Leading Grand Prix Annual” since 1991, has been author of four editions of the "Grand Prix Data Book", and contributed to many other Formula 1 books and magazines, and displays sheer mastery of the subject in this substantial work.
As you might guess, this is not a book you’re likely to read cover to cover in one sitting. But nor is it a dull listing of the race results. 434 pages hardcover book contain 1,035 sections, 32 pages of F1 photos since 1950 and 4 appendices on drivers, the cars, the engines, circuits and every other thinkable aspect of Formula 1, a summary of regulation changes since 1950 and a detailed history of the many qualifying formats which I believe has
not been done before. It covers the basic information like "Most wins in the season" but also a lot of unusual information. For example: "Countries staging other country's race", "All race starting drivers", drivers who "Drove for two constructors in a (one) race" (unbelievable but true). The only statistic that isn't in here is how many F1 stats are in the book.
Foreword by Ben Edwards, British motor racing commentator for television coverage of Formula One, Superleague Formula and the British Touring Car Championship.
You might find a book filled with pages of F1 data a bit dry in places. On the other hand, you’re reading a website called "Formula 1 Dictionary", so probably you will be good.
If you are an F1 fan, you will not be able to put this book down. And you can use it for years to come. It's reasonably priced, especially for a motorsport book of this quality, and will solve any quiz about formula 1! David Hayhoe never disappoints!
Available from www.f1knowledge.com
Mail from David Hayhoe:
"Hi SEAS, Many thanks for reviewing and publicising the book. The website is ending tomorrow (27.02.2017). So it is now for people to send me an e-mail to djhayhoe@gmail.com. I can then send an order form to them. I only have a few left, and am pleased with the global interest.
Kind regards David"
From the writer of Life in the Fast Lane, former Formula One chief mechanic – Steve Matchett’s second book of his autobiographical trilogy – The Mechanic’s Tale is a quite extraordinary work, in essence the memoires of a Grand Prix mechanic throughout his career with the Benetton Formula One team.
Covers his entire career with a strong emphasis on the 1994 season until his retirement in 1998, from his beginnings as a young apprentice, through his time at Ferrari and BMW to his later success with Benetton.
Matchett has seen it all, and took the time to write three books sharing some of his wisdom with us. The Mechanic's Tale is the second work in the F1 trilogy.
Machett’s prose on the pressures and efforts of assembling a winning Formula One car makes a compelling read. Matchett was chief mechanic with the Benetton Formula One team and witnessed the arrivals of impeccable talents such as Nigel Mansell, Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost and Michael Schumacher. He gives an eye-witness views of all that great drivers.
He also explains how the team was transformed into a strong, competitive organisation, winning three World Championships.
This book is also very informative and is not your average racing book. I have also read his first book, which is also a classic, but I feel that this is the better of the two. I found myself not being able to put it down and anyone who loves racing will be in the same situation.
But if you are looking for a blow-by-blow account of a F1 season, you would be better served by Matchett's "Life in the Fast Lane", an inside account of Benneton's crazy 1994 season. If you want to learn more about F1 technology, then try "The Chariot Makers." However, if you want a very human and personal account of one man's journey from being a road car mechanic to mechanic for a Formula 1 world champion in a half decade, this is the book for you.
I was a huge fan of the BBC show Top Gear. Maybe it’s for middle aged guys who fantasize about driving like Mario Andretti, but it is one of the few shows that makes me laugh.
I will not explain who Stig is, if you dont know then ....
Anyway, The Man in the White Suit is the Stig, the famous, anonymous, tame race car driver. When the Black Stig disappeared off the end of an aircraft carrier in 2003 season, we were introduced to The White Stig. Faster. Stranger. Harder to keep clean. And ever since, millions have wondered – who is The Man in the White Suit? His identity has always been a mystery, and now Ben Collins has written an autobiography claiming to be the Stig. The BBC was not happy. Collins was outed after years of anonymity behind the white helmet, and then he wrote "The Man in the White Suit: The Stig, Le Mans, The Fast Lane and Me" about his experiences, a quick memoir that includes everything from his stint as an army reservist to his trials on the world's various race circuits. BBC tried to suppress it and not let the “secret” out. There's even a good bit on the man's time on Top Gear as the silent wheelman we all know and love. The Stig reveals how he came to be Top Gear's iconic racing driver and so much more - including what it's like to thrash an Aston Martin DBS.
As a fan of Top Gear and racing in general, I find the memoir very entertaining, it's an awesome story, told by an amazing man. Don't expect groundbreaking information...but as a TG fan, it was extremely enjoyable.
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
I thoroughly enjoyed this read. To say that Ross Brawn is a genius would be an understatement. Across four decades, Ross Brawn was one of the most innovative and successful technical directors and then team principals in Formula One.
