Book Review: Formula One in Melbourne: The first 10 years by Stuart Sykes

Well, the hotly anticipated Australian Grand Prix opening race for the new 2013 season is almost here, so lets review a book written specifically on the history of the Albert Park race. Stuart Sykes’ “Formula One in Melbourne: The first 10 years” is a decent well written book which covers the action and drama of the races held at Albert Park, Melbourne from 1996 to 2005.

The introduction provides a background to the politicians brokering the deal with Bernie to get the GP moved from Adelaide. The book then dedicates a chapter to each of the races from the first ten years starting from the 1996 season opener. Being the first race of the season,  in each season chapter Sykes provides a brief  introduction to the background events in the driver market and with the teams, some highlights from practice and qualifying, and a description of the some of the action from the actual race.

Great race, trackside and off-track photos are mixed in to provide good balanced content. Each season’s class photo of the drivers taken on the grid before the race has also been included. The photo collection in the book is surprisingly good, although the majority of photography does tend to lean towards the bigger teams of the time – Ferrari, Williams, McLaren.

Naturally, the Australian Grand Prix is Mark Webber’s home GP and he even gets his own chapter in the book despite having not made the podium yet. This chapter covers his points scoring F1 debut race in 2002 with Minardi to reflecting on his performances with Jaguar and Williams at Albert Park.

The book also has includes a few chapters specifically on Damon Hill, Michael Schumacher & Ferrari and comparing technical changes of ’96 cars to ’06 cars.

The rear section of the book contains a summary of F1 history stats and also the race results of every driver at Melbourne between 1996 and 2005.

Although another 6 seasons have passed since this book was published, its still a good read. Overall, this is one of those very well balanced F1 books – its print and hardcover binding is good quality, with just the right mix of content between interviews, narration, statistics and excellent photo re-productions.

Wow Factor or Money Shot: There have been some epic and tragic crashes at Albert Park over the years – this book has many of them captured in photos – Ralf Schumacher airborne after hitting Rubens Barrichello in 2002, Martin Brundle overturned Jordan in 1996 and Jacques Villeneuve in the BAR Honda in 2001.

Suitable for: General F1 fans