Sports books for Christmas: Nuts and bolts of life on the circuit

David Tremayne
Tuesday 20 December 2005 01:00 GMT
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

The 2005 season was not the most apposite for Timothy Colling's Team Schumacher (Highdown, £18.99), in which the prolific writer investigates the support group at Ferrari who helped the German to so many of his seven world championships. But it nevertheless offers revealing insights, not least from his wife, Corinna. "Sometimes when I look at him, I get a tremendously deep feeling of happiness," she discloses. "I look at him and think, 'That's my husband.' It's a marvellous feeling."

Jo Ramirez, Memoirs of a Racing Man (Haynes Publishing, £18.99), rattles through the Mexican mechanic-manager's career with greats such as the Rodriguez brothers, Dan Gurney, Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna and Mika Hakkinen at a rate worthy of the men themselves.

At times, speaking of his former employer Ron Dennis of McLaren, the tone is unbecomingly bitter, though those who know the immensely likeable Ramirez well will appreciate that he is just telling his side of a fascinating story the way he saw it, warts and all.

Memorable Moments in Motor Racing by Mike Jiggle, (Cyan Books, £20) is a charming diversion that induces the great and the not so great to recall their most special moments.

This labour of love by Jiggle ranges from Stirling Moss's somewhat brief: "Winning the Mille Miglia in 1955," to Alex Zanardi's more revealing: "It was in Cleveland in 1997 where, after being penalised and forced to last place 51 seconds behind the leader, I managed to repass everybody, setting the top 18 fastest laps of the race and getting Gil de Ferran with two laps to go. It gave me the most incredible win of my career!"

Perhaps the most poignant is the late Richard Burns' "Finishing the Hong Kong to Beijing Rally in 1996, the last ever running of the rally, to a crowd of literally hundreds of thousands of people in Tiananmen Square and on the steps of the Great Hall."

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in