This is the story how to achieve success in Formula One (and not only in Formula One) from Ross Brawn, whose cars and drivers have won 20 F1 world championships. Leading Benetton, Ferrari, Honda, Brawn and Mercedes, he worked with drivers such as Michael Schumacher, Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton to make them world champions.
But this book is about more than just Ross Brawn and his success in Formula One. Co-authored by former Williams chief Adam Parr, Total Competition is billed as providing a unique insight into what it takes to reach the highest summit in motorsport. This is very engaging, interesting and accessible insights into the many dimension of strategy over two decades of incredible success in formula 1.
In the book, Brawn and Parr explore the unique pressures of Formula One, their battles with Bernie Ecclestone and FIA, and the cut-throat world they inhabited, where coming second is never good enough.
Adam Parr sought out Ross Brawn to help author this book so that he could dissect and document the principles that made Ross Brawn so successful. That being said, this book is about success, leadership, and the application of strategy to achieve total competition (hence the name). Adam Parr nails it; he leaves no stone unturned. I highly recommend this book for not just the Formula One fan, but for anyone looking for a remarkable success story they can apply to their lives. Some may feel that Adam Parr was never seemed to be a major player in the sport and it appears at times he may be trying to convince us that he was. I am grateful he brought this idea to Ross Brawn and did so much work to bring us a book that has the words from Ross' mouth, and it seems Ross has much respect for Adam, so that is something to say there.
It was a fun read, wish it was more of an autobiography of Ross Brawn, hope one day he writes one.
Great - I've been waiting for these brilliant stories to be published! Thank you so much Joe for all the insights and hours of repeated great reading! So I dropped the few coins to check these out and, so far, they are absolutely worth it.
Veteran Formula 1 journalist Joe Saward has used his blogs to write about some of the more curious or interesting trivia in F1 and his "Fascinating Facts of F1" series have now been published in two separate volumes.
Books look great and at extremely competitive price considering the extensive research that has gone into it. The book is packed with a variety of stories, anecdotes and insights that reveal some of the unusual stories about the drivers, teams and team owners, cars, tracks and races and extraordinary characters that feature in Formula 1. There are 200 stories about F1 which will give readers some insights into the rich and strange history of the sport. The stories are short, so ideal to dip into.
Books are published by Morienval Press and available from www.flatoutpublishing.com. The two volumes are sold together for £35.99, including postage & packing.
When I saw that second edition of "Formula 1 The Knowledge" is out, my first thought was "What in the word he can say more then in the first book, what in the word he has to add to that?"
But here he is with new book filled with new facts, stats, trivia... covering period from 1950 to 2018! He managed to surprise me again. How on earth is that possible. Looks like with David Hayhoe anything is possible.
Now, the book is covering not just the drivers and the cars but also the circuits, engines and tyres. Second edition is fully updated, with up-to-date stats and stories from the history of F1.
There are fresh statistics of every driver, every car constructor, every engine and tyres maker to have taken part in Formula 1 competition. He went through variety of qualifying procedures and regulation changes throughout the years, along with amusing anecdotes, plus previously unpublished material, and previously unpublished photo section to illustrate the history of the sport. Book contains all the facts and figures you could ever want to know and some more.
Exhaustive quantity of data puts this book beyond what any web site can give you. It's almost impossible that you could pick this book up with a Formula One statistics question in your mind, and not find the answer within its covers.
Truly amazing reference work! David did inconceivable amount of work to produce the ultimate argument solver.
On publisher page (Veloce Publishing Ltd) you can download a sample of few pages, that will give you an idea about 542 pages of this amazing book with over 200 new sections, what bring the total up to more than 1,200 sections.
Some amazing facts from 2, edition:
- where was the chequered flag ended the grand prix early by mistake (remember last year Canada, it is not the only one)
- when there were the most past winners starting a grand prix
- which world champions never led at the end of the opening lap during a world title year
- who crashed after winning
- who refused to start a restarted race
- which drivers have won a constructors' first and last race
- which drivers won two constructors' first races
- which drivers won two constructors' final races
- how Gilles Villeneuve was robbed of the title And much much more
Same as first edition this is not a book you're likely to read cover to cover in one sitting. I know that I went through the book and now I know where I can find data I need. Anyhow, I also know that no way I can remember everything in that book. But now I know where I can find answer to any possible statistical question about our amazing sport. And all of that for price of £ 55.00. Fair price for amount of work and time David put to it.
Book is available from Veloce web shop.
