Favorite Racing Book?

[James1978]

I bought Mark Webber's autobiography last week but I haven't started reading it yet.

I bought it on Tuesday and I'm finding it very hard to resist temptation to just skip most of the book to when Finger-boy joined him at Red Bull.

[Faustus]

I have a book to give away. I bought some motorsport books from a seller on eBay and he threw a copy of the official ITV 1997 guide. Does anyone want it? If you do, it's yours. Just PM your address and I'll send it to you.

[Rob Dylan]

Currently making my way through the Mark Webber autobiography I got for my birthday. Great read, well written, very entertaining. Highly recommend you guys pick up a copy if you're a fan of the guy.

[tommykl]

A brilliant autobiography I'm currently reading is Touch Wood by noted reject Duncan Hamilton. A fascinating and hilarious read, providing insight into the early days of post-War racing and some amazing stories of the British gentlemen racers of the age. I thoroughly recommend it.

[dr-baker]

After going to see Murray Walker giving a talk at Beaulieu's National Motor Museum yesterday, seeing so many people carrying his autobiography "Unless I'm Very Much Mistaken" reminded me what a brilliant, fascinating read that book is.

[Faustus]

Currently making my way through the Mark Webber autobiography I got for my birthday. Great read, well written, very entertaining. Highly recommend you guys pick up a copy if you're a fan of the guy.

I finished it last week. Really enjoyed it, especially the pre-Formula 1 stuff.

[AndreaModa]

Currently making my way through the Mark Webber autobiography I got for my birthday. Great read, well written, very entertaining. Highly recommend you guys pick up a copy if you're a fan of the guy.

I finished it last week. Really enjoyed it, especially the pre-Formula 1 stuff.

Yeah, I have to agree with both of you. Very frank, and lots of interesting bits too. The only thing I thought was it's a shame it's been released now and not in five years' time when he could have had much more dedicated to Porsche and the WEC.

Another book I'm currently reading is Nigel Mansell's new autobiography. I'm at the point in the book where he's in his Indycar days. The book is very much written as you'd imagine Nigel would write it. Almost comes across a bit condescending at times, as if he's telling the story to an eight year old. Still, its an interesting read and I'm looking forward to reading about his mid-90s F1 comeback and also his post-racing career.

[Faustus]

Another book I'm currently reading is Nigel Mansell's new autobiography. I'm at the point in the book where he's in his Indycar days. The book is very much written as you'd imagine Nigel would write it. Almost comes across a bit condescending at times, as if he's telling the story to an eight year old. Still, its an interesting read and I'm looking forward to reading about his mid-90s F1 comeback and also his post-racing career.

I'm going to buy it then. I have an order to place with Amazon very soon so I might as well get it as well.

[AndreaModa]

Another book I'm currently reading is Nigel Mansell's new autobiography. I'm at the point in the book where he's in his Indycar days. The book is very much written as you'd imagine Nigel would write it. Almost comes across a bit condescending at times, as if he's telling the story to an eight year old. Still, its an interesting read and I'm looking forward to reading about his mid-90s F1 comeback and also his post-racing career.

I'm going to buy it then. I have an order to place with Amazon very soon so I might as well get it as well.

That's fair enough. I think to add to what I wrote above, in simple terms, if you're thinking of buying the book but Mansell annoyed you before then this won't change much!

[Faustus]

Another book I'm currently reading is Nigel Mansell's new autobiography. I'm at the point in the book where he's in his Indycar days. The book is very much written as you'd imagine Nigel would write it. Almost comes across a bit condescending at times, as if he's telling the story to an eight year old. Still, its an interesting read and I'm looking forward to reading about his mid-90s F1 comeback and also his post-racing career.

I'm going to buy it then. I have an order to place with Amazon very soon so I might as well get it as well.

That's fair enough. I think to add to what I wrote above, in simple terms, if you're thinking of buying the book but Mansell annoyed you before then this won't change much!

