The Bookworm Critique
"FORMULA 1: CREATING THE SPECTACLE" By Alan Henry; Published by Hazleton	by Mark Glendenning, Australia

Books that are intended to give the reader a glimpse of the 'other side' of Formula One have been around forever. In recent years, though, the whole genre has experienced something of a boom (which is different to when, say, a Supertec engine experiences something of a boom). The epidemic has reached the point where it seems to be the duty of each of the major English Formula One newspaper journalists to pump out a 'behind-the-scenes' expose every couple of seasons. Without wanting to take anything away from Alan Henry as a writer, or the quality of the information in 'Creating the Spectacle', this book is essentially another in a long line from this particular category. Henry attempts to give the average F1 fan some insight into the aspects of the sport that are usually either hidden from the public or overlooked in favour of the more superficial aspects of the sport. As far as 'Creating the Spectacle' is concerned, these facets of F1 can be loosely broken down into the categories of money, television, travel logistics, driver psychology, team owner psychology, and various aspects of race administration, including scrutineering. As a whole, the information contained within the book is fairly elementary. Again that is no criticism of the author, for it is impossible to guess how knowledgeable the average readier is going to be, and therefore all bases should be covered to ensure that as many people as possible can follow what the book is all about. But if you've read a few books of this kind before, then you're invariably going to come across a lot of stuff that you learnt in other titles. Similarly, a lot of the information is of the kind that the average fan just picks up in the course of following their sport. If you're a fairly new convert to Formula One, or you have never been much of an F1 reader in the past, then 'Creating the Spectacle' is certainly good enough to provide a decent grounding in the basics of the effort required by hundreds of people to allow twenty-two guys to go racing sixteen times per year. One particular characteristic of 'Creating the Spectacle' is that it is very picture-heavy. Whether this is good or bad is purely a matter of taste, however it should be pointed out that the quality of the photos is a little bit up and down. Some photos, particularly the action shots, are really good. Meanwhile, a the shot that is meant to illustrate the glamorous nature of the F1 paddock by depicting David Coulthard talking to Liz Hurley and Hugh Grant is interesting only because it's fun trying to figure out who of the three looks the most completely bored with the whole thing. Some of the captions are also a little suspect. One shot, for instance, is tagged as follows: "The essence of Formula 1. Michael Schumacher's Ferrari F300 swings through the Massenet left-hander at Monaco during practice for the most glamorous race on the calender" (p.13). I don't have any particular problem with the sentiment, but the overall impact is diminished somewhat by the fact that the driver in the photo is clearly Eddie Irvine. OK, now to the text itself. Henry opens with an explanation of Ecclestone's rise to power in Formula One, and the way in which the sport is run. Factually, the information is pretty solid, although a bit of historically contextual information would have helped a lot. This is particularly true where the FOCA/FISA wars are concerned. Despite the massive role that the conflict played in the development of Formula One, it is given very little attention. Meanwhile, relatively unimportant stuff, like the size of Bernie's bank balance, is discussed in meticulous detail. Also disappointing here was the incredibly politically friendly way in which Ecclestone is depicted. Nobody expects Henry to come out and call Bernie a jerk or anything, but we also don't need to be told over and over again how he deserves all the credit for making F1 successful, and how all his demands over the years have been completely reasonable, and how wrong the teams that held out on signing the Concorde agreement were. Recent events concerning two red cars and some barge boards gave a new significance to the section in the book that dealt with scrutineering. (Ironically, the large picture that accompanies that beginning of this section features a Ferrari being examined in the scrutineering bay!). This is a topic that Henry covers quite well, explaining the chain-of-command, the selection procedure by which cars are selected for examination, and the ways in which they are checked. Sometimes a little more information would be helpful though. We're told, for example, the fuel samples are subjected to a gas chromatograph test. Cool. Now ask me if I know what a gas chromatograph test is. Henry also uses the scrutineering section to explain the issues of rule clarification, where the teams check that a new component of their cars are permissible under FIA regulations, and explores what happens when the stewards and FIA see things differently. Naturally, these leads straight on to the topic of team protests - another issue that is very relevant in light of the events over the past few weeks. One particular piece of information relating to confidential clarification grabbed my attention. Henry states that, once a team has requested clarification regarding a new technological development, the FIA Technical Delegate "considers the matter and then sends his considered reply. But only to that team" (p.54). My personal understanding was that confidentiality was only maintained if the development was approved; if the innovation was rejected, then the FIA forwarded their response to all of the teams. It's quite possible I've got it wrong - if I have, feel free to drop me a line and let me know. 'Formula 1: Creating the Spectacle' is, in general, a fairly solid source of information if you want to learn more about the behind-the-scenes aspect of F1. It is well written, and manages to be easy for virtually anybody to understand without being overly simplistic. Also, despite the fact that there are a lot of photos padding the book out, there's still enough text to occupy the average reader for a few days. My main problem with it was that is was just too PR-friendly, but hopefully most readers should be able to recognize those parts of the book for what they are. Overall though, it would serve quite adequately as a brief distraction from the hollow, painful emptiness that is the off-season.

Mark Glendenning	© 1999 Kaizar.Com, Incorporated.
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