McCarthy's feelings are not universally shared, though, and the book is full of the thoughts of drivers who, for whatever reason, did not come within shouting distance of accomplishing what they wanted to in F1.

The book also contains a few passages that give the reader a good idea of the level of concentration required by Grand Prix drivers. Next time you're arguing with someone who says that F1 drivers are just monkeys reaping the benefits of spooky technology, show them this little extract, which features Bernie Shrosbee (manager of Benetton's Human Performance Centre), describing a test undertaken by Giancarlo Fisichella.

"We put a full-face visor on him that was blacked out, sat him so he could do all the pedal actions, and he had to visualise the whole circuit at Monaco. You start the stopwatch, he does the lap, and he's within tenths of his real lap times. That's how extraordinary his visualisation was but it also shows the strength of his mind: it's the concentration factor. People watch a race and say 'why's so-and-so gone off into the gravel trap?' The more I get into the mind of the driver the more I come back to it being about pure concentration. There is so much going on in that mind.

"I know a lot of people feel it happens by habit from repetitive training but the drivers have to keep that focus for close to an hour and 45 minutes and are not allowed to lose concentration for one tenth of a second. You can switch into robotic mode just following the car in front but, most of the time, the best drivers will be pushing, looking for that edge. It's that continuous focus, that continuous discipline to stay on the pace and keep the sharpness, the alertness of reaction." (p. 259-260)

Johnny Herbert says essentially the same thing, albeit a little more vividly:

"The only way I can explain it is to compare it with soccer. Imagine a player coming towards the goal with the ball, he reaches the six-yard box and thinks he's done well. He kicks it but hits the post. The equivalent is me almost losing my life if I make a mistake like that. During the match the player will pass the ball but it goes to the other side. That's the equivalent of me wiping a wheel off on a normal track but here (Monaco) even more so. We're in trouble if we make small mistakes and it's concentration which helps you avoid them. The soccer players make a lot of mistakes and they don't have the ball for an hour and a half. If you total how long they do have the ball at their feet it's not long – and half of that they lose it." (p. 249)

'Inside the Mind of the Grand Prix Driver' does have its shortfalls, though, and they seem to start with the way the book was initially conceptualised. Hilton doesn't seem to know whether he was trying to write a serious study of driver psychology or a general overview of the topic for a general audience, and the result is a clumsy blend of the two. By and large, the book is well-suited to a general audience of motorsport fans, but the inclusion of small devices such as footnotes (the vast, vast majority of which are unneccessary and only serve to make the book more fiddly to read) may have been a misguided attempt to give the book a heightened sense of credibility.

It follows that the structure of the book is rather vague, a characteristic further illustrated by the hazy subtitle: 'The psychology of the fastest men on earth: sex, danger, and everything else.' The problem is worsened because the balance of drivers selected as interview subjects are far too heavily weighted toward those who never quite made it. Worse still, many 'never quite made it' a few years ago, so it can also seem a little out of date. I am certainly not wishing to diminish the ability or careers of Mark Blundell, Martin Donnelly, or Karl Wendlinger, but given the choice, there are others from whom I’d like to hear about F1 driver psychology.

Most of the other problems that I had with the book related to particular characteristics of Hilton's work that don't tend to sit well with me, but I have written about that many times before, and there's no reason to go over it all again.

Ultimately, though, this is a book that should prove a worthwhile read for most F1 fans. There is a fair bit of fluff padding the pages out, but interspersed throughout is some really fascinating stuff. It's probably not a book that I would hurry to read again, but for the most part I did enjoy sitting down with it, and that is ultimately what we're after.