I used to think he was a whingeing bastard but then I met him in 2007 when my mate race engineered him in his one-off FIA GT race at Silverstone. Had a nice chat with him and he's actually a very affable and interesting person. Very self-deprecating as well. I had heard before from a mechanic that I worked with at Arrows who used to be with Williams that he was a different character with the team and with the media.

[AndreaModa]

Yeah, I met him when I got the book signed earlier this year. He came out to the massive long line and signed the books of anyone with young kids first so they weren't waiting for hours in-line. Very friendly, and had time for everyone. Stayed way past his allotted time to get everyone in too. His reputation is a bit unfair I feel, but the book would only reinforce it if you felt that way.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

As part of my research on Don Beauman I got a copy of Mike Hawthorn's autobiography Challenge Me the Race (Beauman and Hawthorn were great friends).I was expecting more in relation to Don considering nearly every source I've come across (including this one!) remarks on how close the two were, yet there are only two anecdotes in the entire book that mention him in detail. However, as an account of the life of Britain's first world champion it is a splendid read and well worth buying. I certainly have no regrets. Don't expect to find anything on his title-winning campaign though, it was written in late 1957

[Bobby Doorknobs]

A brilliant autobiography I'm currently reading is Touch Wood by noted reject Duncan Hamilton. A fascinating and hilarious read, providing insight into the early days of post-War racing and some amazing stories of the British gentlemen racers of the age. I thoroughly recommend it.

I also have this book now and yes, read it, seriously. It's magnificent.

[WaffleCat]

I've just borrowed two books from the Sports Library here in Singapore (yes, such a thing exists), and they're both amazing reads.

I'm currently reading through Rapid Response, which goes through the tales of CART's main medical officer, especially with his time back in the days of USAC and also with Zanardi's accident. Quite a fascinating read, though I've yet to finish it.

What I have finished, though, is Perry McCarthy's Flat Out, Flat Broke. My god, it's one of the funniest books I've ever read, especially the first few chapters. When your bunkmates start getting concerned because you're doubled over in laughter before you finish the first chapter, you know it's a great book. The sheer…rejectfulness of it all, from his early days in Formula Ford to his constant jabs at his wife to the Andrea Moda times even up to his time as the Stig, it's one of the best books I've read about racing. The thing I love the most, though, are his Acknowledgements at the beginning of the book. Just read through those few pages, it's fascinating to see the friendships he's created, people he thanked and how much they all mean to him.

And, for a fiction book, I can't recommend The Art of Racing in the Rain much more. This book will make you laugh, cry, warm your heart, all those things that movie trailers say you'll do, you'll end up doing in this book. It's about this down on his luck racing driver, told through the eyes of his dog. It's quite the read.

Okay, maybe that last review was a bit too generic, clickbaity, all that...

[Wallio]

I'm currently reading How To Drive by Ben Collins and its a fantastic read. He basically says in the intro "Look, I don't know you, but I can drive better than you, listen to me, and you WILL improve". I have already changed a few of my techniques a bit. Ben, knowing his audience is 90% teenage boys, equates everything to sex, which can be funny as hell at times. It also features tips from numerous other drivers as well.

Since the new car is almost done, and my "retirement" is nearing an end, I feel I need to hurry up and finish it.

[Ataxia]

Just finished Damon Hill's autobiography. It's a really touching read, and probably focuses more on his pre-F1 exploits and battle with depression post-career.

[Barbazza]

I was at Brooklands on Sunday for the official re-opening of the start / finish straight (what's left of it, anyway) and there was a bookseller there with books that looked new or almost new. When I saw 'The Toleman Story' for £5 that wasn't exactly a hard sell and I also got the 92/93 Autocourse for £8 for the story of Andrea Moda. And Mansell I suppose....!

There was so much lovely stuff that if I hadn't been careful I could have gone mad. For example, I picked up the 'Unraced' book and thought "No....you already know all this stuff and seen most of the pictures."

