Introducing fongu reads...

Happy New Year!

I've had a bit of a break from GP4 and switched from a screen to an old-fashioned book over the holidays. 

I got a copy of Maurice Hamilton's 'Race Without End', which I enjoyed the entirety of in a few quiet days. The journalist was given an all-access pass to the inner workings of the Jordan team for the entire 1993 season, and wrote what he witnessed, warts and all, of each and every aspect of the small team at the time. The team was entering it's third season, and as much as 1991 was a triumph, 1992 was a comparative disaster. With the team trying to earn respectability and stability, we get great insights into the Eddie Jordan's unique leadership, to the commercial strains of Ian Phillips, Gary Anderson's technical perspective, Brian Hart's emotional rollercoaster as engine-supplier, Louise Goodman's hectic schedule in the media, as well as some interviews with the mechanics, truckers and caterers. It also follows Rubens Barrichello's debut season in the car, with four different team-mates to compete with and against. You won't find this level of access and openness in other titles of this era. 

The book is brilliantly written, following the timeline of the 1993 season, interspersed with different perspectives from race to race. The only shame is that it includes the first two races of the 1994 season as a kind of send-off, just weeks before the most dramatic and life-changing weekend in F1 in the 1990s. 

There's fantastic insights into the Japanese GP, a real highlight for the Jordan team, and its a race most remembered not just as the best results of the year for the team, but of debutant Irvine and Senna's bust-up after the race. There's even a transcript of the whole thing happening, as well as Gerhard Berger's influence before hand. 

It probably goes without saying that I thoroughly enjoyed this book and if you get a chance to do so, grab a copy and have a read of it yourself.

It's the second F1 related book I've read in 2023, the other being Damon Hill's Watching the Wheels autobiography, which I also recommend for different reasons. 

So that gave me an idea. 

I'm entering the fifth year of this blog's existence. As well as a place to show case my GP4 works, it also contains some of my own F1 memories, which came out through some of the model reviews I was doing at the beginning. But I've read quite a few F1 titles in my time, not that I'm a particularly big reader, but of the titles I have read, there are some I'd love to recommend to you, free from any publisher or promotor bias. 

Here it is, the latest addition to my blog: 

It's a little invitation to my bookshelf. Join me as I give you a little insight into each title, what I made of it, and whether I think you should read it or not. 

fongu reads...