Echoes of Imola

Echoes of Imola by David Tremayne. MRP, £16.99.

This is a book about the Imola Grand Prix circuit, the races it has seen, and in particular the changes made there since the tragic death of Ayrton Senna when racing at this venue. So a somewhat unusual book but one of great interest, especially as it concentrates on the Senna accident, why the reason for it has not so far been established, and about the fatal accident at the same circuit involving Roland Ratzenberger.

There are Tremaynes’s eyewitness accounts of such happenings, morbid maybe, but morbidity has a sordid appeal to human nature. Over and above that, this book has the interest aspect for F1 followers of the whys and wherefores of the circuit and these sad accidents, from a factual, analytical and impartial standpoint. There are 16 pages of illustrations and a double-page specially commissioned painting of the Imola circuit. And the Foreword by Professor Sid Watkins is a scoop in itself, in advance of his own forthcoming book. W B