Grand Prix Showdown
by Christopher Hilton (1992)

Every season in Grand Prix racing there is a moment of consummation when a World Champion is made. This unique book focuses on the races which decided each of the F1 titles, from Ascari in 1950 to Mansell in 1992. As Hilton writes, these stories demonstrate "how difficult the World Championship is, how elusive, how maddening, how delicate, how starkly dangerous." In that sense, Mansell is "linked by an almost umbilical cord to an enigmatic Italian and 3 September 1950." This amazing book is a full of riveting drama, of absolute joy for the winners and crushing disappointment for the losers. A real gem!

Ferrari Formula 1
by Ranier W. Schlegelmilch (1996)

More than just a collection of truly exquisite pictures, this large-format volume — in English, German and French — covers each car, driver and season of Scuderia Ferrari's fabled GP history, including today's Maranello team assembled by Ferrari boss Luca di Montezemelo. As Niki Lauda's forward aptly states, Schlegelmilch's photography shows a "consistency of performance linked with the Ferrari virtues of brilliance and a finely-tuned sense of aesthetics." At nearly 350 pages (with several appendices), Ferrari F1 is a tour de force for Tifosi everywhere.

Formula One: 50 Golden Years
by David Tremayne (1998)

From the F1-50 Council (John Cooper, Jackie Stewart, Frank Williams, Alain Prost, Prof. Sid Watkins, Stirling Moss, Patrick Head), this majestic work may just be the best thing ever compiled about Formula One, covering each era of the sport with finesse, detail and technical accuracy that is unmatched in F1 literature. Tremendous photos, histories and personalities. A perfect "5" tires (and we don't get any commissions on this sale)!

Ayrton Senna: The Hard Edge of Genius
by Christopher Hilton (1994)

With Chris Hilton's characteristic meld of insight and panache, "The Hard Edge of Genius" captures the many aspects of a man born with supreme gifts to bend a car to his will and deftly explores the many conflicting emotions Senna stirred in himself and the millions who followed his extraordinary F1 career. Updated to cover the fateful end at Tamburello, Hilton's work spares neither criticism nor compliment, achieving a balance of the two that mirror's Senna's uncanny ability to hold his machine on the edge of adhesion. Senna himself called it "a book you can rely on." Rare praise from a man who relied on little outside of his own skills.

Wheel To Wheel: The Great Duels of Formula One
by Alan Henry (1995)

Alan Henry's portraits of the great one-on-one rivalries that have characterized F1 over the decades is a probing look at what drives the drivers themselves. It begins with the extraordinary relationship that developed between the veteran Fangio and the young Moss when both drove for the Mercedes-Benz factory team in 1955, and goes on to cover Clark and Hill, Lauda and Hunt, Villeneuve and Pironi, Schumacher and Damon Hill, and many others.

Michael Schumacher: Formula for Success
by Derick Allsop (1997)

This somewhat dated biography of the now four-time German F1 World Champion is a must-read for any Formula One enthusiast, giving great insights into Schumacher's controversial career, including his move to Ferrari in 1996 and his steamy relationships with Hill and Jacques Villeneuve.

Mika Hakkinen : Doing What Comes Naturally
by Christopher Hilton (1997)

Another hit from Chris Hilton's collection of F1 driver portraits, this time of the soft-spoken Finn who leaped to prominence in 1998 after years of laboring in the trenches at Lotus and McLaren. Covers Mika's years from Karts to the Formula One circus. Stay tuned for an updated edition now that Mika has won the driver's World Championship!

Lotus: A Formula One Team History
by Bruce Grant-Graham (1994)

Perhaps best known today as the Formula One team for which Mika Hakkinen, Alessandro Zanardi, Johnny Herbert, Nigel Mansell and Ayrton Senna all drove early in their Grand Prix careers, Colin Chapman's British F1 group revolutionized the sport — everything from monocoques to wings to sponsors — and were the McLarens of their day. Like March, BRM, Tyrrell, Brabham and other now-defunct F1 organizations, however, Team Lotus could not keep pace in the increasingly capital-intensive realm of modern F1 racing. This detailed and well-referenced tome is a wistful, race-by-race record of the most influential Formula One team of all time.

The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Formula One
by Bruce Jones (1996)

This "ultimate" guide to F1 — featuring a short introduction by Damon Hill — bills itself as "The Definitive Illustrated Guide to Grand Prix Motor Racing." We think that's an overstatement, but this lightly written volume contains all the statistics and stories one would want, in a non-technical style that makes it a perfect introduction for new Formula One enthusiasts.