Product details
Publisher: Veloce Publishing; 2 edition (June 18, 2019)
ISBN: 978-1-787112-37-7
Because we now concentrate only on the "modern era" World championship we tend to overlook the importance of the history. For example, from 1950 to 1960, Formula One counted the Indy 500 as a round of the championship. Statistics exclude the Indy racers from the F1 record books, but it was a part of the Championship back then and the non-Championship events weren't. Races for Formula One cars which aren't part of the world championship are one we've forget.
Among the non-championship races were great annual events like the Race of Champions at Brands Hatch, the International Trophy at Silverstone, the Glover Trophy at Goodwood, the Gold Cup at Oulton Park and the Grands Prix of Pau, Siracusa and Solitude, French F2 Championship of 1952 (when F2 was the leading formula) and the Tasman races (from the 1965 to 1964.) in New Zealand and Australia. There were also one-off events, such as "proving races" for circuits planning to host World championship events in future years. These included the 1962 Mexican GP and the 1967 Spanish GP. Participants of this races where not some second grade teams or drivers. All big teams and drivers were there, even if they weren't points-scoring events. There were even occasions when a non-Championship race attracted a bigger field than a country's Grand Prix.
Also, for example, in 1962 there were 28 F1 races, of which only 10 had World championship status! D ays of non-championship races are over and results of this great events are going to be lost in history. Until now!
This book is based on the author's opinion that existing attempts to rank F1 drivers are faulty because they are based solely on the drivers' results in World Championship Grand Prix races and ignores other Formula 1 races. Brian Harvey makes the case for why F1 history enthusiasts should pay more attention to them – particularly when discussing the eternal question "who was the best F1 driver of all time?".
What marks out "Formula One - The Real Score?" is Brian Harvey's brief accounts of hundreds of these races and statistical analyses which are exhaustive and cover such aspects as a driver retiring while in the lead. Harvey has even gone to the trouble of grading each race to assess which were up to the same standard as rounds of the world championship.
This, though, breaks new ground by merging those facts and figures with the results of the championship races. By adding in these 'missing' races and – rather subjectively – potential wins drivers lost due to misfortune, he managed to rewrite the records of Formula One and its best drivers. He simply included every race of equivalent standard to the official World Championship rounds. While this ranking has to be subjective, I found little with which to not agree.
The F1 races are covered chronologically and are ranked from zero to three stars depending on the level of competition, which enters into the author's driver ratings.
This is a 352-page book published by Veloce and it is one of the books (David Hayhoe's "Formula 1: The Knowledge" is the second one) that should be on every enthusiast's bookshelf. It is the best source I know which records so many non-Championship races. In this way Harvey produces his list of the top 50 drivers of all time.
But a word of warning for young fans of F1. This book provides detail up to 1983. If you hope to read about records of Schumacher, Alonso or Hamilton you are better off with Roger Smith's "Formula 1 All the Races: The World Championship Story Race-by-Race 1950-2015" (Publisher: J. H. Haynes & Co Ltd), which includes all World Championship races between 1950 and 2015.
I know, you can say: "You can only really compare two drivers when they race in identical cars for the same team, and that different eras really aren't comparable". I also know that there is only one way to know the real score and that is this comprehensive book written by a knowledgeable racing enthusiast for true racing enthusiasts! Armed with this book, pub debates will never be dull.
The sample of the book you can download from here.
I do wish there was a way to rank drivers across all motorsport series in one ranking system – Formula 1, IndyCar, Dakar, NASCAR, Le Mans 24 Hours/WEC, Pikes Peak/Hillclimb, WRC, etc.
Book is available from Veloce web shop.
Product details
Publisher: Veloce Publishing Ltd. (23 Oct. 2017)
ISBN: 978-1-787110-27-4
Gerald Donaldson has a reputation for penning Formula One books that are exaustively researched, beautifully written, and a pleasure to read. His biographies of the late Gilles Villeneuve and James Hunt fleshed out a very thorough, and human story of these extraordinary men. His 1990 release, "Grand Prix People" gave an incomparable snapshot of the F1 "circus", with remarkably candid interviews with all the principals of the sport at that time, from the drivers and engineers to the caterers and members of the governing body. In this latest book, Mr. Donaldson has co-ordinated and edited a massive tome, with various chapters being penned by some of Formula One's best journalists. It attempts what many have tried, but few have succeeded - a complete and compelling history of grand prix racing, from the late 1800s to the present day. Produced by the same publishing team that produced last year's "Beatles Anthology", this heavy coffee table book is packed with stellar photos, and tells the story of F1 through the words/quotes of the principal players of every era. It is an awesome achievement, and a treasure to all true lovers of the sport. Highly recommended.
Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson (May 1, 2003)
Book is available from: AbeBooks.com
ISBN 10: 0297843087 ISBN 13: 9780297843085
