34 replies to this topic

[Louis Mr. F1]

If you are going to start a new F1 book, what topic/subject is it going to be?
For me, i'd love to write a book on some of those small, now disappeared F1 teams eg. Lambo, Rial, Coloni, Lola, Simtek, it'll have detailed description of their startup, struggles, behind the scene fight for sponsorship, driver changes and disappearance. I think it's an area that has been omitted by the majority of the F1 community/magazines and imo, should provide a lot of insight to an unknown area of F1.

Whether a publisher is willing to do such a book, I'm not sure though, as I think most of them only interested in "encyclopedia of F1" type books.
Would you be interested in this book?

what kind of books would you write?

[Williams]

Good topic. I'd like to write the story of an F1 car, from the time the designer sits down in front of "blank sheet of paper" ( or computer screen) until the first time the car is rolled onto the grid for the first race of the season. The book would include the general thinking that goes into developing the car, what changes were made as a result of simualtions and wind-tunnel work, the procedures and headaches of construction and crash-testing, and the efforts of the test teams to make it fast in the the months leading up to the first race, including conversations among engineers and test drivers. A real inside look at the workings of an F1 constructor.

[LeTurc]

96-97-98 season of MS-Ferrari combo. Greatest Challenge of Formula 1. From the bottom to TOP. Demolish Williams and McLaren domination. Wow. 30000 kms of testing in 96.

[Richard Jenkins]

Make my TNF thread into a book with pictures as well of how they look now.
A couple of biographies too - of somewhat more "offbeat" drivers that haven't had print but deserve it, Moreno, Bellof, Salvadori for example.
That's just for starters.....

[POLAR]

It would be a series of 10 biographies (exposing the good and the ugly aspects of the caracter), with a dvd included, showing the best scenes of the particular person in f1.
#1- Gilles
#2-Clark
#3-Senna
# 4-Hunt
# 5-Vittorio Brambilla
#6- Collin Chapmann
#7 - Bernie
# 8 -Enzo Ferrari
#9 - Fangio
#10- MIchael

The title? GodSpeed.

Polar

[Breadmaster]

LeTurc - you could read that book to amnesiacs...perfect cure!

[Ghostrider]

Originally posted by Williams
Good topic. I'd like to write the story of an F1 car, from the time the designer sits down in front of "blank sheet of paper" ( or computer screen) until the first time the car is rolled onto the grid for the first race of the season. The book would include the general thinking that goes into developing the car, what changes were made as a result of simualtions and wind-tunnel work, the procedures and headaches of construction and crash-testing, and the efforts of the test teams to make it fast in the the months leading up to the first race, including conversations among engineers and test drivers. A real inside look at the workings of an F1 constructor.

Please write it!! I have always actually wondered how that whole process works. I'll buy it.

[Jhope]

Originally posted by Williams
from the time the designer sits down in front of "blank sheet of paper" ( or computer screen)

"...from the time the designer looks at pictures of last years top car..."

[Bruce]

I've always thought it would be neat to write a fictional piece on F1 - there have been writers who have done this (Bob Judd has written several and Alistair MacLean wrote one called "the way to dusty death") but all of these try to weave a detective/conspiracy story into an F1 format which I find unlikely and frankly a little silly...

I'd love to write a novel charting a young gun's fight from karting to the very top of F1 - surely this is interesting enough stuff without throwing in the detective stuff..?

I've actually sat down and started and gotten about 10 pages written before giving up in disgust. My main characters names are Kingston and Regucera - Regucera is to get in an accident in the end with Kingston which proves fatal to K - thus the name - Regucera - regecide? KINGston? Get it? Unfortunately, that was the most clever part of what I had conceived and my writing skills are, well, slightly worse than pathetic...

[No27]

The things we don't see. Like the major sponsordeals that didn't have a go after all, the role of the driver's management like the Willi Webers, the negotiations whether a country gets a GP or not. That kind of stuff.

[JForce]

A book about Bernie and F1..start with a bit about his invlolvement in teams, but get nitty and gritty with the FOSA war, the concorde agreement, all the juicy details, and show how our sport has evolved....

[John B]

1. The circuits of F1 - a look at the past and present tracks. Lots of photos from scenic ones. Comments/quotes by top drivers about each track, why they like or dislike it, and how they got around it. Lots of both historical and 'guide' type information.

2. Some sort of insider (Prost vs. Senna, etc), as I always like material which gives you more than the nuts-and-bolts race reports.

