I Just Made The Tea: A lifetime in the Formula 1 pitlane


Di Spires - 2012
    In all that time she ran the team motorhome for a succession of different teams, including Lotus in the Senna era and Benetton in the Schumacher era. Her memoir looks at Formula 1 from an unusual viewpoint. As well as Formula 1 people, she has encountered personalities from every walk of life, from royalty to criminals on the run. Her stories range from the hilarious to the tragic and provide a unique insight. This is a fast-paced read packed with surprising snippets and observations, with plenty of intimate insight into what the drivers are really like.

Life in the Fast Lane: The Inside Story of Benetton's First World Championship


Steve Matchett - 1995
    Matchett writes about the death of Ayrton Senna, the Hockenheim fire, disqualifications - as the Benetton and Williams teams fought tooth and nail for the drivers championship. The final showdown came in Adelaide, the last race of the season, with the controversial accident when Schumacher of Benetton and Hill of Williams collided. Steve Matchett was the rear jack man in the Benetton pit lane team, and was himself engulfed in the terrible fire at Hockenheim. His story of the frantic and unending behind-the-scenes activity in the effort to be the fastest and the best in the world is a fascinating account of the high pressure world of Formula One motor racing.

Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans


A.J. Baime - 2009
    Young Henry Ford II, who had taken the reins of his grandfather’s company with little business experience to speak of, knew he had to do something to shake things up. Baby boomers were taking to the road in droves, looking for speed not safety, style not comfort. Meanwhile, Enzo Ferrari, whose cars epitomized style, lorded it over the European racing scene. He crafted beautiful sports cars, "science fiction on wheels," but was also called "the Assassin" because so many drivers perished while racing them.Go Like Hell tells the remarkable story of how Henry Ford II, with the help of a young visionary named Lee Iacocca and a former racing champion turned engineer, Carroll Shelby, concocted a scheme to reinvent the Ford company. They would enter the high-stakes world of European car racing, where an adventurous few threw safety and sanity to the wind. They would design, build, and race a car that could beat Ferrari at his own game at the most prestigious and brutal race in the world, something no American car had ever done.Go Like Hell transports readers to a risk-filled, glorious time in this brilliant portrait of a rivalry between two industrialists, the cars they built, and the "pilots" who would drive them to victory, or doom.

The Limit: Life and Death on the 1961 Grand Prix Circuit


Michael Cannell - 2011
    With the pacing and vivid description of a novel, THE LIMIT charts the journey that brought Hill from dusty California lots racing midget cars into the ranks of a singular breed of men, competing with daredevils for glory on Grand Prix tracks across Europe. Facing death at every turn, these men rounded circuits at well over 150 mph in an era before seat belts or roll bars-an era when drivers were "crushed, burned, and beheaded with unnerving regularity." From the stink of grease-smothered pits to the long anxious nights in lonely European hotels, from the tense camaraderie of teammates to the trembling suspense of photo finishes, THE LIMIT captures the 1961 season that would mark the high point of Hill's career. It brings readers up close to the remarkable men who surrounded Hill on the circuit-men like Hill's teammate and rival, the soigné and cool-headed German count Wolfgang Von Trips (nicknamed "Count Von Crash"), and Enzo Ferrari, the reclusive and monomaniacal padrone of the Ferrari racing empire. Race by race, THE LIMIT carries readers to its riveting and startling climax-the final contest that would decide it all, one of the deadliest in Grand Prix history.

To Hell and Back: An Autobiography


Niki Lauda - 2020
    Even people who know nothing of Formula One have heard of his crash at Nurburgring in 1976, when we was dragged from the inferno of his Ferrari so badly injured he was given the last rites. Within 33 days, he was racing again at Monza. His wounds bled, he had no eyelids. He was terrified. A year later, he reclaimed his World Championship title.In To Hell and Back he reveals how he battled fear to stage a comeback that seemed beyond human endurance. Then it’s Lauda vs Hunt, an epic rivalry later dramatized in 2013’s Hollywood blockbuster Rush, and he looks back on the strict childhood and parental disapproval that he believes gave him an ‘addiction to excellence’. There’ll never be another like him.