Ayrton Senna: A Tribute
by Ivan Rendall (1994)

A lavish, pictorial ode to the fallen 3-time World Champion, Ivan Rendall's book is the most stylish of all those devoted to the magnificent Brazilian. Like most, this one starts with the "Black Weekend" of Imola, but spends as much time exploring Senna the man as Senna the F1 driver. It also features a foreword by Sterling Moss in which the great Briton declares, emphatically, "The word 'genius' is used rather carelessly these days; but a genius is what he was." A hard-to-find book, but well worth the effort!

The New Villeneuve : A Life of Jacques Villeneuve
by Timothy Collins (1997)

With a famous father who died before his time, Jacques Villeneuve has a lot to live up to. In this revealing profile, featuring in-depth reviews of Jacques' 1995 IndyCar and 1997 F1 championships, Tim Collins does not fawn over the young hero, but lets those who knew him at important points paint a rich background scene for the recent portrait we know so well. JV himself characteristically refused to contribute to the book, so it suffers a little from the lack of first-hand perspective.

Grand Prix Circuits: A Tour of Formula 1 Circuits from Starting Grid to Chequered Flag
by Alan Henry (1998)

Exquisite maps and diagrams of each F1 venue, with histories and anecdotes from the editor of the famed Autocourse annual series. A little sloppy in the typography, this book nonetheless is a must for the well-stocked Formula One bookshelf.

Life At the Limit: Triumph and Tragedy in Formula One
by Prof. Sid Watkins (1996)

A fitting testament to Professor Watkins' work in Formula One — in which he waged a long battle to improve circuit safety and medical care facilities for drivers — this memoir is filled with both poignant and joyful moments. It starts with the weekend of the San Marino GP in May 1994, where Watkins was told by Ayrton Senna, "Sid, there are certain things over which we have no control. I cannot quit, I have to go on." Covering the deaths of Senna, Gilles Villeneuve, Ronnie Peterson and others by the man who was first on the scene of their accidents, one might expect this to be a maudlin tale of lost glory. But Sid Watkins is not that type of person, and neither is his book.

Ayrton Senna: The Legend Grows
by Christopher Hilton (1995)

Senna's unparalleled "art and genius" with the F1 racing car is eloquently recorded and explicated by one of the most prolific — and talented — motor racing writers around. This book, completed after Ayrton's tragic death at Imola in 1994, reveals the inner man with near-poetic majesty.

Formula 1: Portrait of the 60s
by Ranier W. Schlegelmilch (1996)

An oversized book filled with Ranier Schlegelmilch's magnificent photos of F1 in the 1960s, an era where the faces of the drivers were not yet hidden by full-visored helmets and where there were no gravel pits or armco barriers to limit the photographer's scope. The portraits of the racers are coupled with written profiles that encapsulate the essence of the man, in three languages. A comprehensive, black and white trip down memory lane.

Ferrari: The Passion and the Pain
by Jane Nottage, Niki Lauda (1998)

A relatively new profile of the greatest Formula One marque of all time, with excellent photographs and the a few insights from Niki Lauda, whose glory years at Ferrari ended in a falling-out with Enzo Ferrari himself that took nearly a decade to overcome.

Grand Prix Racing: The Enthusiast's Companion
by Anthony Pritchard (1991)

Perhaps the best panorama of Grand Prix history to date, from the early road races in France in the 1890s through the German domination of the 1930s and the post-war Italian supremacy. Pritchard's masterpiece combines historical vignettes, technical discussion and contemporary articles by the drivers themselves, including such legends as Tazio Nuvolari. The treatment of Formula One from the McLaren-dominated 1980s on is thin, but "The Enthusiast's Companion is well-named for the true F1 aficionado.

Grand Prix Champions: From Jackie Stewart to Michael Schumacher
by Alan Henry (1995)

With 100+ photos but only 4-5 pages on each of 13 Formula One World Champions, this Alan Henry book is neither comprehensive nor detailed. Yet it still manages to delve behind the helmets and provide some riveting moments in the careers of each of these tremendously gifted athletes. Henry's profile of Englishman James Hunt is particularly good, but many will question the logic (if any) that went into selecting the drivers for this book, since it leaves out so many great F1 champions.

The New Formula One: A Turbo Age
by Niki Lauda (1984)

Niki Lauda is not a great writer, but he is an honest, straight-forward critic of "ground effects" and the damage they did to driving skill in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Although this highly technical book is a difficult read for non-engineers, Lauda's outspokenness is a refreshing change from today's PR-oriented drivers. Dated, yet still interesting.