1962: WEEKEND AT MONACO

(Coco B Editions)

Dominique Vincent ISBN 978 2 9583117 0 4 Reviewer’s own copy

I took a bit of a punt on this book, not having read anything about it. It’s a large hardback, devoted to the weekend of the 1962 Monaco GP; Bruce McLaren’s third championship GP win, and the last GP victory for the Cooper works team until 1966.

The book opens with a photographic tour of the circuit 61 years ago. Much has changed in terms of the surroundings, but the basic layout remains. As well as the GP and practice sessions, the supporting Formula Junior races are covered in full. Tony Shelly was a starter but retired part way through his heat. The FJ event ended up as a good win for Peter Arundell; one of ten drivers in the field who would move up to F1.

The GP itself only allowed 16 starters. Ten were guaranteed a place, leaving a bunch of drivers to fight for the right to take part; six didn’t make it, including Ricardo Rodriguez’s works Ferrari. Ironic that only 16 of these tiny 1.5-litre cars could race at Monaco whereas now there are 20 far larger and more powerful winged creations on the grid! Anyway, back to the race – much of the excitement was lost at the start when an accident claimed five cars as well as the life of a marshal. By halfway through the 100-lap race, not many healthy cars were left. McLaren was racing well but he didn’t have the speed of Jim Clark or Graham Hill. However, the latter retired from the lead with just seven laps to go, leaving Bruce to take a slightly fortunate victory from the current world champion Phil Hill’s Ferrari. Bonnier, in fifth place, was seven laps behind!

So, was this a good purchase? The level of detail that a book can go into when covering one race weekend is great, although you only get half the amount of reading because the text is in French and English. The illustrations include entry lists, prize funds, etc as well as starting grids. The large number of photos certainly are a real treat; amazing to see flag marshals and photographers standing on the pavement as the cars race past! The majority of the photos really are excellent. There are great pit shots, driver portraits and plenty of superb racing action pics. But I think my favourite is the winner heading off to meet Their Serene Highnesses, with John Cooper riding on the car’s engine cover (the caption writer didn’t notice Pat McLaren running through the crowd to get closer to the ceremony!).

But the text, oh dear! I can only assume someone ran the French material through an AI translation device and didn’t get a ‘native’ English speaker to read it before pressing Print. How else could you explain a sentence like this: “Jo Bonnier’s singleseater weighs the weight of the years with its high perched centre of gravity, drum brakes, broken rear axle suspension and its slightly fractional engine”. And there are plenty of other examples. It’s a great shame and really detracts from the enjoyment of the book; I wonder if it should even have been published as it stands...

So, while I’m pleased to have a book that focuses on an important McLaren victory at this iconic venue and am very happy with the brilliant photos, this book could and should have been so much better.

€50 | Review by Mark Holman