New Book Review: The Power and the Glory by David Sedgwick

For many F1 Fans, the 80’s-90’s Formula 1 seasons are often considered to be the best era in the sport dominated by big marque team and superstar driver rivalries at the height of their powers – think Senna, Prost, Mansell, Piquet, McLaren, Williams, Ferrari, Honda, Lotus and Renault. The modern day tiffs between Lewis, Seb, Kimi and Max seem tepid in comparison. David Sedgwick’s new “The Power and the Glory” (not be confused with Ivan Rendall’s F1 history book of the same title) is another book that explores the dramatic backstory of F1’s two biggest titans – Prost & Senna – their parallel careers which lead to the most explosive driver pairing in the sport (the closest we’ve ever seen since was probably Hamilton & Alonso at McLaren in 2007).

The strength of this book is probably in the story telling – it flows in cinematic timeline fashion. It is divided into 4 parts:

Part 1 charts Senna and Mansell pre-1988. I enjoyed reading this part, the narration explores both Senna and Prost’s family backgrounds, childhood and domination of junior karting competitions. Sedgwick charts both Senna and Prost’s individual climb from the feeder teams into the larger teams.

Part 2 focuses much on 4 key races in 1988 – Monaco, Paul Ricard, Monza & Suzuka where the competitive tension and seeds are sown with the dominant MP4/4. The dynamics of the McLaren team and Honda relationship with Senna paint the background for Prost’s accusations.

Part 3 looks at another 4 key races in the 1989 season where the relationship between Senna & Prost and Prost & McLaren has well and truly fallen apart – the famous San Marino, Hockenheim, Monza & Suzuka races clashes are examined.

Part 4 starts post-Suzuka 1989 and quickly fast forwards through 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993 and the post script is a prelude to 1994.

The book is a little light on photography – there are just 8 page of colour photos in the midsection. Most are re-prints but there is a neat picture of a young Senna testing out a futuristic Sinclair C5 decked on in classic black & gold JPS livery.

Thankfully, the book doesn’t dwell on the accident and death of Senna in 1994.

There have been plenty of other Senna v Prost books published – so it’s difficult for a new book to have a lot of new revelations. Sedgwick’s first book “Pironi” (reviewed here) was great because it covered a driver that has seldom been covered. This new book is written in a free flowing cinematic style – it’s best suited to newcomers to F1 who know little about F1 in the late 80’s and early 90’s.

Although I haven’t read Malcolm Folley’s “Senna vs Prost” which was based on interviews with Prost, I suspect Sedgwick’s book is probably more balanced although like many books published on this subject, does romanticise the legend and talents of Ayrton Senna.

Wow Factor/Money shot: Part 1 early career highlights of each driver.

Suitable for: New F1 fans.

Editor note: Review copy courtesy of Pitch Publishing UK