Formula 1 best books

Hi there,
I’m looking for Formula 1 books on history of the sport or autobiography of drivers / engineers / teams etc to learn more about the history of the sport.
Which books you would recommend me ?

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Books and links recommended so far:

History:

• History of the Grand Prix Car (1945 - 1965, 1966 - 1991) - Doug Nye
• Power and Glory - William Court
• The complete history of Grand Prix motor racing -  Adriano Cimarosti
• Grand Prix! - Mike Lang
• Reflections of a lost Era - Anthony Carter
• The Complete Book of Formula One - Simon Arron and Mark Hughes
• A Story of Formula One, 1954-60 - Denis Jenkinson
• The Grand Prix Drivers: Racing Heroes from Fangio to Prost - Steve Small
• The batsford guide to Racing Cars - Denis Jenkinson
• Racing Silver Arrows: Mercedes-Benz Versus Auto Union 1934-1939 - Chris Nixon
• Back on Track: Racing in the 1940's - Allesandro Silva
• The Grand Prix Car, Vol 1&2 - Laurence Pomeroy 
• F1 racing The Modern Era (60-70's) - Jose Rosinski
• The Speed Merchants - Michael Keyser
• The Cruel Sport - Robert Daily
• Lost Generation - David Tremayne
• To Finish First - Phil Kerr
• Ghost - Peter Lewis
• Racing Mechanic - Alf Francis
• The Encyclopaedia of Motor Sport - Georgano​​
• "RACERS: Inside Story of Williams Grand Prix Engineering" - Doug Nye

(Auto)biography, Drivers or other:

• Gilles Villeneuve, the life of the legendary racing driver - Gerald Donaldson
• Niki Lauda and the Grand Prix Gladiators - Ronnie Mutch
• The death of Ayrton Senna - Richard Williams
• Watching the wheels, my autobiography - Damon Hill
• Winning is not enough, the autobiography - Jackie Stewart
• A different kind of life - Virginia Williams
• To hell and back - Nikki Lauda
• James Hunt - Gerald Donaldson
• The Mudge Pond Express, an autobiography - Sam Posey
• Piers Courage, Last of the Gentleman Racers - Adam Cooper
• "The Perfect Car", the biography of John Barnard  - Nick Skeens
• I Just Made the Tea - Di Spires
• All arms and elbows - Innes Ireland
• Life At The Limit - Sid Watkin

Photobooks:

• The new matadors - Ken Purdy & Horst H. Baumann
• Grand Prix Fascination - Rainer H. Schlegelmilch

Website:

• http://www.kolumbus....ellman/main.htm

Online store for books:

• www.motors-mania.com

Edited by SolalMS, 20 August 2019 - 17:45.

Do you have any favourite teams or drivers? I find that's a good way into a new subject.

Failing that, my personal favourites are Richard Williams book The Death of Ayrton Senna which is a perceptive, thoughtful and insightful account of a figure who probably ultimately cannot ever be fully explained. It is also strong on some of the underlying context of the sport and written in an engaging style. As a Senna fan, I also absolutely love the small book his girlfriend wrote of their time together because she gives the frank and unfiltered view of how F1 ad the people in it appear to her, and she is not shy of expressing her opinions, which are often quite funny.

Damon Hill and Jackie Stewart both did the ambitious and gutsy thing of writing their own autobiogrpahies rather than getting ghostwriters in. Both are well worth the occasional bits of muddled structure for the payoff of a much stronger sense of their own voices. Hill's in particular is fascinating as he tries ot make sense of his life, especially in relation to his larger than life father.

Virginia Williams' book A Different kind of Life covers her time with Frank Williams through the rise of the team, his terrible accident and how she, Sir Frank and the team dealt with this terrible blow. Well worth it, and the basis for the recent Williams documentary which is also a good way of learning more about Williams, and by extension F1 in general.

Niki Lauda's autobiographies are all excellent, especially To Hell and Back. Unflinching, unsentimental and and unsparing, Lauda was a one-off and his account of his terrible accident, his recovery and (in my personal view) his eyebrow raising accounts of dealing with the ever eccentric Ron Dennis is astounding stuff.

