BOOK REVIEW FORMULA 1 – THE KNOWLEDGE
If you thought the Dirk vs Jorg vs Yvan Muller World Touring Car Championship bouts of the mid-2000s were confusing, then feel for the poor Aintree circuit commentator. He had to differentiate between Henry, Mike, Dennis and Trevor Taylor – all unrelated – at the 1959 British Grand Prix, the occasion when most drivers with the same surname attempted to enter a Formula 1 world championship event.
That’s the quirky essence of David Hayhoe’s Formula 1 – The Knowledge: Records and Trivia since 1950, an updated and extended version of his self-published 2016 original, which boasts input from several prominent motorsport historians and statisticians, including Forix founder
Joao Paulo Cunha.
Hayhoe, the statistician for the well-loved Autocourse annuals since 1991, has compiled an enviable base of information in a weighty tome of over 500 pages that covers every conceivable subject you can think of up to the conclusion of the 2018 season. From times when the wrong national anthem was played for the winner
(Alan Jones had Happy Birthday on the podium at the Osterreichring in 1977), to the number of consecutive races in which a constructor has qualified on the front row (Williams’ streak of 35 between Kyalami 1992 and Imola 1994 still leads the way) and every instance when the number 1 has been used by someone other than the champion (the latest being John Watson subbing for Niki
Lauda at Brands Hatch in 1985), MN has spent many satisfied hours poring over its pages.
A particular highlight is the coincidences chapter, in which Hayhoe notes the instances where one driver won on the swansong appearance of another driver who won their first race.
For example, Jenson Button won Michael Schumacher’s final race at Interlagos in
2012, while Schumacher won Button’s first at Melbourne in 2000. This previously happened with Schumacher-ayrton Senna, Senna-alain Prost and Prost-alan Jones. Hayhoe also points out that in both instances of father-and-son world champions (Graham-damon Hill, Keke-nico Rosberg) the son prevailed 34 years after their father’s first title – which gives Mick Schumacher until 2028 to get one in the bag – while each of Sir Jackie Stewart’s three title reigns lasted for 392 days.
One of the common limiting factors with such works is their parochial focus on F1 at the expense of the wider world of motorsport, but that criticism can’t be applied here.
Hayhoe also outlines the major successes of drivers that have participated in grands prix weekends (including Friday-only drivers) in categories as disparate as GP2 Asia, Formula Vauxhall and Can-am. Such is the attention to detail that Hayhoe even points out that Luigi Villoresi won the 1958 Acropolis Rally.
Although there is a 33-page section devoted to photographs, including glorious colour images of 1950s Vanwall, Maserati and Cooper machinery, and a summary of major changes to technical regulations throughout time, this is very much a book for the hardcore fan to build a greater understanding of champion drivers and those who weren’t able to make the grade.
For instance, Keke Rosberg (7.55%) led the lowest percentage of laps in his 1982 championship-winning season – just ‘beating’ Emerson Fittipaldi’s 7.87% in 1974 – and also has comfortably the lowest ratio of wins (6.25%) in his title year, trailed by the 10% managed by Mike Hawthorn in 1958. Hawthorn is level with Phil Hill as the champions with the fewest career wins (three), while Denny Hulme (1967) and Niki Lauda (1984) are the only champion drivers without a pole position in their title year.
Hayhoe’s analysis of the worst-performing team-mates to championship-winning drivers perhaps unsurprisingly reveals a clutch of Team Lotus number twos who weren’t the main focus of team boss Colin Chapman’s attention – Dave Walker scored no points alongside Fittipaldi in 1972, John Miles finished 19th alongside Jochen Rindt in 1970, while Trevor Taylor was 15th against Jim Clark in 1963 – but he does unearth some easily forgotten drivers for various accolades.
MN’S favourite is Philippe Alliot (who started one race for Mclaren in 1994) for the most starts without ever finishing on the lead lap: 109, and 26 ahead of Jonathan Palmer. That’s surely worth the list price on its own.