Review of “Rivals on the Track”.

I’m getting an early start on one of my New Years resolutions - to use my Kindle Unlimited account more frequently and read more of the books available through that service. I found a series of books on sports rivalries that looked interesting so I checked out the first one I saw on my feed - this one on F1 rivalries. It was very good and so I will check out the other 4 in the series as well. Look for those reviews soon, but today I’ll post on the first one I read in the series. 

Title/Author:

“Rivals on the Track: 15 Greatest Formula One Rivalries of All Time” by William Whitfield

Rating: 

4 of 5 stars (very good)

Review: 

Formula One (F1) racing has produced some great rivalries in its history between many of its top drivers. This short book by William Whitfield highlights 15 of these rivalries with good background information on each one.

Several drivers are listed in more than one rivalry and they include all time greats like Alain Prost, Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton. The rivalry between the latter two and the one between Prost and Arytan Senna were probably the fiercest and therefore the two that I felt were the best chapters in the book. 

This is not to say the others are not as good as in each one, Whitfield provides background information on each driver, the teams on which they compete and the reason the two drivers became such rivals. These can range from an incident on the track to a driver who didn’t appreciate his status as second to another driver on the team who should be given leeway to win or at least make a podium finish or points toward the championship. No matter what the circumstances were to cause the friction between drivers, Whitfield’s writing about the rivalry was informative and easy to digest.

The book is fairly heavy on recent rivalries, but there is a good chapter on Juan Manuel Fangio versus Alberto Ascari, covering the early days of F1. He also has a good write of the Niki Lauda-James Hunt rivalry of the 70’s, brought to the screen by the movie “Rush.” 

While some of the information gets repetitive (mainly on drivers involved in more than one rivalry) this is a very good book for readers interested in more about some of the best rivalries in the sport and some background information on the drivers involved. It’s a quick read and one that F1 fans of any level of interest should enjoy.

Link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CKTNZDJ3?ref_=dbs_m_mng_rwt_calw_tkin_2&storeType=ebooks