Book Review - Art of the Formula One Race Car

 “Art of the Formula 1 Race Car” is a glossy coffee table book covering the evolution of race car design over the last 60-odd years through studio photographs of a well-curated selection of Grand Prix cars.  At first blush I was expecting the type of superficial survey book that a well-meaning relative might get you for the holidays (you like cars, so I got you “Racing Cars Galore”!), but this new release from Motorbooks’ Quayside imprint is surprisingly satisfying, and serves up delight after delight. 

Photographer James Mann meticulously shot 18 of the most important postwar Grand Prix cars, placing each on a black backdrop, and the results are stunningly beautiful.  The cars really pop off the page, and what I really like is that each and every car presented is comprehensively photographed from multiple angles, and from above.  There are also lovely detail shots of the engines and cockpits, plus historic photographs of the cars as they were raced, which round out the story of each machine.  Mann’s studio lighting provides both drama and descriptive detail to the photos.  The suede and stitching on a steering wheel or the crazed and yellowed plastic of an old windscreen all come across so beautifully that you almost feel like you can reach into the image and touch them.  I really appreciated that each car is given equal attention.  Sometimes publishers have this annoying habit of putting tons of photos of the most famous cars in a book, and just one or two of the more obscure ones, but thankfully this book steers clear of that.The text is detailed and informative, and I think it will satisfy both a casual reader as well as the serious enthusiast, though diehard F1 buffs will probably not learn anything new here.  The real kicker is that in addition to the well-written text by automotive journalist Stuart Codling, there is a brief analysis of each car by Gordon Murray, who is most famous for having designed the McLaren F1 Supercar, but who also designed some of McLaren’s most world-beating racing cars as well. I like the Murray commentaries because they add a human touch to the book, as if he is looking over it with you and musing about what he finds interesting about each car.  His expert observations, though brief, are often illuminating.

The following cars are featured in the book:

Alfa Romeo 158, Maserati 250F, Mercedez-Benz W196 (streamliner body), Lancia D50, BRM P57, Brabham BT20, Lotus 49B, Lotus 72, Tyrell 003, Tyrell P34 (six wheeler), Ferrari 312T3, Williams FW07, McLaren MP4/4, Leyton House CG901, Jordan 191, Williams FW14, Ferrari F1-2000, and McLaren MP4-23.

  I might quibble with a few of the choices (Why the Ferrari 312T3 rather than the much more interesting T4?) but overall, they have compiled many of the most innovative and beautiful GP cars ever made into one compelling volume.  To me, the biggest omission was the lack of 1990s-era cars.  The Williams FW14 of 1992 gives way to the Ferrari of the year 2000, skipping 8 years of very interesting cars (A Benetton B194 would have been a nice addition, as would the Ferrari 412T1 of the same year).  Also, if I might indulge myself a little more, the controversial double-hulled Lotus 88 and the infamous Brabham “fan car” would have been great designs to include because each of them was highly innovative to the point of being banned for bending the rules too far. And they were both pretty neat looking to boot.

The book is very polished and refined from a layout point of view, and the printing quality is excellent. I think it would make an excellent gift even for the car nut who has a lot of very specific books, as I do, simply because the artistry of the images is so arresting and reminds you why you fell in love with racing cars to begin with. 

Retails for $45.00

208 Pages (300 color images and 25 B/W)

Available from Motorbooks and Amazon.