Pironi: The Champion that Never Was relates the remarkable story of motor racing's 'forgotten man', ex-Ferrari F1 driver and offshore powerboat legend, Didier Pironi. A disastrous crash at the 1982 German Grand Prix denied Didier his place as France's first F1 world champion. He was killed during the 1987 Needles Trophy race off the Isle of Wight.
Pironi: The Champion that Never Wasrelates the remarkable story of motor racing's forgotten man, F1 driver and offshore powerboat legend, Didier Pironi. A disastrous crash at the 1982 German Grand Prix denied him his place as France's first F1 world champion. He was killed during the 1987 Needles Trophy race.
It's pretty rare to come across a motor racing book that tempts you to read the thing in one sitting but "Prof" Watkins has produced a gem ... [he] is a superb raconteur, not afraid to speak him mind yet peppering the gravity with occasionally side-splitting humour. No true motorsport fan should be without this book.' Autosport Grand Prix racing has undergone sweeping changes in the last thirty years. Many of these involve safety and medical rescue. The man behind them - a champion in the racing world although he has never won a race - is the eminent neurosurgeon Sid Watkins. Life at the Limit is his remarkable story. It spans the most exciting years in Grand Prix racing and includes intimate portraits of motorsport's greatest names, from Jackie Stewart and Niki Lauda to Alain Prost and Damon Hill. Sid Watkins has also witnessed, at first hand, some of the most severe and spectacular racing accidents. His account of these is made all the more poignant by the fact that some of the men he has rescued, sometimes at the point of death, have been personal friends. From Monza, in 1978, where Ronnie Petersen suffered a fatal accident, to Imola in May 1994 where Ayrton Senna met his untimely death, the high, and low, points of Grand Prix racing are vividly described. For all fans of Formula One, this is the inside story of the world's most dangerous sport.
What if Ayrton Senna had survived his Imola 1994 accident? What if Gilles Villeneuve hadn't died at Zolder in 1982? What if Stirling Moss hadn't crashed at Goodwood in 1962? What if Alberto Ascari had survived his 1955 testing-accident at Monza? This book explores those rivalries by assuming that drivers' injuries from crashes were not fatal, and pits the drivers up against their peers once more.
The extraordinary events of the 1982 Formula One season are still hard to believe 25 years on. Most memorable of all was the thrilling fight for the title -- the 16 races were won by 11 different drivers -- and the controversy surrounding the deaths of three men, two of them Grand Prix icons. There were also ominous subcurrents, not least the FOCA-FISA war, the struggle between the turbo and normally aspirated teams, and the driver rebellion over super licenses. Packed with fresh insight from interviews and new research, this superbly illustrated all-color book captures all the drama of a remarkable year.
In the late eighties and early nineties, Formula One was at its most explosive, with thrilling races, charismatic drivers, nail-biting climaxes - and the most deadly rivalry ever witnessed in sport. Two of Formula One's most honoured champions and iconic figures drove together for McLaren for two seasons, and their acrimonious and hostile relationship extended even after one of them had left the team. ALAIN PROST, France's only F1 world champion, the intelligent, smooth driver with the epithet 'Le Professeur'. AYRTON SENNA, the mercurial kid from a privileged background in Sao Paolo who would become the most intense and ruthless racing driver the world has ever seen. It was a story that would have a tragic ending. As the great rivals raced to victory, their relationship deteriorated badly, beginning with the breaking of a gentleman's agreement, and public spats followed, culminating in Prost accusing Senna of deliberately trying to ride him off the circuit, and fearful that the Brazilian would get someone killed with his daring overtaking feats. And the final, sad act of this drama happened at the San Marino Grand prix at Imola in May 1994, when Senna was killed. Featuring a rare interview with Prost, and insight from Martin Brundle, Damon Hill, Sir Frank Williams, Bernie Ecclestone, Derek Warrick, Johnny Herbert, Gerhard Berger, plus McLaren insiders and other F1 figures, Malcolm Folley provides us with a breath-taking account of one of the all-time classic sporting rivalries.
The formative years of the 1950s are explored in this fourth installment of Evro's decade-by-decade series covering all Formula 1 cars and teams. When the World Championship was first held in 1950, red Italian cars predominated, from Alfa Romeo, Ferrari and Maserati, and continued to do so for much of the period. But by the time the decade closed, green British cars were in their ascendancy, first Vanwall and then rear-engined Cooper playing the starring roles, and BRM and Lotus having walk-on parts. As for drivers, one stood out above the others, Argentine Juan Manuel Fangio, becoming World Champion five times. Much of the fascination of this era also lies in its numerous privateers and also-rans, all of which receive their due coverage in this complete work. Year-by-year treatment covers each season in fascinating depth, running through the teams -- and their various cars -- in order of importance. Alfa Romeo's supercharged 11⁄2-litre cars dominated the first two years, with titles won by Giuseppe Farina (1950) and Fangio (1951). The new marque of Ferrari steamrollered the opposition in two seasons run to Formula 2 rules (1952-53), Alberto Ascari becoming champion both times, and the same manufacturer took two more crowns with Fangio (1956) and Mike Hawthorn (1958). Maserati's fabulous 250F, the decade's most significant racing car, propelled Fangio to two more of his five championships (1954 and 1957). German manufacturer Mercedes-Benz stepped briefly into Formula 1 (1954-55) and won almost everything with Fangio and up-and-coming Stirling Moss. Green finally beat red when the Vanwalls, driven by Moss and Tony Brooks, won the inaugural constructors' title (1958). Then along came Cooper, rear-engine pioneers, to signpost Formula 1's future when Jack Brabham became World Champion (1959).
Since 1950, fifteen Australians and nine New Zealanders have raced in world championship Formula One, the pinnacle of motor racing. Three - Jack Brabham, Denny Hulme and Alan Jones - have won the world title. Two have died in the attempt without ever facing the world championship starters' lights. So few drivers make it to Formula One. Ever fewer succeed in the fastest and most challenging four-wheeled sport of all. Now John Smailes, author of the bestselling Climbing the Mountain, Race Across the World, Mount Panorama and Speed Kings, gives us the definitive story of our involvement with Formula One, from the pioneer days in the aftermath of World War II, to the championship glory of Brabham, Hulme and Jones, the grit and determination of Mark Webber, and Australia's current Formula One star, the irrepressible Daniel Ricciardo, all the way to potential champions of the future like Oscar Piastri. With over 150 stunning photographs, and interviews with drivers past and present, as well as the engineers, managers and team owners behind the scenes, this is the must-have book for every Australian and New Zealand fan of Formula One.
"For almost 50 years, Max Mosley has been involved in motor racing, having seen the sport at all levels: as a driver, a team owner (with March) and, between 1993 and 2009, as President of the FIA, motor sport's governing body. In partnership wih Bernie Ecclestone, he helped transform Formula One into a multi-billion-pound global brand. Now, in this fascinating and revealing memoir, Mosley gives a compelling insight into the sport and its most influential figures and biggest stars - it is a book that no fan of Formula One can afford not to read. But Mosley's story goes far beyond motor sport, as his life and career have taken him through an extraordinary range of experiences, from being brought up as the son of Oswald and Diana Mosley, who were interned during the war, and having to deal with the taint of the family name; through his vital campaigns for road safety that have helped to save many thousands of lives; and on to the recent intrusions into his private life that led to a famous court case against the Murdoch press. It is a book that sheds new light on events from Formula One through to Ecclestone's controversial donation of a million pound to the Labour party. It is packed with behind-the-scenes gossip, vital business tips and some hilarious stories."--Wheelers.