Life to the Limit: My Autobiography


Jenson Button - 2017
    His seventeen years in Formula 1 have seen him experience everything the sport has to offer, from nursing underpowered cars around the track to winning World Championships and everything in between.Here, Jenson tells his full story for the first time in his own honest, intelligent and eloquent style. From growing up as part of a motor-racing-mad family under the guidance of his father, John, to arriving at Williams as a fresh-faced 20 year-old, to being written off by some as a playboy and his fight back to the very pinnacle of his sport. Jenson's World Championship victory for the unsponsored and unfancied Brawn GP team is one of the most extraordinary against-the-odds sports stories of the century.Jenson's book lifts the lid on the gilded and often hidden world of Formula 1. He reveals his relationships with some of the biggest names in Formula 1- Lewis Hamilton, Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso as well some of the most colourful characters like Bernie Ecclestone, Ron Dennis, Frank Williams and serial winner Ross Brawn. Above all, he puts you right inside the cockpit, in the driving seat, travelling at over 200 miles per hour, battling the fear of death, showing you what happens when it goes wrong at high speed and allowing you to experience the euphoria of crossing the line first.

Working The Wheel


Martin Brundle - 2004
    He will experience the extraordinary sensations, the adrenaline and the atmosphere as told by the sport's best analyst. Together with F1's respected journalist, Maurice Hamilton, Brundle brings his infallible humour and insight, his experiences and opinion, to each of the circuits and its classic races. From the camber at Monaco, which will leave your wheels hanging in the air, to Melbourne and the dynamics behind the most dramatic crash of the decade. Encompassing such essential details as neck-snapping acceleration, smashing cars worth a quarter of a million, and the amount of sweat a driver will lose in a race, this is a rare F1 book - funny, opinionated, evocative and dramatic.

Beast: The Top Secret Ilmor-Penske Race Car That Shocked the World at the 1994 Indy 500


Jade Gurss - 2014
    The massive effort to design and build it in a seemingly impossible timeframe is still hailed as one of the most herculean efforts and well-kept secrets in the history of the Indy 500. In the new book, Beast, bestselling author Jade Gurss chronicles the subterfuge and debunks the myths about this legendary engine that persist twenty years on. Gurss interviewed key players involved in the race to undercover the story of how this engine powered the Penske PC23 chassis to one of the most talked-about Indy 500 races in history. The British race-engine experts at Ilmor Engineering offer detail about the design and manufacture of the engine. Roger Penske’s team reveals how the engine and car were tested and developed, and how Mercedes came to be involved in the project. The story unfolds as Roger Penske and Mario Illien and Paul Morgan of Ilmor play every card they possess to create an incredible race engine--even rare World War II fighter planes and supersonic jets roar into the heart of this high-tech tale. Drivers Al Unser Jr., Emerson Fittipaldi, and Paul Tracy provide details on the tense weeks leading up race day. The book reaches a suspenseful climax at 240 miles per hour at the Indy 500 noone can forget. Wrapped up in the drama and intrigue are real business and motivational lessons which made Roger Penske one of the most successful businessmen in the world and that helped Ilmor and its cofounders, Mario Illien and the late Paul Morgan, design and manufacture Indy car and Formula 1 championship–winning engines. Beast is not only a must-read for sports and race fans, but a compelling narrative for those who enjoy genuine lessons in business and technology or thrilling mysteries based on actual events.

Ayrton Senna: The Hard Edge of Genius


Christopher Hilton - 1990
    Yet many regard him as a shy and introverted personality.

Senna Versus Prost


Malcolm Folley - 2009
    Two of Formula One's most honoured champions and iconic figures drove together for McLaren for two seasons, and their acrimonious and hostile relationship extended even after one of them had left the team. ALAIN PROST, France's only F1 world champion, the intelligent, smooth driver with the epithet 'Le Professeur'. AYRTON SENNA, the mercurial kid from a privileged background in Sao Paolo who would become the most intense and ruthless racing driver the world has ever seen. It was a story that would have a tragic ending. As the great rivals raced to victory, their relationship deteriorated badly, beginning with the breaking of a gentleman's agreement, and public spats followed, culminating in Prost accusing Senna of deliberately trying to ride him off the circuit, and fearful that the Brazilian would get someone killed with his daring overtaking feats. And the final, sad act of this drama happened at the San Marino Grand prix at Imola in May 1994, when Senna was killed. Featuring a rare interview with Prost, and insight from Martin Brundle, Damon Hill, Sir Frank Williams, Bernie Ecclestone, Derek Warrick, Johnny Herbert, Gerhard Berger, plus McLaren insiders and other F1 figures, Malcolm Folley provides us with a breath-taking account of one of the all-time classic sporting rivalries.

