Formula 1 Grand Prix pocket annual 1997

Formula 1 Grand Prix pocket annual 1997 by Bruce Smith Virgin Publishing, £4.99. ISBN: 0-753 5-0117-1

Ignore the dodgy photo that shows two WilliamsRenaults heading up to the Druids Hairpin at Brands Hatch with the caption ‘Williams dominated in 1996’ and the Formula 1 Grand Prix Pocket Annual 1997 is really not a bad little book. It is, in fact, just what it says: a pocket-sized tome hill of facts, figures and data that could pass the hours sitting in a jam trying to get to Silverstone for the British GP. Want to know which driver has won the most ‘home GPs’ or what races have seen F1 fatalities? All these facts and a thousand more are listed in anorak’s order. A full 1997 F1 team guide, driver biographies and circuit maps round it all off and at £4.99 it’s not bad value either.

To be dipped into, this book is, indispensable it is not. For the record, Alain Prost won six French GPs and 27 drivers have died at 24 different events. Just in case you wanted to know. MF