Customer Reviews

Formula 1 2005-2006 Technical Analysis

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This year's edition has a wonderful spread, accross many pages on the components of an F1 car. If you're as obsessed as I am you'll appreciate the beautiful detailed drawings showing what wonderfully engineered pieces of art these cars are. This is the best year yet.

Another very nice book from Mr. Piola, full of the great drawings that seem to be the envy and inspiration for F1 technical work just about everywhere. Included are the typical (and typically excellent) team-by-team overviews of in-season aero development, chassis histories, and standout solutions, as well as interesting looks at tidbits like steering wheel and pedal set designs. Great stuff.

Also typical for these books is the often awkward or downright confusing text written by guest authors who are non-native English speakers. The book is also full of typos, which seem especially strange as they are often in technical terms, brand names, or country names, and may appear both correctly and incorrectly in different places on the same page ... I guess they really rush these into print (not that you'd know it by the availability dates). Considering how good the content is, I wish the editing was better.

Still, the text is interesting and insightful, and full of information that is hard to find elsewhere. The looks at tires and engines are especially interesting, including some opinions on the potential influence of driving style on engine reliability in the age of throttle-by-wire and TC, which seems to be a contentious issue among fans. I also like the rundown and diagrams of the technical regulation changes for the year, and the cool look at the chassis assembly process. The 2006 section is very brief, but includes a nice goodbye for fan-favorites Minardi and Jordan.

Getting up close and personal with an F1 car is no easy task. So, for those of us who aren't drivers, engineers or mechanics for one of the teams, this book may be as close as we ever get to seeing the technology and innovation involved in modern F1 cars.

The illustrations in this book are superb and include every detail a photograph would have. With each illustration is an accompanying paragraph giving detail into what the design was trying to accomplish, differences from previous designs, etc. There are errors in the text, some more confusing than others, but if reread the intent can be seen. To me, it doesn't detract from the book at all.

For those wanting more technical details about the cars of F1, this is the book to have.

As usual this is another nice book from Giorgio Piola, great drawings, overviews, season development informations, chassis and great stuffs.
For F1 lovers I'd recomend

Fantastic book for people who need to know every little nuance of an F1 car!. Book is like new. Easy reading.

I always find the diagrams very interesting (should I say the heavily retouched photos...). Grammar -or rather, translation- lacking sometimes but it helps if you know italian and guess what the authors want to say. Pity that I am not very interested in aerodynamics since the books are more and more about aero changes. Book is not expensive though so I buy it every year and am always satisfied since it gives fresh ideas, whether you are a student competing in Formula Student/SAE or in Motorsport or working at a sportscar manufacturer.