Footballer: My Story


Kelly Smith - 2012
    She has been called the Zinedine Zidane of the women's game. She has scored more goals for England than any other player in history. Yet since she was old enough to kick a ball, Kelly Smith has had to battle every step of the way to play the game she loves. Girls were not welcome when Kelly first started out, practising for hours to hone her sublime skills, but after outshining all the boys in the teams she played in, she became a pioneer for English women's football. A teenage sensation and the nation's first professional footballer, Kelly was soon a star, a genius with the ball at her feet, but a series of injuries led to periods of depression and then alcoholism as she struggled to cope without the sport. As she nears the end of her glittering career, Kelly now tells the heartfelt story of her triumphs and tragedies, of how she beat her demons to put England on the world football map. It is a tale of overcoming prejudice to live your dream, and of how it feels and what it means to be a woman at the very top of her game.

Watching the Wheels: My Autobiography


Damon Hill - 2016
    For the first time ever he tells the story of his journey through the last golden era of the sport when he took on the greats including Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher and emerged victorious as World Champion in 1996, stepping out of the shadow of his legendary father Graham Hill. Away from the grid, Watching the Wheels: The Autobiography is an astonishingly candid account of what it was like to grow up as the son of one of the country's most famous racing drivers. It also tells the unflinching story of dealing with the grief and chaos that followed his father's tragically early death in an aircraft accident in 1975, when Damon was 15 years old. Formula One drivers have always been aware of their mortality, and the rush that comes with the danger of racing was as intoxicating for Hill as it had been for his father's generation, until he came face-to-face with catastrophe when his team-mate, Ayrton Senna, was killed in 1994. The swirling emotions that Hill was faced with in light of the death of Senna was a defining moment for his generation of drivers and for the first time ever Hill talks candidly about the impact that Senna had on his life, even as he watched his own son step into motor racing.Courageously honest, and hugely rewarding, Watching the Wheels is a return to the last golden era of F1 racing, whose image still burns ferociously for those who love the sport for what it reveals about human skill in the face or near certain death.

The Mechanic: The Secret World of the F1 Pitlane


Marc 'Elvis' Priestley - 2017
    And yet, without the technical knowledge, competitive determination and outright obsession from his garage of mechanics, no driver could possibly hope to claim a spot on the podium. These are the guys who make every World Champion, and any mistakes can have critical consequences.That's not to say the F1 crew is just a group of highly skilled technical engineers, tweaking machinery in wind tunnels and crunching data through high spec computers. These boys can seriously let their hair down. Whether it be parties on luxury yachts in Monaco or elaborate photo opportunities in gravity-defying aeroplanes, this is a world which thrills on and off the track.Join McLaren's former Number One mechanic, Marc 'Elvis' Priestley as he tours the world, revealing some of Formula One's most outrageous secrets and the fiercest rivalries, all fuelled by the determination to win.This is Formula One as you've never seen it before.

Enzo Ferrari


Brock Yates - 1991
    Brock Yates penetrated Ferrari's inner circle and reveals everything from his bizarre relationship with his illegitimate son to his brilliant marketing of the famous Ferrari image. Fast, fun, scandalous, and informstive, Enzo Ferrari more than lives up to its remarkable subject.

Rafael Nadal: The Biography


Tom Oldfield - 2009
    He was 19 years old when he won the 2005 French Open in his very first appearance at the event. A left-hander with a booming forehand, Nadal had been known as a clay-court specialist since playing his first pro tournaments in 2001. His aggressive style, flowing hair, and muscular build have made him a fan favorite as well. He won his first singles title in 2004, and had a breakout season in 2005, winning at Monte Carlo, Rome, Barcelona, and Stuttgart as well as at Roland Garros. He won the French Open again in 2006, 2007, and 2008, defeating rival Roger Federer in the final each time. In 2008 he broke through at Wimbledon, beating Federer to win the men's singles title in a spectacular fashion. No Nadal fan will want to be without this comprehensive biography.