Formula One: The Pinnacle: The pivotal events that made F1 the greatest motorsport series (3)

Product Information

Originally from Altrincham, Simon Arron grew up near Oulton Park, writing and photographing club races for the local newspaper and subsequently Motoring News, until he was taken on as a full-time reporter in 1982. With its topics structured in the form of two-to-four-page vignettes with easy-to-read, relevant text, and amazing, full-color, well-captioned photos, many of them full- or two-page spreads, “Formula 1” gives the reader the historical, technical, personal and commercial story of the sport in bite-sized pieces that, in toto, amount to as good an overall treatment of the subject as I’ve seen. Formula 1: The Pinnacle tracks a history of the changes which have taken F1 from its rudimentary beginnings to the exhilarating high octane spectacle it is today, with a foreword by Guenther Steiner - Team Principal of the Haas Formula One. This review is for the book Formula One: The Pinnacle: The pivotal events that made F1 the greatest motorsport series (Volume 3).

Along with changes to circuits and the technology of the cars, this book highlights thecommercial changes and the controversies that threatened to split the sport apart – such as the threat of breakaway series proposed at various times by teams. You can easily discern the breadth and depth of the material yourself using the Look Inside feature of the Product Description, which gives a limited but accurate indication of the book’s contents. A really interesting read, and I learnt a lot of new things from it such as the origins of ‘British Racing Green’ and information about technical innovations of the early years, and I also agree that there are some great photographs from the 1950s-70s in the book (particularly one of the 1959 French GP). Nice trip down memory lane too with the chapter on the F1 drivers, a fair number sadly no longer with us having perished pursuing the sport they loved.

The illustrations themselves are superb – with lots of pictures that I hadn’t come across before, together with several classic images. In my eyes, it is impossible to directly compare F1 to another series like WRC/X, MotoGP or LMH/DPi. Formula One is unrecognizable from its debut season, where drivers raced around on old bomber training aerodrome in Northamptonshire with oil drums to mark the corners and straw bales the only concession to safety. A must-read for completists or for those new to the sport, F1: The Pinnacle is a fascinating insight into one of the most exciting and dangerous sports in the world. He has edited several publications, including Motor Sport, Motoring News and the long-running motorsport yearbook, Autocourse.

It's interesting, informative, and you can skip around Andrea what interests you, or the entire thing. Originally from Altrincham, Simon Arron grew up near Oulton Park, writing and photographing club races for the local newspaper and subsequently Motoring News, until he was taken on as a full-time reporter in 1982. Motorsport is such a broad all encompassing term with different skill sets required to be successful in the varying disciplines (which makes it all the more impressive when someone is successful in multiple disciplines). Formula 1: The Pinnacle tracks a history of the changes which have taken F1 from its rudimentary beginnings to the exhilarating high octane spectacle it is today, with a foreword by Guenther Steiner - Team Principal of the Haas Formula One Team.This is just a throwaway reference in a photo caption here but it manifests that the book doesn’t just wend its way from headline event to headline event as if nothing noteworthy happened in between but that the authors find ways to impart tidbits that in and of themselves may seem peripheral but really are emblematic of bigger stories.