The commercial opportunities presented by 'Jenson-mania' must be blindingly obvious in all quarters, including publishing. But cashing in on it is another matter. Autobiographies are very much in vogue, but Button has already done one ­ 2002's exquisitely crap 'My Life on the Formula One Rollercoaster' ­ so it's too soon to go back and do that again.

Plan B, then, would be to do a 'Jenson book that's not a Jenson book', and I think that's more or less what arrived in the mail for review this week. Author Nick Garton's second book 'The Formula One Young Guns' sets out to chart the careers of a handful of what he considers to be the post-Schumacher generation. It's probably safe to assume, however, that publisher Haynes would not have signed off on the project had there not been some hot British property to push it along. It's not a Jenson book ­ but without Jenson, it probably wouldn't have happened.

Enough of all that; on to the book itself. The basic premise is not too bad: pick seven of the current rising stars of Formula One, and in 20 or so pages chart the paths that each took from their earliest racing years to reach whatever slot they currently occupy on the Formula One grid. Most of the selections are as you'd expect ­ Jenson, Kimi Raikkonen, Fernando Alonso, Mark Webber and Felipe Massa ­ although it was a bit of a surprise to see the current Williams pairing of Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya included. Garton himself anticipates this, and kicks their chapter off with an explanation:

"After seven seasons and three seasons respectively, neither of the 28-year-old Williams drivers Ralf Schumacher nor Juan Pablo Montoya really fit the bill as young guns among the Kimi Raikkonens of the world in 2004. Yet neither do they completely fall into the generation that was so completely bent to the will of Michael Schumacher." (p. 97).

I don't think this holds water. At 28 years of age, with seven seasons and six wins under his belt, there is really no argument for categorising Ralf Schumacher as a 'young gun.' Montoya, meanwhile, did make his F1 debut at Albert Park in 2001 ­ along with Kimi ­ but prior to that he had been a CART champion and Indy 500 winner, as well as having tested with Williams in the late-1990s. A career like that makes Juan better-credentialled than, say, Jarno Trulli ­ who debuted at the same race as Ralf Schumacher (Australia 1997), but is excluded from the book, presumably by his 'veteran' status.

The comment that the Williams pair do not "completely fall into the generation that was so completely bent to the will of Michael Schumacher", meanwhile, is easily shot to pieces with a cursory glance through the history books. While the current generation of 'young guns' has been in action, Michael has won five consecutive World Championships, and if that is not completely bending a generation to his will then I don't know what is. If anything, it was the previous generation ­ Hill, Villeneuve, Hakkinen ­ that gave him a hard time.

Garton would no doubt counter this by claiming that the man who finally brings Michael undone will come from this current crop, but considering that Michael is now in his mid-30s, that is a no-brainer. The book itself is a useful backgrounder on the relevant drivers for those who hadn't been paying attention as they were rising through the ranks, but if you are already reasonably au fait with the careers of these guys then this volume isn't going to teach you much.

For this reader, the sole revelation was learning that Ralf was actually paid - and paid well ­ to race in Formula Three. Knowing that, and knowing what a battle trying to fund a F3 campaign is for just about everyone else that tries to do it, puts some of Schumi's Jr's more recent financial demands into some kind of perspective. Or in other words, it explains his apparent tendency to overestimate his own worth when his contracts are being negotiated.

I was also a little mystified by the final chapter, where Garton looks ahead at who might be a factor in the future. Nice idea ­ but surely Takuma Sato, who is the first driver mentioned, has done enough to put him in a similar league to, say, Massa. And with all the signs pointing to Taku being the first really, really fast Japanese driver, coupled with his out-of-left-field introduction to racing (most started in karts, he started on bicycles), his story would have easily been worthy of further attention.

Some of the other drivers in Garton's spotlight, however, seem to be there on the strength of where they (literally) come from, rather than where they are going. It's all well and good to write about China's Ho-Ping Tung or American Patrick Long, both of whom come from countries that F1 has targeted as important markets ­ but do either of them look remotely close to actually racing in F1? Or 33-year-old NASCAR superstar Jeff Gordon? Or Valentino Rossi? The inclusion of these guys only makes the omission of the likes of Anthony Davidson and Ryan Briscoe all the more bewildering.

An appendix containing the career stats for each featured driver is included, but only goes as far as this year's Monaco Grand Prix. Given that the 2004 statistics end on what is essentially a completely arbitrary date, they are fundamentally useless. Nevertheless, you never know when you might need to look up what year Massa won the Brazilian Formula Chevrolet Championship, so on that basis it could come in handy.