FORMULA ONE:
THE STORY OF
GRAND PRIX RACING


Published by New Holland.

For the purposes of this review, let's say that there are two types of motorsport book: those which you seek out and purchase, and those which some well-meaning but misguided relative gives you for Christmas. 'Formula One: The Story of Grand Prix Racing' is one of the latter.

The format is familiar: large, hardback, coffee table-esque in its intentions but ever-so-slightly tacky in its execution, with loads and loads of stock photographs. Predictable, too, is the content, which begins with an overview of the history of Grand Prix racing. OK, now for a book which is aiming to be as general as possible in its coverage of the sport, this is a great place to start.

It's infuriating, though, that those responsible for writing the book seem to have little appreciation that there is far more to the history of motorsport than an extended roll call of injuries and deaths. I'm absolutely not suggesting that the more tragic episodes in the sport's past be overlooked; indeed, if they had been left out I'd have been just as annoyed. But in opting to emphasise motor racing's casualty list to such a ludicrous extent, the editors of 'Formula One: The Story of Grand Prix Racing' have disappointingly misrepresented the sport's history - particularly when it comes at the expense of political, social, and on-track material that is of far greater relevance to the development of Grand Prix racing as a whole.

This morbid angle carries over to the section dealing with the various tracks that have been visited by F1 cars through the years. Although the book does a good job of recognising the Doningtons and Pescaras along with the Spas and Monzas, there is far too much emphasis on each track's casualty rate at the expense of accounts of some sensational races or individual heroics.

On a happier note, several of the circuit descriptions are accompanied by maps that feature some funky red-blue shading to illustrate roughly how quick an F1 car may be going at any given spot on the track. Nice work. There are also spots with the speeds noted in both km/h and mph, although the conversion seems to go out the window on the odd occasion.

Some further redemption comes in the second chapter, which traces the technical regulations and their developments. It's by no means a detailed examination of F1's technical history, but then again it's not supposed to be. As an overview of the way the rules have changed and the consequent impact upon the design of the cars, though, it's a reasonable introduction to the topic that should well suit newer readers. There is the odd error, however, such as the caption stating that the wooden plank underneath the cars was "imposed by the FIA with the purpose of controlling the ever-escalating cornering speed of cars" (p. 30), when in fact the planks are there to assist the scrutineers in monitoring the cars' ride height.

The biographies of great drivers are necessarily brief, but again, it's an OK place to start if, when asked to name five Formula One drivers past or present, you say "Michael Schumacher, and, um ... help me out here." One might wonder whether Damon Hill really deserved more space than, say, Jackie Stewart or Stirling Moss, but maybe that's just a personal thing. Ditto the biographies of the teams, which cover most significant manufacturers through F1 history and all 2001 teams except, inexplicably, Sauber and Minardi.

Occasionally things get over-summarised, though. For example: "BAR caused a stir even before they took to the track with their two cars liveried in two different sponsor's colours. Although the FIA took exception to this, the team managed to escape without receiving a single race ban." (p. 72). There is no mention of the fact that the team was forced to adopt a split livery, and there is no mention of the fact that, (if memory serves), the threatened ban was connected to remarks made by Craig Pollock, rather than the livery itself.

For a book that was released last year, the photos are horribly, and inexcusably, out of date. Outside of the historical sections, there is nothing wrong with using the odd older shot for a bit of variety. But when you are writing about the Jaguar team - this is in 2001, remember - and both the accompanying photographs are from the Stewart era for heaven's sake, then you have a bit of a problem.

Same goes for the cover. The nature of F1 is that if you're merely up-to-date, then you're lagging behind. So why use a shot of Damon Hill in a Jordan - a car with which he is associated as much for the uninspired manner in which he ended his career as he is for the team's first win at Spa? It's the same story throughout, whether you're talking about all the BAR shots showing the cars in their 1999 livery, or the Benetton being depicted in Camel colours.

Some confusing design work compounds the problem. Why tack a picture of Nigel Mansell's car at the end of a page about Nelson Piquet, or a series of shots from Adelaide onto the spread about Albert Park - especially when Adelaide has a spread of its own on the previous page?

In about two and a half minutes, this book is going to be transplanted from my desk to my bookshelf, and there, I think, it will stay. There is just no real reason to recommend purchasing it. If you happen to end up with a copy close at hand, by all means have a flick though, because there are one or two decent photos to have a peek at. But should the situation never arise, you haven't missed much.