Book Review: The Battle for the British Grand Prix by Alan Henry
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Positives
Negatives
As we approach Silverstone for the British GP, the next few review posts will have a heavy British flavor. First up is Alan Henry’s 2010 book, The Battle for the British Grand Prix : The Inside Story for the fight to save Britain’s biggest motor race with Jenson Button’s McLaren MP4-25 on the cover. This […]
As we approach Silverstone for the British GP, the next few review posts will have a heavy British flavor. First up is Alan Henry’s 2010 book, The Battle for the British Grand Prix : The Inside Story for the fight to save Britain’s biggest motor race with Jenson Button’s McLaren MP4-25 on the cover.
This book is very much Alan Henry’s documenting the back room dealings in the BRDC and behind the scenes business maneuverings and battles to land the race sanction rights for hosting the British Grand Prix.
There are 7 chapters – the prologue gives some historical background to Silverstone and the British Racing Drivers Club (BRDC), Silverstone-Aintree-Brands Hatch rotation of the British GP, the management battles between Brands Hatch vs Silverstone, the role of Bernie Ecclestone, the entry and eventual failure of Donington Park. Buried at the end is Appendix 1 with all the top 6 finishers of every British GP from 1926 to 2009 and Appendix 2 which contains a short who’s who of the British GP industry.
Being a former director of the BRDC, Alan Henry manages to give a inside take on the a lot of the historical politics of the race including rainy season scheduling of Silverstone in the early 2000s and interview access with a lot of the famous drivers and bosses.
There are snippets of the on track feats of the British drivers and F1 teams – however, this is very much a corporate war story of the backroom politics for the right to host the British race. So if you like the intrigue and business side of F1 with lots of contract amounts being quoted, this might be for you. If you want to read in-depth about the feats of the great home wins of Clark, Stewart, Mansell and Hamilton you’ll need to look elsewhere…
Wow Factor or Money Shot: Probably the old b&w shots from the 1950 British GP on page 65.
Suitable for: Strictly F1 socio-political types.