Speaking of Niki, Gerald Donaldson is always worth reading and his account of James Hunt doesn't shy away from his flaws but does sort of have you liking him anyway, which again somehow seemed the very essence of Hunt!

The Cimarosti book recommended by Michael is without doubt the best single-volume history of the sport in English; accessible, readable and - most importantly - affordable. There were two editions, the first published in 1990 by Motor Racing Publications with Camel sponsorship and the second (the one to get!) by Aurum Press in 1997 - ISBN 9781854105004. Second-hand copies can be found at very reasonable prices. It was edited by the late David McKinney, who was a very valued member of this forum.

The two volumes of Court's magnum opus are also excellent, but you would need very deep pockets. The second volume, which covers the years 1951-73, is very hard to find these days - and very expensive. The first volume is easier to find, as it was reprinted when the second one appeared in the early 1980s.

The Mike Lang books are good too - they were compiled using his personal collection of GP reports from British magazines and are essentially race reports covering every World Championship race from 1950 to 1984 (with the exception of the Indy 500s which were part of the championship in the 1950s). The reports in the first two volumes are quite short, reflecting how little was written at the time, but the third and fourth volumes have much deeper coverage. Volume 3 is the rarest one. One warning (especially in the earlier volumes); the British magazines were often poor at converting numbers from metric measurements, so statistics like lap and race distances and race speeds should be cross-checked with a reliable modern database like FORIX or StatsF1.

Thanks for all the references, however some seem hard to find on Amazon.

I'm not interested in the period 1990-2000 as it is when I started to watch F1 regularly.

I'm far more interested in the previous periods of F1. From the early stages with Fangio, Moss, Clark until the 80's.

I recently read the autobiography of Enzo Ferrari "Le sue gioie terribili" and it was marvelous !

Edited by SolalMS, 14 August 2019 - 08:13.

Amazon isn't the only place to look. I'd recommend using the excellent customisable search engine called viaLibri - you can select as many or few filters as you wish, so that in addition to searching any or all Amazon sites, it also includes booksellers from all over the world, some of whose websites aren't on other searches like ABE, Zvab, Alibris or BookFinder, and even 'buy it now' items on eBay. You may find the same book turns up from the same dealer at different prices, due to the way it has been listed and the different fees involved!

Spotting this thread the Cimarosti book was the first one to spring to mind, quickly followed by the Mike Lang volumes for race reports. Nice insights into two periods of your interest come from Niki Lauda's books "Niki Lauda Formula 1" and "Niki Lauda Second Time Around", the first one basically about the 70's and the latter focusing on things like the turbo revolution and carbon fibre chassis, so not just personal reminiscences. Admittedly the second volume of DCN's "History of the Grand Prix Car" covers that aspect far more thoroughly, though. For a visual record I really appreciate "The Complete Book of Formula One" from Simon Arron and Mark Hughes.

Denis Jenkinson's "A Story of Formula One, 1954-60" describes the 2.5 litre era, expanding on DSJ's magazine reporting. It provides context for the change from front to rear engined GP cars and the emergence of garagist constructors. Second hand copies are cheap. Is there anything similar covering the 1.5 litre or 3 litre eras?

I buy most books (new/old) via www.motors-mania.com / Pau, France.

An excellent shop, Pierre is most helpful and a lot of books I do not find in other shop in GB, D & I.

A

 

The Mike Lang books are good too - they were compiled using his personal collection of GP reports from British magazines and are essentially race reports covering every World Championship race from 1950 to 1984 (with the exception of the Indy 500s which were part of the championship in the 1950s).

Lang DID include the Indy 500 reports.  I cannot remember now if he included their drivers in his statistical wrap-ups (I'm away at the moment) but he definitely included the races. They were literally my first acquaintance with most of the 1950s Champcar outfits.
 

As for recommendations, I echo the above:

-Cimarosti for the best one-volume introduction and overview of the entire history;

-Court for the writing;

-Donaldson on Villeneuve for the best biog;

-Nye on the cars - if pocket doesn't stretch, then DSJ did a couple of pocketbooks for Batsford that are quite charming;

-Lang for the reports.

