Thread: Where can I get in-depth analysis of past and present drivers' driving styles?

Well Jenkinson's 'The Racing Driver' comes to mind re. 50's drivers. (Try searching in www.abebooks.com) Regarding others, I'm afraid my best suggestion is to build up a collection of autobiographies. It will at least be interesting and you'll end up with a nice selection of motor racing literature.

Look out for two volumes called 'The Legends of Formula One'. One is by Doug Nye and covers 1948 - 1968 and the other, by Alan Henry, covers 1969 -2000. Both provide potted histories on the drivers they feature, some of which addresses driving styles.

One more. 'Ask Nigel', in the subscription area of www.autosport.com contains a pretty large archive these days on all sorts of minutiae about lots of drivers from a writer who has been closely following Formula One for over 30 years.

Hope this helps.

Taruffi's The Technique of Motor Racing, ISBN: 0837602289 also covers the 50s and is available at Abebooks.

I have not read it nor have I read the Jenkinson book, but from various reviews I would say that these two should be your starting point.

Originally Posted by tamburello

There is also 'Competition Driving' by Alain Prost.

IIRC both Jackie Stewart and Ayrton Senna have produced books with a similar title, or at least covering 'racing skills' in some way.

Peter Windsor should certainly put a book together. Almost all his articles mention early/late apex entry corner speeds and/or the friction circle.

Originally Posted by ArrowsFA1

IIRC both Jackie Stewart and Ayrton Senna have produced books with a similar title, or at least covering 'racing skills' in some way.

Here's Senna's "Principles of Race Driving" on Amazon. Crazy price, though.

lol get a life

Thanks a lot guys all for your suggestions, I'll certainly look into the books mentioned, I'll probably get Jenks' book first. I also hope Windsor writes a book, I've read some great articles by him, and it was his recent columns that made me want to look into driving styles more.

Originally Posted by DimitraF1

lol get a life

I know thats you, motorola. I thought multiple accounts after being banned aren't allowed?

Of course, Lauda addressed this to a small extent when asked about his driving style, basically saying that he simply followed the "black line" around the course.... This is, in all probability, the most honest of all the explanations I have read. I still have the Jenkinson book somewhere on the shelf and not a clue what happened to the Taruffi book. In the Fifties and into the Sixties there seemed to an abundance of such books for reasons that I failed to fathom at the time, but, in retrospect, now realize that such books appealed to some untapped desire on the part of many to at least go through the motions and pretend that they were imitating their heroes from the track as they drove around town. Looking back at various US magazines from the period, there certainly seemed to be a good market for such books.