1982: Inside story of the sensational Grand Prix season
Christopher Hilton
Publication: Out Now, RRP: £35.00Format: Hardback, ISBN: 978 1 84425 404 0
It was savage, it was sombre, and in its most intense moments it was genuinely sensational. No Grand Prix season has ever been like 1982. Each round of the championship produced a mood of its own, from magnificence to mourning and everything in between.
Eleven different men won the sixteen races, something unimaginable in modern-day Formula 1. This was also a season of shocking violence. Two men died - the iconic Canadian Gilles Villeneuve, driving a Ferrari, and the unknown Riccardo Paletti in a humble Osella. A third driver, a Parisian playboy called Didier Pironi, crashed so badly he emerged a cripple. Others engaged in an heroic struggle for the Championship, including battle-scarred Niki Lauda coming back after six years in retirement. Half a dozen men fought for the title across four continents, but in the end the Finn, Keke Rosberg, won it from the Ulsterman, John Watson - the showdown at a concrete-clad Nevada car park.
This book is the full story of that amazing season a quarter of a century ago - told through the memories of those who lived it. Behind the scenes the plot was almost as fascinating as the racing. It included a drivers' rebellion, the struggle between turbo and normally aspirated teams, the introduction of pit stops for fuel and tyres, and the Renault team imploding amidst great acrimony.
Packed with fresh insight from interviews and new research, this superbly illustrated book - complete with circuit maps, grid positions, race results, newspaper cuttings, and fans' memories - captures the intensity of it all.
It is also a personal account of the author experiencing, almost by accident, Grand Prix racing for the first time. In 1982 Christopher Hilton was a sportswriter with the Daily Express, London. He'd covered just about every sport except Grand Prix racing. When the regular reporter couldn't go to the races at Detroit and Montreal, Christopher stepped in. When he saw his first Grand Prix he had no idea what to make of it - and no idea that within weeks it would change his life.