For the nuts and bolts, then the Formula 1 Register Black Books, but those are far more hardcore.

These obviously fall short of current stuff but there is plenty on the net for these.

One autobiog to throw in: All Arms & Elbows by Innes Ireland.

And one photobook: Grand Prix Fascination by Schlegelmilch.  Guy is an artist and historian combined.  Huuuuge work on quality paper with comprehensive coverage. 

And finally Steve Small's work on Grand Prix drivers has gone into several editions so is available cheaply.  Lots of potted histories of even the obscurest drivers.

Steve Small's book, despite being basically encyclopaedic, is in fact a very good read. It's probably meant to be used as a reference, but could easily also be read from cover to cover.

Leif Snellman's web site is an essential source for 1930s GP racing and earlier. 

http://www.kolumbus....ellman/main.htm

"The Racing Car" from Batsford books is a handy reference. You can often pick up bundles of Batsford motor sport books on eBay -- my excuse for owning multiple copies of many.

Leif Snellman's web site is an essential source for 1930s GP racing and earlier. 

http://www.kolumbus....ellman/main.htm

 

"The Racing Car" from Batsford books is a handy reference. You can often pick up bundles of Batsford motor sport books on eBay -- my excuse for owning multiple copies of many.

What an amazing website !

Thanks for all the references, however some seem hard to find on Amazon.
I'm not interested in the period 1990-2000 as it is when I started to watch F1 regularly.
I'm far more interested in the previous periods of F1. From the early stages with Fangio, Moss, Clark until the 80's.
I recently read the autobiography of Enzo Ferrari "Le sue gioie terribili" and it was marvelous !

Chris Nixon - Racing Silver Arrows: Mercedes-Benz Versus Auto Union 1934-1939

Dr Sid Watkin's book, "Life At The Limit", has a great number of behind the scenes stories.

I thought Inside the Mind of the Grand Prix Driver by Christopher Hilton was a fascinating read. It's probably fair to say that it's more a collection of interviews than a book as such and it's probably also not very entertaining in the original sense of the word, but I felt it got me closer to understanding how the minds of these people work and I felt I had learnt a lot from this book. Quite similar to Sir Alex Ferguson's great book about leadership in many ways. 

Thanks all for your contribution. I sum up in the first page all your references. 

"The Encyclopaedia of Motor Sport" by Georgano kick-started it all for me and provides a broad base of information.   F1 / Grand Prix racing forms a major part of the book with a wealth of historical data on drivers/cars and circuits. So it will fill the gaps in your knowledge from the birth of the sport until about 1970...

Incredibly there is a copy on eBay UK at the moment, in good order and complete with dust jacket - £10 and its yours....be quick.

I buy most books (new/old) via www.motors-mania.com / Pau, France.

An excellent shop, Pierre is most helpful and a lot of books I do not find in other shop in GB, D & I.

A

Sadly Pierre Darmendrail passed away this spring. He was a very nice and helpful man from my experience, He will be missed.

"The Encyclopaedia of Motor Sport" by Georgano kick-started it all for me and provides a broad base of information.   F1 / Grand Prix racing forms a major part of the book with a wealth of historical data on drivers/cars and circuits. So it will fill the gaps in your knowledge from the birth of the sport until about 1970...

 

Incredibly there is a copy on eBay UK at the moment, in good order and complete with dust jacket - £10 and its yours....be quick.

For that price, without slightest reservations: go grab it! It will form the basis of any motor sport library, even today.

"The Encyclopaedia of Motor Sport" by Georgano kick-started it all for me and provides a broad base of information.   F1 / Grand Prix racing forms a major part of the book with a wealth of historical data on drivers/cars and circuits. So it will fill the gaps in your knowledge from the birth of the sport until about 1970...

 

Incredibly there is a copy on eBay UK at the moment, in good order and complete with dust jacket - £10 and its yours....be quick.

Sorry it has gone to a good home !   I slept on it and then realised that this eBay version looks in far better condition than my much-thumbed and dustjacket-less copy. So I've pushed the button.