[girry]

Just flicked through the book "F1nnmade", which focuses on the history Finnish motorsport people associated with F1 (should have done earlier, since it was published in 2014 already...). You can spot a few errors here and there, and it is not the best book to study the actual racing part -- I would even say the descriptions about the technical details and the races are all too brief -- however, there is a remarkable depth to the book when it comes to discussing the "background work" and contracts, sponsors et al so it's a very worthwhile read to anyone interested in F1 anyway, should it ever be translated. However, since it's only available in Finnish, thought I'd post a few tidbits it has to offer regarding our drivers that are (hopefully!) interesting to others here as well.

- As a driver, Leo Kinnunen was very much respected in the paddock - but in contrast, his career management was extremely rejectful. Kinnunen was reluctant to learn any English (even replying to his Porsche sportscar team boss John Wyer who had encouraged Kinnunen to study some English, that "if Wyer had anything important to say, he should learn some Finnish...) which was a part of the reason why he wasn't retained for 1971, and which, certainly, significantly hindered his career. Interestingly, a certain mr Ecclestone was also very keen on Kinnunen, but to little avail. Bernie had been impressed by mr Kinnunen early on his junior formula career, and had negotiated him a deal to race for the Lotus works F2 team in 1969 (and he did it free of charge - imagine that of Bernie!) with a deal that Ecclestone considered a bargain for the driver - which Kinnunen subsequently declined because he didn't want to pay for the seat but wanted to get paid instead. Bernie didn't give up though, and a year later the man offered Kinnunen his management services again - which Kinnunen declined, because he didn't understand why any foreigner should manage him. After a couple of years winning in Interserie, Kinnunen finally thought he was ready to join F1 at the end of 1973 - at which point, his Finnish management naturally contacted Tyrrell enquiring for a spare car for the AAW team (which, shockingly enough for the WCC team, they didn't have), then McLaren (same story), then Bernie - who was still prepared to offer Kinnunen a 2 year contract in Brabham's works team, which Leo declined because he only wanted a 1 year contract and wasn't keen on the idea of working with British people...and so on, and so on, until John Surtees finally agreed to sell the amateurish Finns that rubbish car - an operation so amateurish that it basically ended Kinnunen's career.

- Mikko Kozarowitzky had some half-baked deals with Frank Williams but lacked the funding; then was involved in the 1978 Tiga project, which went bust.

- Kojima had planned to enter F1 for 1978 full time with Keke Rosberg as a driver, but that plan went bust when Kunimitsu Takahashi totaled the chassis in testing. Still, on short contracts at Theodore, ATS, Newman/Haas (Can-Am) and Wolf, Rosberg was able to impress enough to finally secure a 3 year contract at Fittipaldi - which turned out to be an unlucky break for him because the contract tied him with the team for 1981, even despite the Fittipaldi team losing much of the backing they had had, and McLaren's keen interest in Keke's services. Only in late 1981 Rosberg was able to break the contract for unpaid salaries and looked to be out of contract for 1982 - until Alan Jones announced his retirement from Williams, which turned out to be a very lucky break for Keke since he was able to secure a single test session with the team. Patrick Head was impressed with Keke - however, Frank still tried to lure back several other candidates, namely Mario Andretti, John Watson and Alan Jones, before having to settle with "only" Keke for 1982... Well, we all remember how that decision turned out for them, and Keke was still a hot commodity in late 1985 when he was leaving them. Enzo Ferrari wanted to sign him for both 1986 and 1987, but Keke had already decided he'd almost had enough of F1 and contacted McLaren for a final 1 year contract instead. The book also goes to great lengths describing Rosberg's...difficult relationship with the Finnish press at the time, but neglects mention the 1991 shenanigans with the rumoured contract Eddie Jordan offered Keke for Spa...

- Henri Toivonen was a talented driver in open wheelers in the seventies (as well as WRC, obviously) and would have went on with that trajectory if not for his father Pauli (also a prosperous rally driver) who thought rallying was much safer.

