Book Review
FORMULA 1 – Car by Car 1950-59
By Peter Higham
ISBN: 978 1 910505 44 1
£50.00
EVRO Publishing
In a world presently starved of the rigours of its premier racing championship, two aspects have become abundantly clear to me: 1. Modern F1 is full of complaining high-rollers and 2. Classic F1 is where the real heroes resided. EVRO is one of the UK’s leading motor racing publishers and its access to one of the greatest photographic resources in the world, LAT Photographic, now known as Motorsport Images, ensures that every one of this decade-by-decade series of titles that covers all of the cars, teams and drivers can be illustrated to perfection. This latest addition to the series covers the first decade of the new World Championship, which commenced in 1950. It is a 304pp hardback that is predominated by colour; in the early part of which Italian red is everywhere, transitioning to British Racing Green, as Vanwall and Cooper came to prominence in the latter part of the decade, overtaking the richness of Alfa Romeo, Maserati and, of course, Ferrari. The 1950s was also highlighted by the performances of one champion, Juan Manuel Fangio, who took the title no less than five times. However, the book’s author, Peter Higham, ensures that the myriad private entrants, their sometimes-quirky cars and even quirkier team activities receive all due credit for their participation. As with the other books in this marvellous series, each year is presented in glorious detail, incorporating the front runners down to the non-starters. While Mercedes-Benz has dominated the recent F1 World Championship, it was a newcomer in 1954 and provided two seasons’ worth of winning wheels for both Fangio and our own Stirling Moss, naturally. Over 600 photographs support this excellent tome, which is both reference book and an editorially strong record of the sport’s glory years.