[coyoteBR]

good topic. Louis mr. F1, Williams, Richie Jenkins,let me know when your work is publishd, I wanna a copy. What I would make:

1 - Quicky Ironies. A booklet with the funiest, most absurd or insane comentaries made on this sport.

2 - Emmo. I think Emerson Fittipaldi history fascinating. After winning his second title, the guy went to his own team, got a podium, lost everything, return to Brazil to kart races and other minor cathegories, went to United States, tried NASCAR, discovered CART/INDY, won everything that was possible there, and become the model for many drivers from distant countries who also tried to Win in America.

3 - Passion - The champ that wasn't Lots of pictures, copy of letters of fans, the crowd reaction at his figure... A cool book for Jean Alesi

4 - The Lotus of... - A tribut for a grand team. Each chapter would have one or two pages, telling the experience of several persons around the Lotus cars. Colin Chapman, Ayrton Senna, nigel Mansell, Johnny Herbert, Jim Clark, Nelson Piquet, Jochen Ridnt,... Wow, it would be great

[DataFly]

What Williams said.

[LeTurc]

Originally posted by Breadmaster
LeTurc - you could read that book to amnesiacs...perfect cure!

I will not say what i think about this for obvious reasons.

[AdrianM]

I would start with why I love the sport so much and how I became a fan and what attracts me to the soprt etc.
Then the history of the sport from great drivers, to great rivalries, the personalities and how the sport has changed. Plus a section on the future of the sport and other motorsports I like.

[Zawed]

I would write a book similar to Louis's, the failures of F1. Maybe a biography or two, Riccardo Patrese, de Angelis...

[OssieFan]

I'd like to write a book about a fan who travels to each race (sounds like a wealthy fan). The book would cover his/her experiences from travelling to attending the race etc. If only I could write it from experience! :

[Gemini]

"Business is so simple: Foreseeing, Negotiating and Dealing Guide for Dummies" - by Bernie Ecclestone

[CZM]

I would love to write a book outlining some of the humour behind the sport. e.g. the Alledged incident when The McLaren mechanics had to distract the attention of one of the teams sponsors when James Hunt went wondering with this guy's wife. If the story is to believed the ambulance where the two went was rocking from side to side (I laughed for ages when I read this story.)

There must be many amusing tales from the mechanics, the drivers etc that never make the press. Hopefully this would add some more life to the characters and personalities in F1.

[tim]

I'd write a good book about Frank Williams: from humble beginnings conducting his business out of a phone box to ruling the F1 world in the early and mid 1990s. Frank has had an extraordinary life, more so than most people in F1.

Other than Frank, I'd write about Bernie and all the wheeling and dealing that he gets up to .

CZM: I'd buy your book. Also include the episode where Hunt was out testing and parked up by the side of the track. His team-mate went to look for him and found that he was asleep . And also the Piquet (?) episode where he jumped out of his car and it drove on pilotless for a bit.

[Lateralus42]

I would write a book about Senna's last love story, I bet no one has ever written about that!;)

[Williams]

Originally posted by tim
I'd write a good book about Frank Williams: from humble beginnings conducting his business out of a phone box to ruling the F1 world in the early and mid 1990s. Frank has had an extraordinary life, more so than most people in F1.

Maurice Hamilton wrote a book that you just described exactly called "Frank Williams". An excellent read about his career up to 1996.

[Scudetto]

Originally posted by Louis Mr. F1
If you are going to start a new F1 book, what topic/subject is it going to be?
For me, i'd love to write a book on some of those small, now disappeared F1 teams eg. Lambo, Rial, Coloni, Lola, Simtek, it'll have detailed description of their startup, struggles, behind the scene fight for sponsorship, driver changes and disappearance. I think it's an area that has been omitted by the majority of the F1 community/magazines and imo, should provide a lot of insight to an unknown area of F1.

There was a great article in Car & Driver magazine several years ago entitled First Flings in Formula 1? that talked about exactly this. Still, I'd love to see this elaborated on in detail.

[ehagar]

A book on forgotten or lost race tracks. With lots of details, topographical maps, photos of the races, etc... What they looked like then, and what they look like today. Riverside, the old Glen, Meadowdale, Brooklands, Solitude, French road circuits...

[RJL]

I'm gonna change the rules just a bit and make a movie. My movie would be about Didier Pironi & the 1982 season. I believe it was Rob Walker in the '82 Road & Track season review who originally suggested this. Pironi was a complex individual, and as such, I think he would make an excellent choice for biography. He was also damn fast & could easily have been WDC. DP was a political creature and I've seen him described somewhere (TNF maybe?) as the first modern F1 racer in that sense.