- Jari Nurminen (a F3000 driver from the mid 80's) had a couple of Arrows tests for 1987 with strong support from his personal sponsor Barclay who also backed Arrows. Despite being a second slower than Danner in the test, the parties had already signed a F1 race contract for the year - but failed to get a superlicence from the FIA after the Finnish motorsport organization lobbied against it, because they thought a small nation would not support more than one driver at once, and JJ Lehto was their favoured boy. Nurminen tried again in 1988 signing a pre-contract with Coloni, but was none the luckier with the motorsport organization still firmly thinking Nurminen was not good enough.

- Peculiarly those Finnish funding packages "reserved" for JJ Lehto eventually landed on fellow Rosberg protegé Mika Häkkinen. Therefore JJ ever brought little backing with him, and the small money deals he got with Onyx, Dallara and Sauber were mainly for his talent and were pretty much the best he could hope for - he never really had better offers than those. Late in 1993 Keke (his manager) pulled a "real miracle", having been very proactive with the Benetton deal they were able to secure for 1994 - but it all went to the ruins with the winter testing crash at Stowe where he almost died, which destroyed JJ's spine and made his driving a painful exercise for much over a year.

- On the other hand Rosberg genuinely thought Mika Häkkinen was the real deal and took a big risk early on his career: the Finnish funding package coming from several sponsors still only covered roughly half the money required for the Lotus deal (a few million dollars / year) - so Keke paid half of it himself, which was a large amount of money back then. Obviously it paid off, with Mika showing so much talent that he soon had Williams, McLaren and Ligier on his tails - the story of 1993, with Williams forgetting to register for 1993 and Peter Collins playing hard ball for that, eventually forcing Williams to cancel Mika's contract and Häkkinen to settle with McLaren, is obviously well documented. The details on Häkkinen's post-retirement negotiations on the book conflict with Mika's own words, thought: in a recent interview Häkkinen says that he was in fact negotiating with Williams for the 2006 seat, not the 2005 one as mentioned in the book, and he was not 100% committed to returning at that point. However, both the interview and the book are consistent with the claims that before the November 2006 McLaren test, Häkkinen was genuinely training up, planning a return and Dennis had genuinely offered him a 2007 race seat (presumably Lewis'?) if Mika wanted to - but an ECU problem ruined the test, made Mika's times incomparable and Häkkinen says that at that point, he decided to quit for good because then he remembered again why he had retired in the first place: F1 was essentially "solving a problem after a problem" and he didn't miss that part of it at all.

- Mika Salo's drink driving incident in 1990 directed his career off the rails to Japan, but the knowledge he gained on the Japanese tracks eventually brought him to F1: Jordan already became somewhat interested in his services for Aida in 1994 but he failed to find the money; however just before Suzuka Lotus called Salo at midnight and asked him to pony up 20 000 dollars at a very short notice in exchange for a one reace deal: Mika duly did and the next day brought the money to Lotus in a Mickey Mouse bag in yens... His performance was so impressive that Lotus gave him the Adelaide drive for free, and for the next year Tyrrell snapped him up with a 3 year contract before even beginning the sponsor negotiations with Nokia. Salo had the same fate as Rosberg did, though: Ferrari were interested in signing Salo for 1996, but mr Tyrrell refused to break the contract. Salo also describes in the book how he didn't like Tom Walkinshaw and Peter Sauber, almost lost the opportunity to replace Schumacher because Mika's wedding was scheduled for when Jean Todt thought he was supposed to be hiding from the press at Maranello, that Ferrari wanted to retain him for 2000 so much they tried to break Rubens' fresh contract, and that it was his idea to sign Kimi for Sauber and not Peter Sauber's who first was reluctant to sign it...obviously, all this to be taken with a grain of salt considering it's Salo saying this.

