Autocourse dazzles again 10 | 03 | 2015
RUNNING TO 368 PAGES and costing 5p short of £50, this year’s Autocourse, the 64th in the series, lays claim to being “the world’s leading Grand Prix annual” charting — as it does — the season-long internecine battle between Mercedes’ erstwhile team-mates Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.
In truth, with 11 grand prix victories to Rosberg’s five, champion Hamilton — the diamond ear-ringed geezer with an increasingly trans-Atlantic accent — was the class of the field over the global, gruelling nine-month, 19-race campaign. And thankfully the bizarre, contrived double final race points were academic under Abu Dhabi’s equally artificial floodlights.
Editor Tony Dodgins, a F1 veteran journalist of many campaigns, reflected Hamilton’s aggressive virtuosity over Rosberg’s arguably over analytical and mistake-prone performances with first and fourth respectively in his annual top-10 drivers’ rankings.
Fernando Alonso, who could, short-term, rue a switch from the seemingly hobbled Ferrari prancing horse to McLaren-Honda, rates third behind that blast of Australian fresh air Daniel Ricciardo — read our exclusive interview with the grinning Aussie ace — who outshone quadruple Red Bull champion Sebastian Vettel, a lacklustre sixth.
Alonso, of course, will now sit-out at least the opening grand prix in Melbourne tis weekend having suffered concussion after crashing in the final pre-season test in Barcelona.
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Such was the general dominance of the Silver Arrows cars, propelled by superior, new generation, turbo hybrid power units, that the shrinking worldwide F1 audience should thank team executives Toto Wolff and the wily, candid Niki Lauda, for allowing the former karting chums and best of enemies to slog it out.
Autocourse, in an age of immediate electronic coverage, data crunching and disposable opinions, blends eloquent retrospective narrative, grown up analytical features and fresh, illuminating images, often lacking in the weekly motorsport comics, sucked dry by superficial parallel internet feeds. This is a coffee table book with credentials.
There is a welcome lack of pandering to F1’s myopic, insular hierarchy. Issues like an abject failure to control the sport’s costs and distribute its bloated income more equitably while smaller teams exit, plus the avoidable circumstances of Jules Bianchi’s dreadful Suzuka crash, are confronted without fear or favour.
One of Autocourse’s strengths has been its inclusion of other major motor racing series and this year England claimed the grand prix apprenticeship GP2 and GP3 championships for Jolyon Palmer and Alex Lynn, while Anthony Davidson shared the World Endurance title.
Conspicuous by their absence are top flight international Scots as Paul di Resta struggled in frustrating DTM exile from F1, and the likes of retirees Allan McNish and Dario Franchitti were sorely missed. As a result, Gordon Shedden, British Touring Car Championship stalwart, was arguably Scotland’ most prominent racer.
The only Scot to drive an F1 car in anger was Suzy Wolff (nee Stoddart), who warrants a photo credit courtesy of a couple of testing outings for the rejuvenated Williams-Mercedes team. She is likely to retain that nominal national honour while hopefully real racer Finn Valterri Bottas will deliver a win in the car this year.
Autocourse, published by Icon Publishing Limited - £49.95. CLICK HERE TO BUY ONLINE.
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Hugh Hunston