Formula One – All the Races
By Roger Smith
This mighty 600 page-tome is the Formula One race version of Steve Small’s Grand Prix Who’s Who, where Small provides a cameo of each and every Grand Prix driver’s career, where Roger Smith does the same for each of the 858 races from the World Championship since its inception in May 1950 to the last race of the 2011 season.
Usually, books containing mainly statistics are rather dry, and one can easily get lost in a sea of figures. However, Smith puts a “little meat on the bone” by illuminating the statistics with “Tales of the Title”—an overview of the season in bullet points, a hundred or so words to describe the race, and concludes with a summary of the racing season together with “Facts and Folklore.” The text is interspersed with both period photos (mainly color) and sketches of the competing cars. The presentation, layout and color sections all contribute to making this book very easy to use and understand. Maybe a small criticism is that only the first six places of each race are given, but we do have the rain forests to consider!
In summary, Smith has undertaken a tremendous work that has obviously been meticulously researched to give the reader an outline of significant events and characteristics within each Grand Prix, from qualifying to checkered flag, to encourage further reading.
Available from most of the usual bookstores or internet sites, and direct from the publisher, Haynes Publishing, www.haynes.co.uk, $49.95 / £30.00.