- We know much of Kimi's career trajectory - the few interesting details on the book were that Rosberg declined to manage Kimi because he thought Kimi was not marketable as he "couldn't speak" his Sauber seat cost 4 million dollars - of which the Robertsons paid a large majority themselves, and that by mid 2012 (apparently...) each of Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull and McLaren were interested in signing Kimi - who declined them all to stay with Lotus for 2013.

- Kovalainen had his way to F1 paved by Flavio, who declined Paul Stoddart's test drive 2004 - race drive 2005 offer and promoted him straight to the works team from a testing role; and then got lucky with the McLaren seat opening after effectively getting fired from Renault even before Briatore clinched the deal with Alonso. After the Crashgate Kovalainen thought he could be his own manager - which ended up being a bad decision in 2010, for McLaren were not interested in renewing his contract, 2nd option Toyota pulled out, and he could not come to agreeable terms with Sauber - effectively destining him to Loterham for the rest of his career.

- Nothing special about Bottas, except that his backing for Williams by the Finnish companies Kemppi and Wihuri was estimated around the figure of 6 million dollars every year. Some whispers say they are bringing the same sum to Mercedes.

[Rob Dylan]

It appears that Mr Button has a book coming out this Thursday. That's one more thing for the birthday list! Will let you know if it's any good or not after I read it.

[WaffleCat]

Somehow, I spotted Tommy Byrne's autobiography, Crashed and Byrned, in my National Library. Surprised and intrigued, I borrowed it for a read.

Now I can safely say poor old Tommy was one of the best talents of the day just wasted because of...well...his upbringing, really. One of the most interesting characters I've seen and a fascinating read as well, especially his efforts after his Theodore stint.

[Rob Dylan]

Halfway through Button's book, and I can already recommend it. A bit slow to start, but there's good reasons for this and there's a lot of character depth to the guy I never knew about. But holy moly, he doesn't hold back with what he thinks of drivers and team personnel he knew in his younger days. Interesting stuff I've read so far:
- Ralf Schumacher was a diva at Williams in 2000.
- Flavio Briatore and Frank Williams are very different people
- Button's not afraid of admitting just how many stupid things he did in his first few years where he earned the "playboy" status, and reveals that people like Alonso and Coulthard were actually just as guilty of hijinks and shenanigans in the early 2000s.
- He talks about how Manor probably lost £32.7 million by finishing outside the top 10 last year, which they would have received had Nasr (remember him?) not scored those points in Interlagos.
- Jacques Villeneuve was an absolute piece of sh*t as a person and would literally blank Jenson while walking past him in the paddock when they were teammates apparently Jenson had managed to move the whole new management of BAR behind him within a few weeks of arriving, simply because Jacques was just an awful person to be around

As I say, I'm halfway through (up to 2003 if you hadn't guessed) and there's a lot of good stuff in here. A lot of swearing too, which I think adds to his character and what he really thinks of a lot of the people he was around.

[dr-baker]

Halfway through Button's book, and I can already recommend it. A bit slow to start, but there's good reasons for this and there's a lot of character depth to the guy I never knew about. But holy moly, he doesn't hold back with what he thinks of drivers and team personnel he knew in his younger days. Interesting stuff I've read so far:
- Ralf Schumacher was a diva at Williams in 2000.
- Flavio Briatore and Frank Williams are very different people
- Button's not afraid of admitting just how many stupid things he did in his first few years where he earned the "playboy" status, and reveals that people like Alonso and Coulthard were actually just as guilty of hijinks and shenanigans in the early 2000s.
- He talks about how Manor probably lost £32.7 million by finishing outside the top 10 last year, which they would have received had Nasr (remember him?) not scored those points in Interlagos.
- Jacques Villeneuve was an absolute piece of sh*t as a person and would literally blank Jenson while walking past him in the paddock when they were teammates apparently Jenson had managed to move the whole new management of BAR behind him within a few weeks of arriving, simply because Jacques was just an awful person to be around

As I say, I'm halfway through (up to 2003 if you hadn't guessed) and there's a lot of good stuff in here. A lot of swearing too, which I think adds to his character and what he really thinks of a lot of the people he was around.