My film would begin by showing DP's rapid rise to prominence in turn of the decade F1 and his eventual move to Ferrari. The film would show DP's challenging 1981 season where he struggled to match team leader Villeneuve. Although Villeneuve welcomed DP into Ferrari, Pironi kept some distance & started to polarize the team into two camps. I believe DP married in 1981 and interestingly did not invite Villeneuve, to the later's disappointment . Then my film would move on to focus on 1982 more in depth.

Early in the season Pironi was one of the key players in a proposed driver's strike. Then of course we have the rivalry with (the fans favourite) Villeneuve, the famous incident at Imola, where DP won (possibly) against team orders. The ensuing rift between the two drivers split the team's loyalties. This sadly was followed by Gilles death after he had made the famous pronouncement that he would never speak to Pironi again. Then Pironi was unwittingly involved in Ricardo Paletti's fatal accident at Montreal, when DP's car stalled on the grid and the rookie Paletti (in his first GP start IIRC) struck him and his car burst into flames. This second tragedy was followed by a spirited title charge on Pironi's behalf, which ended with Pironi's own enormous accident (very similar to Gilles') in rain soaked Germany (?). The film would show how DP very nearly won the WDC while lying in a hospital bed with his legs horribly broken, and how Enzo Ferrari presented him with a plaque that said, "Didier Pironi, the real 1982 WDC", and promised to give Pironi a seat when he was ready to return to F1.

The film would wind up cronicling DP's courageous struggle to recover, his gradual return to sedan racing, & his difficulties dealing with his consience regarding the death of Gilles, and DP's own death at the controls of an off-shore racing powerboat in the late 1980s. Shortly after his death, Pironi's girlfriend gave birth to twin boys who she named, appropriately, Gilles & Didier. There you have it: Didier Pironi, a most complex & interesting individual. I've thought for years that this would be a great story to put to film, how about it Ricardo F1?

[Mila]

RJL, nice pitch!

Pironi and the 82 season would be very compelling.

[AdrianM]

RJL

[Indian Chief]

This may be boring for most of you, but one of the most fascinating things about F1 for me is the TV coverage and the onboard cameras.

I would write a book on the history and evolution of TV coverage in F1, from the first ever Grand Prix covered live on television to the development of onboard cameras in the mid-80s.

[Kuwashima]

For me, i'd love to write a book on some of those small, now disappeared F1 teams eg. Lambo, Rial, Coloni, Lola, Simtek, it'll have detailed description of their startup, struggles, behind the scene fight for sponsorship, driver changes and disappearance. I think it's an area that has been omitted by the majority of the F1 community/magazines and imo, should provide a lot of insight to an unknown area of F1.

Hey, Louis Mr. F1, you're stepping on our toes!! Seriously, though, we would love to write a similar book to your idea... indeed, we've already thought about putting the profiles on our site together in a published form. It'd be great though to take what we've already written, and do it like 5-times more in-depth.

What a great thread topic, BTW.

[John B]

Originally posted by Indian Chief
This may be boring for most of you, but one of the most fascinating things about F1 for me is the TV coverage and the onboard cameras.

I would write a book on the history and evolution of TV coverage in F1, from the first ever Grand Prix covered live on television to the development of onboard cameras in the mid-80s.

That would make an even better video.....


Pironi's 1982 was an unbelieveable year, most racers wouldn't experience that much activity in a career. You could add a testing crash he had right before the season started, where he did some acrobatics and wound up in a spectator area at Ricard, giving the first indication of what was to come in F1 that season.

[Nomad]

'How to Build a FW14B'(consultant Patrick Head)

[Billy]

Originally posted by RJL
I believe DP married in 1981 and interestingly did not invite Villeneuve, to the later's disappointment .

Pironi married the week after the Long Beach race in 1982. Ferrari team manager Marco Piccinini was best man at the wedding. Part of his honeymoon was spent in testing at Imola in preparation for the 1982 San Marino Grand Prix, which Pironi won in controversial circumstances. According to the biography of Gilles, "Didier Pironi joked about his victory being the perfect wedding present."

[dmj]

I had just two good ideas when I started to read this thread. One was story of Pironi and second a plea to Kuwashima about turning F1 Rejects site into a book.
So this is obviously a post too much...

[fifi]

think i would write a fictional book kinda like behind the scenes but having a decent plot as well