Customer Reviews

The Complete Encyclopedia of Formula One

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Those familiar with the "Encyclopedia" books of other sports will know that this is a statistical journey rather than a photographic timeline. This book covers every Constructor, Driver, Circuit, and Record since the British Grand Prix 13 May 1950 when Giuseppe Farina won this 70 lap race in 2hr13m23.6sec driving for Alpha Romeo SpA. However, the book may seem dated as it ends coverage with the European Grand Prix in October of 1997. Most of the current Formula One drivers are covered though maybe with a different team. There is also a nice Forward by the British voice of Formula One, Murray Walker. A good reference book for any F1 fan with an interest in the history of this sport. Remember, no glossy photos of brave drivers or the powerful and beautiful cars they pilot, just some Black and White shots here and there and interesting facts and figures about Formula One in between.

Its a good, voluminous, and heavy book (as a good encyclopedia should be), with all drivers, teams, and circuits up to 1999. Color photographs of most of the above are provided. Unfortunately the circuit descriptions don't include track layouts and sometimes its difficult to know where they are. The final stats section has all the numbers and categories you could need. A great reference book!

The Complete Encyclopedia of Formula One by Bruce Jones is a reasonably useful reference. I have seen better sport books of this type, but I guess given this is motor racing you aren't going to expect a whole lot of this sort of thing to be available, or great.

It was useful at the time, though, and has some interesting information.

If you want to know all of the numbers of F1 they are here. Unfortunately, there are no curcuit maps, no information of nationalities of drivers and the statistics end in 1997. As well, there are mistakes in the information. For a statistical book this is something I can't forgive. I spotted many errors and that is just things I know (come on Michael Schumacher driving a Ferrari in 1994!). It makes me wonder what else is wrong.

This is a pretty good book, it has lots of detail and is well written, but its all in black and white and it doesn't cover any of the technical aspects of the cars and how they changed over the years. Overall I was very disappointed and the book is pricey, plus it only goes up to the '97 season.