F1 Racing Confidential book review 

Now meet the team

From tyre engineers to pit mechanics, this new book offers a glimpse of Formula 1’s rarely noticed behind-the-scenes grafters     

It is a truism that F1 is a team sport, but we, the media, are as guilty as anyone of focusing almost exclusively on the drivers and occasionally the team principals. This book by The Guardian’s F1 correspondent and sometime Motor Sport contributor Giles Richards corrects that bias.

It offers a compelling glimpse behind the scenes of the men and women who keep the F1 circus on the road by sketching 19 pen portraits of the key personnel that make up each team. The cumulative effect is to give the reader a little-seen picture of the varied disciplines that make up the sport.

It is a simple idea, but Richards executes it deftly and with a reporter’s eye for a telling detail. So, you have the trackside tyre engineer explaining the technology and myriad sensors that keep a check on pressures, before adding that he always has “a bit of a prod” with his finger, just to see “what is actually happening”.

You get the feeling that the book is aimed at newer fans who came to the sport via Drive to Survive, and who therefore may be unaware of the different layers of F1 team personnel and the complexity of, for example, tyre management or race strategy. But it is equally eye-opening for readers who remember the days when F1 teams were made up of half a dozen people and one them was the tea lady.

No tea ladies here. Instead, we have women taking centre-stage with Marianne Hinson, an aerodynamicist at McLaren who started out with Jordan; Alfa Romeo’s head of race strategy Ruth Buscombe, who survived an horrific road accident while studying maths at Cambridge University to fight her way into F1; and Mercedes’ marketing director Victoria Johnson. Not only do these interviews offer invaluable insight (Buscombe tells a great tale about how, after crunching the numbers, it made strategic sense for her team to deliberately incur a grid penalty – achieved by breaking the post-qualifying gearbox seal – thereby moving their drivers back three places but also off the dirty side of the track) but they also offer a genuinely new (that is female) perspective on what it is like working in the supposedly macho world of F1.

There’s plenty more besides including our own Matt Bishop recounting his time as head of comms for Aston Martin and McLaren. And there’s big-name interviews with Christian Horner, Toto Wolff and Lando Norris. But we won’t focus on them, will we? JD

F1 Racing Confidential
Giles Richards
Michael O’Mara Books, £20
ISBN 9781789295566

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Racing Hell: The Hidden Truths of Motorsport

Peter Cate

Imagine you’re a first-year student at the University of Motor Racing. This book by the five-times Nürburgring 24 Hours winner would be your go-to textbook. Crammed within its good-humoured pages are facts the casual motor sport fanatic will most likely be ignorant about. Skulduggery, rule-bending, gaining the advantage in single-make series – and then we’re taken on a lap of the Green Hell. Read this and you might just make it. Oh, and be nice to your mechanic. LG

Publishing Push
ISBN 9781805413998

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Design & Desire

Keith Helfet

Known best for shaping the XJ220, Jaguar designer Keith Helfet relates his time at the company and the stresses and delights of conceiving a record-beating supercar. Prickly office politics feature, especially with the Ford takeover and the attribution of the XK8/Aston DB7 designs, but there’s also much personal insight into executing his ideas, backed by photos and sketches. Diversions into watches, medical gear and bicycles add quirky interest to a designer’s life, who reflects “lost opportunities are an occupational hazard”. GC

Porter Press, £39
ISBN 9781913089016

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Powered by Gibson

Mark Cole

Here’s a British success story we don’t hear enough about. Gibson engines have been prolific winners for over 30 years – its motors have powered F3000, A1GP, Renault Formula V8 and endless sports cars in LMP2, LMP1 and Hypercars. Le Mans expert Mark Cole is well placed to describe progress from engine management systems to its V8s, and there’s gen about hybrid and electro-tech for Bentley, Audi and Smart. GC

Porter Press, £40
ISBN 9781913089658