Formula One - The Real Score?: The Real Score? A Reassessment of Driver Ability Based on an Analysis of All F1 and Equivalent Race Results Since 1947

I have a library of several hundred motor racing books and I realise that this is the one I go to most often. I am fascinated by the history of the sport and it always amazes me how many round the town and road races there used to be and also the variety of cars that drivers such as Moss and Clark would race. As companion pieces to this wonderful book, I would also recommend 2 books on non championship formula 1 races written by Chris Ellard, The Forgotten Races and The Long Forgotten Races. i purchased these via Simon Lewis Transport Books some years ago.The first race I ever went to was the 1975 International Trophy so I have always known about the non championship races. Thank you, thank you Mr Harvey.Prior to these lockdown times, I have been a regular attendee at the Herts TNF film show talks organised by Richard Hinton. I found out about this via the Autosport Nostalgia Forum, In addition to talks from drivers, team owners, mechanics and journalists, we have had talks by authors. This book is very highly thought of by attendees and it would be wonderful if Mr Harvey could do a slot there in the future, once life returns to normality. I hope you read this post Mr Harvey

Quirky, opinionated (no bad thing) and an interesting precis of Formula 1 races from 1946 (not 1947 as it says on the cover). But a word of warning for fans of latter day F1. This book provides detail upto 1972, and a resume of non-championship races from 1973-83. If you hope to hear of the exploits of Schumacher. Alonso or Hamilton you are better off with Roger Smith's All the Races, which includes all World Championship races between 1950 and 2015. Harvey's argument is that the media preoccupation with the World Championship ignores a host of other Formula 1 races and races with the leading single seaters of the day. It excludes Indianapolis and the American championships but includes the high profile but largely ignored French F2 Championship of 1952 (when F2 was the leading formula) and the Tasman races from the 1960s in New Zealand and Australia. The choice of races is otherwise a bit arbitrary but as the author says 'it is my book' and indeed it is. It comes across as a labour of love but with an engaging style and with some illustrated sections despite the focus on dense text in the 'look inside' feature.

A good book, well written. I was expecting more analysis of the non-Championship F1 races and how that impacts upon a driver's career statistics whereas the bulk of the book is a record of those non-Championship races. Still worth the money and serves as a useful reference source.