The book sounds appealing based on this review!

[ibsey]

Flavio Briatore and Frank Williams are very different people

I'd be interested to know what Button thoughts of Flavio was. I.e. how involve did Briatore get in car developments? Did Flavio do anything dodgy when Button was there? Did Button ever think he was getting 2nd best treatment after it was annouced Alonso would be replacing him for 2003?

[Rob Dylan]

Well, I've finished Button's book now, and holding back some manly tears... Definitely a bittersweet ending to a decent book.

Most of the concentration of his Formula 1 years are of 2009-2012, whilst much of the rest is in varying amounts of summary. He talks a lot about how Hamilton is kind of a weird guy, how he himself only ever felt like he was racing well when he had a decent teammate, etc. But the final part of the book is quite sad, because he opens up on how the death of his dad John really did just suck the life out of Formula 1 for him. He talks a lot about how the memory of his dad followed him around the paddock for a long time afterward, and eventually caused him to just quit for the sake of his mental health. He's turned his back on Formula 1 for good, and is happy about his decision because it means he finally has a life again, but is sad that he can't be with his dad to celebrate his new life. As I say, really good stuff and surprisingly emotional in the second half.

The only other F1 book I read was Webber's autobiography that came out around two years ago, and I think I like this one a lot better; whilst Mark always seemed to be holding back about what he really felt about the people around him, Jenson has no problem with calling out the people and things that were great or terrible in his F1 career. I would definitely say this book was better than that one, but on a grand scheme of F1 books I don't have any further comparisons that I can make.

I'd be interested to know what Button thoughts of Flavio was. I.e. how involve did Briatore get in car developments? Did Flavio do anything dodgy when Button was there? Did Button ever think he was getting 2nd best treatment after it was annouced Alonso would be replacing him for 2003?

He does mention that they were both managed by Flavio, so the whole workings of Benetton were around Briatore's decisions. Bear in mind that Briatore really didn't like Jenson, so there's a lot of mentions of just poor treatment and poor team atmosphere whilst he was there.

[ibsey]

He does mention that they were both managed by Flavio, so the whole workings of Benetton were around Briatore's decisions. Bear in mind that Briatore really didn't like Jenson, so there's a lot of mentions of just poor treatment and poor team atmosphere whilst he was there.

Thanks Rob

That was my recollection at the time that Flav didn't like Button because he got whipped by Fisco in 2001. I remember how the British press were in uproar when Flavio sacked Button and not Trulli for 2003. IIRC it was announced at the French GP and then Button when on to outscore Trulli in the 2nd half of 2002.

[dr-baker]

Sorry-not-sorry for performing CPR on this thread, but I couldn’t find a DNACPR form, so here we are with a revived thread, resurrected like that famous guy in history. Lazarus, I think his name was. Probably died again though.

Anyway, for a few years now. I have been trying to figure out the name of a book that I bought my father around 15+ years ago. It was a bit of a road trip book, discussing race tracks that are usually public roads, how to get to them and the route around the track. He and I used the book to drive around the Manx TT Mountain Course (a route that I don’t need a book to navigate despite its 37.73 mile, 60.7km length) and tried to go round Monaco with. I also then recently remembered that after Monaco, we also went along the length of the Col de Turini (you can tell that the book was not restricted to any one type of race track).

At the weekend, I finally figured out what the book was. It’s called “Classic Motorsports Routes”, written by Richard Measden, published by The AA, and available for £3.57 on Amazon Marketplace. It has arrived through the post today, but I haven’t yet been home to open the parcel. If memory serves me right, it also contains the Nurburgring and I would be surprised if it did not contain Pau as well. And I don’t think it was exclusively Europe either. Will fill you in more at the weekend.