The good news is that there are a couple of others on eBay UK at £13.50 (auction) or £20 (Buy it Now).

As a means of furthering your general motor sport education you won't beat it...

Providing this book arrives and is in good order my old faithful copy will appear on eBay in the next couple of weeks with a £5 start, nothing like recycling. Books are hard to sell at the moment - I put 6 immaculate coffee-table books on Le Mans/Goodwood into a recent Historics Auction and they failed to sell with a £30 start !

Edited by moffspeed, 15 August 2019 - 09:10.

One of my favourites is To Finish First, written by long term McLaren man Phil Kerr. Inevitably, much of it covers their activities in CanAm and Indy, but there's a lot of fascinating behind the scenes stuff about McLaren F1 as well. It's unusually well and entertainingly written for a non-professional writer as well.

Chris Nixon's Racing The Silver Arrows already mentioned is very good, though that's probably not what the OP is after. Another Chris Nixon book that I particularly like is Rivals, a large and very detailed, profusely illustrated work comparing the Lancia D50 and Mercedes W196 in 1954 and 55. Lots about drivers and the other personalities, though this one might take a bit of tracking down, I don't think it was a big seller, I treasure my copy.

Another from olden times is Racing Mechanic, the story of famed mechanic Alphons Kowaleski, better known as "Alf Francis", who was the man who engineered and tended Sir Stirling's cars at the beginning of his F1 career. Ghost written by Peter Lewis over three hundred and something pages of closely spaced small type, in my opinion it's one of the best books about F1's earlier days in the 1950s.

Also worth tracking down is Niki Lauda's To Hell & Back, which not surprisingly, has already been mentioned.

Edit: For any not familiar with Phil Kerr's excellent To Finish First, maybe I should add that much of what it covers is the McLaren Bruce & Denny period. I've found that over the years, as my interest in what passes for today's "Effwun" continues to lessen and fade away, most of my motor racing related reading concerns ever older stuff. and from the suggestions made so far, I guess that's true for many contributors to this thread. Not really F1, but I'm particularly fascinated by the 1930s Mercedes/Auto Union period, and have just read another Chris Nixon work Rosemeyer for the second or third time.

Edited by kayemod, 16 August 2019 - 17:20.

 

Another Chris Nixon book that I particularly like is Rivals, a large and very detailed, profusely illustrated work comparing the Lancia D50 and Mercedes W196 in 1954 and 55. 

 

Thank you just ordered a copy off ebay.

To add to this topic my personal favorite:  The Grand Prix Car, Vol 1&2 by Pomeroy

I feel sorry for SolaIMS, he/she is going to need to build an extension on the house to accommodate all these books. I could recommend so many more but some of the very best are covered here. It is a great reminder that there are so many wonderful motor sport-orientated books out there - and secondhand (with the exception of Time & two Seats and some of the other top-end stuff) they are currently going for a song online.

The problem is that new quality titles keep on coming along and they tend not to be cheap. So do I buy Gordon Murray's recent work, Gulf 917 by Gillotti & Watson or Simon Taylor's recent HWM tome ?.  Either way, selling my spare copy of Georgano is not going to cover the cost..

Oh, and the sumptuous Ford that beat Ferrari by Allen & Jones will help broaden your horizons beyond F1...

..and the Lost Generation by David Tremayne will tug at your heart strings.

Edited by moffspeed, 15 August 2019 - 20:34.

 

 

..and the Lost Generation by David Tremayne will tug at your heart strings.

I second that opinion. A great but ultimately very sad, heat-rending book by a very accomplished author.

Thank you just ordered a copy off ebay.

To add to this topic my personal favorite: The Grand Prix Car, Vol 1&2 by Pomeroy

Sorry to go off topic, but after re-reading the Alf Francis book 'Racing Mechanic' I moved further along the shelf and had another read of Lurani's 'Racing Around The World' and Piero Taruffi's 'Works Driver' both untouched for fifty years or so and cracking good reads. My old dad chose my boyhood presents well.

Back on Track by Alessandro Silva - see thred 

https://forums.autos...essandro-silva/

Brilliant book worth every penny.

