Ferrari Formula 1 Car by Car

I'm not a petrol-head enough to know whether this is the book that Ferrari fans would want, but I can see few reasons why it might not be. Superbly illustrated with period photos (action shots and engineering detailing both), this is the entire cycle of failure and success the Prancing Horse has had on the track. The text jumbles everything up, and the way the technical details are in amidst the stories of the actual race tournaments, and not covered separately, means the fan can easily see what changes led to which success, which failure on the track led to that engineering rethink, and so on. The whole takes us from the days when drivers and teams negotiated their own wage with the race promoters, and weren't all in it for an equal cut, and when it was just a matter of getting a driver to the chequered flag first, which at times meant him hopping out of one car and utilising his team-mate's, right up to the modern days of boring races, boring rule manipulation, and where a current champion can get lauded to gubbery while clearly using what is by far the best motor out there (one in which someone barely out his teenage years could win a race in at the first attempt, but for his staff being inept).

Formula 1 long ago lost the class it once had, but Ferrari never did (I put my blinkers on for the chapters about the 1960s). This is unofficial, and to repeat I don't know if the merging of cylinder talk with the season summaries will be ideal for all, but I am still convinced this will succeed as a valid tribute and car history book. A strong four stars.

This is a superb book. I'm a huge fan of Ferrari's and I'm not aware of any recent books focused solely on their Formula 1 cars. Each Formula 1 car series is covered. The author does a great job setting the context within which the car was developed and raced.