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F1 at its finest!
This book is one of the best books that I've ever read. It does not concentrate on the stats or indeed particularly on the winners of the World Championship. It takes a personal look at the people, races and years that have shaped F1 from it's very begining. It is a great read for any F1 fan as Roebuck succeeds in not only jogging our memory of the past but also telling untold behind the scenes stories in detail not to mention a tinge of humour. I trully love this book, in fact I think I've read it cover to cover at least 3 times if not more.
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A collection of brilliant portraits
Nigel Roebuck, one of the finest journalists to cover motorsport in general and Formula One in particular, presents in this book a wonderful series of sharp vignettes covering the entire period of the modern World Championship. Roebuck begins at Imola in 1994, when, as he puts it aptly, "everything changed" with the tragic death of Ayrton Senna and the introduction of knee-jerk "safety" improvements which have led only to boring racing and have not, as we learned earlier this season, prevented what are, given the nature of the sport, inevitable tragedies. Hard as it is to believe, the "turbo years" of the late 70s and 80s are beginning to look suspiciously like a final golden age, which they certainly weren't at the time, but, given the emasculation of tracks, over-dominance by a few teams, and drivers who do not understand the history of the sport and drive like they're the only man on the track, they're beginning to look pretty good in retrospect. But I digress. Between the covers of this book you'll find incisive portraits of several great drivers (among them Phil Hill, Piers Courage, James Hunt, Ayrton Senna, and Jochen Rindt), car owners (the great Rob Walker, who long after his car-owning days were over wrote wonderful F1 journalism for Road & Track when R&T was still a great magazine), and others associated with the F1 scene (journalist Denis Jenkinson, F1's official doctor Professor Sid Watkins, and current F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone). He also writes of several races - the great slipstreaming duel at Monza in 1971, the first win for Renault in 1979, Dallas 1984 which ended with Nigel Mansell trying to push his car over the finish line in the blazing heat. As an added incentive, there are sections of black and white and color photographs. More and more nonfiction books seem to be doing away with illustrations, and with F1 being the visual spectacle that it is, we can be glad that Roebuck and his publisher resisted this new and unfortunate trend. Turn to the section of color plates and feast your eyes on the first photograph - Fangio in the Maserati 250F at Monaco in 1957. The greatest driver, the greatest car, the greatest race; one picture says it all. Highly recommended to anyone interested in Formula One.
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Fascinating stuff!
When I first saw this book's title, I nearly gave it a pass, thinking it was just one more in an already well-covered niche. But Nigel Roebuck's name was enough for me to chance it. (If you've read his columns you know he's always interesting.) This book is really unique. Despite the title, it's not an attempt to condense a history of 50 years of racing. It's more like a collection of essays about people and events that are not well covered elsewhere. I've read a LOT of books about F1 (cars, teams, drivers, ...) but each chapter of this book had new and intriguing things to say. It was a really enjoyable read, as well.
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