RAP

When I was a kid in the 80’s, I was a huge fan (and have to admit its still the case today) of Il Leone Nigel Mansell. Any good book about him ?

So far, Nigel has published three autobiographies - Driven to Win (1988), My Autobiography (1995) and Staying on Track (2015). I'm not sure any of them could be described as 'good' though. The 1995 one is one of the most often nominated in our 'Worst Books on F1' thread.

But they do have the advantage of being cheap. With a little research you could get all three for about £5 + postage!

Didn't somebody do a 3 or 4 volume history of BRM that deserves mention?

FP updated, I think we have lot of references to make an outstanding bookcase  I will start withe Georgano, the Cimarosti and for my vacation in September I will take with me the Nikki Lauda.

Didn't somebody do a 3 or 4 volume history of BRM that deserves mention?

Four?

Waiting.......

I would also suggest getting 'Jenks' if at all possible, a fantastic read.  As is 'I Just Made the Tea: Tales from 30 Years Inside Formula 1' by Di Spires.  I like the book on Ken Tyrrell by Maurice Hamilton and the recent book on Stirling Moss with Philip Porter is a large and interesting read!

As we're getting into more specialized subjects, may I recommend DCN's work on the early stages and rise of Williams, published very early in the 80's, after Alan Jones's title but before Rosberg's. Can't get my hands on my own copy to recall the full title, as I'm at the summer cottage right now, but you should find the right item by googling "Nye" and "Williams". It's a wonderful story of how the sport developed through the 70's into the proper Bernie era, traced through the exploits of the maverick that was Frank Williams.

PS "RACERS: Inside Story of Williams Grand Prix Engineering" - and available from Amazon for a fiver!

Edited by proviz, 20 August 2019 - 16:47.

As we're getting into more specialized subjects, may I recommend DCN's work on the early stages and rise of Williams, published very early in the 80's, after Alan Jones's title but before Rosberg's. Can't get my hands on my own copy to recall the full title, as I'm at the summer cottage right now, but you should find the right item by googling "Nye" and "Williams". It's a wonderful story of how the sport developed through the 70's into the proper Bernie era, traced through the exploits of the maverick that was Frank Williams.

 

PS "RACERS: Inside Story of Williams Grand Prix Engineering" - and available from Amazon for a fiver!

Thanks for the addition, will include it in the first page and for this price will take one for my library.

This week-end, I was walking in a bookshop and found the Newey autobiography. Even if it was not the period I was looking for, I still bought it and read it in 2 days...

It's not the book of the year, but for the engineering perspective it's very interesting. Some inside stories as well but mistakes too (he kept saying 2 or 3 times in the book that Graham Hill died in a race accident...)

As we're getting into more specialized subjects, may I recommend DCN's work on the early stages and rise of Williams, published very early in the 80's, after Alan Jones's title but before Rosberg's. Can't get my hands on my own copy to recall the full title, as I'm at the summer cottage right now, but you should find the right item by googling "Nye" and "Williams". It's a wonderful story of how the sport developed through the 70's into the proper Bernie era, traced through the exploits of the maverick that was Frank Williams.

 

PS "RACERS: Inside Story of Williams Grand Prix Engineering" - and available from Amazon for a fiver!

I agree with that, but also good is Williams by Maurice Hamilton, rather better in my opinion than the same writer's work on Ken Tyrrell for all kind of reasons. Williams takes the story right up to the Webber/Rosberg (Nico) days, and it is a fascinating read. There are detailed and frank interviews with Sir Frank, Patrick Head, Frank Dernie and many others, as well as lengthy contributions from all the drivers. Some of the most interesting content (for me at least) deals with demolishing a few Mansell myths. Nelson Piquet comes out of this well on the whole, and I echo several others who recommended I Only Made the Tea by Di Spears, a lovely book. I knew or worked with some of the people Di encountered, I wrote to tell her that I agreed completely with all her assessments, and she wrote a lovely note in reply. This will irritate a few TNFs, but Di told us that Nelson Piquet was her favourite of all the drivers, and Sir Frank speaks equally well of him.

And your considered opinion of the former is....  ?  ?  ?  ?   

DCN