Reddit Reddit reviews Life at the Limit: Triumph and Tragedy in Formula One

We found 8 Reddit comments about Life at the Limit: Triumph and Tragedy in Formula One. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

Books
Self-Help
Success Self-Help
Life at the Limit: Triumph and Tragedy in Formula One
Check price on Amazon

8 Reddit comments about Life at the Limit: Triumph and Tragedy in Formula One:

u/damesdad · 4 pointsr/formula1

I doubt there is any video but you should get the race and year from this book

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Life-Limit-Triumph-Tragedy-Formula/dp/0330351397/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_y

Edit: digging really deep into my memory I seem to recall that the driver might have been Vittorio Brambilla. His wiki States that he occasionally drove the safety car at the Italian Grand Prix. Sorry, I have no more detail than that.

u/that_video_art_guy · 3 pointsr/formula1

Steve Matchett's books are probably some of the more exciting and informative books about F1 and racing in general. Steve is now an F1 Commentator for Speed Tv in America but spent his days working for Benetton during its glory days, he's got a load of knowledge(even though Speed's network coverage gets a lot of flack for being garbage) and has worked on Martin Brundle's and Michael Schumacher's cars during his tenure. Once I got them I never put them down, the best part is that they are cheap too!

Steve Matchett's Books


Prof. Sid Watkins Book Life at the Limit: Triumph and Tragedy in Formula One is pretty good if not some what depressing... None the less its a real look at how far F1 and racing in general has come in the terms of safety.

And just because its fun/sad I have to say Perry McCarthy's Flat Out, Flat Broke: Formula 1 the Hard Way! is by far one of the more hilarious books out there and although his time in F1 was very short lived its still a good book worth mentioning, that and he was the original Stig... come on!!!

u/frank_n_bean · 3 pointsr/formula1

This question has been asked a bunch of times, but the one post I've found the most helpful was /u/that_video_art_guy's response in this post. For quick reference, here's the copy/paste:



I've read many of these books, I'm partial to the mechanics and team member books but find all of them to be very enjoyable.


The Super Collective Super list of Super Good F1 Books:

Mechanics/Team Members


[Life in the Pit Lane: Mechanic's Story of the Benetton Grand Prix Year](
http://www.amazon.com/Life-Pit-Lane-Mechanics-Benetton/dp/0760300267/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1356716346&sr=1-5&keywords=steve+matchett) - Steve Matchett

[The Mechanic's Tale: Life in the Pit-Lanes of Formula One](
http://www.amazon.com/Mechanics-Tale-Life-Pit-Lanes-Formula/dp/0752827839/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1356716346&sr=1-1&keywords=steve+matchett) - Steve Matchett

The Chariot Makers: Assembling the Perfect Formula 1 Car - Steve Matchett

Team Lotus: My View From the Pitwall - Peter Warr

Jo Ramirez: Memoirs of a Racing Man - Jo Ramirez

Art of War - Five Years in Formula One - Max Mosley, Adam Parr, Paul Tinker

Tales from the Toolbox: A Collection of Behind-the-Scenes Tales from Grand Prix Mechanics - Michael Oliver, Jackie Stewart


Technical Books

Red Bull Racing F1 Car: Haynes Owners' Workshop Manual

McLaren M23: 1973 Haynes Owners' Workshop Manual

Lotus 72: 1970 Haynes Owners' Workshop Manual

Tune to Win: The art and science of race car development and tuning - Carroll Smith

Engineer to Win - Carroll Smith

Nuts, Bolts, Fasteners and Plumbing Handbook AKA: Screw to Win - Carroll Smith

Race Car Vehicle Dynamics: Problems, Answers and Experiments - Doug Milliken

Chassis Design: Principles and Analysis - William F. Milliken, Douglas L. Milliken, Maurice Olley

The Racing & High-Performance Tire: Using Tires to Tune for Grip & Balance - Paul Haney


Technical Driving

Ultimate Speed Secrets: The Complete Guide to High-Performance and Race Driving - Ross Bentley

Going Faster! Mastering the Art of Race Driving - Carl Lopez

Working the Wheel - Martin Brundle


Drivers and Rivalry's

Senna Versus Prost: The Story of the Most Deadly Rivalry in Formula One - Malcolm Folley

The Limit: Life and Death on the 1961 Grand Prix Circuit - Michael Cannell

Winning Is Not Enough: The Autobiography - Sir Jackie Stewart

Shunt: The Story of James Hunt - Tom Rubython

Alex Zanardi: My Sweetest Victory: A Memoir of Racing Success, Adversity, and Courage - Alex Zanardi, Gianluca Gasparini, Mario Andretti.

It Is What It Is: The Autobiography - David Coulthard

Flat Out, Flat Broke: Formula 1 the Hard Way! - Perry McCarthy The Black Stig, Damon Hill

F1 Through the Eyes of Damon Hill: Inside the World of Formula 1 - Damon Hill, Photography: Sutton Images


People Of F1

Life at the Limit: Triumph and Tragedy in Formula One - Professor Sid Watkins

Beyond the Limit - Professor Sid Watkins

I Just Made The Tea: Tales from 30 years inside Formula 1 - Di Spires

Bernie: The Biography of Bernie Ecclestone - Susan Watkins


Picture Books

McLaren The Cars: Updated 2011 Edition

Art of the Formula 1 Race Car - Stuart Codling, James Mann, Peter Windsor, Gordon Murray

u/Spark_77 · 3 pointsr/formula1

FIA stands for Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. Its basically an international association of automobile clubs, this includes organisations that organise and hold motorsport events.

Back in the 90s the EU ruled that the FIA could not hold the governing and commercial rights, so they sold the commercial rights to FOM. This is the set up that remains to this day. the FIA are responsible for holding the rule book and governance of those rules. FOM deal with the commercial side - they sell coverage to TV companies, give journalists access to the paddock etc. FOM also sign deals with promoters who wish to hold grand prix. FOM also have agreements with every team in F1 (called the Concorde agreement). The Concorde agreement covers the teams obligations (must compete in every race, must run 2 cars and so on) and the money that they receive from FOM for participating.

The Concorde agreement is secret - there is an awful lot of speculation about who gets what money, but few people actually know and are bound to secrecy. We do know that some teams receive extra money "just because". We also know the payment structure is based on the previous year's WCC standings and it is somewhat unbalanced - so if you win the WCC you get a whole bunch more money than the 10th placed team.

Bernie ? There has been much written about him. In short he's a maverick. Many years ago he owned the Brabham team, back then the commercial side of F1 didn't really exist - cars had sponsor stickers all over them but it wasn't really exploited. More than that, the whole commercial side was disorganised - teams would do deals to run in races directly with promoters. When there were flyaway races teams would book their shipping (of cars/equipment) individually. Bernie saw an opportunity, he started representing the teams - initially getting a bulk deal on transport to lower costs, then he began to represent the teams to negotiate deals. For the most part the teams were happy with this, at least initially - they were naive and far more interested in putting next year's car together than dealing with business people. When TV money started coming along they understood ! Which led to Ken Tyrrell rather angrily declaring that Bernie had stolen F1 from the teams. FOCA (the company that Bernie set up to represent the teams) became FOM. Bernie then eventually sells FOM to a number of investors - most notably CVC Capital Partners.

It should be noted that over the years Bernie has made the sport what it is today (good and bad). The commercialisation has bought huge amounts of money to the sort - F1 drivers are household names all over the world. Bernie made the sport more professional - previously teams would run in F1 for the odd race or two when they could afford it using old cars, sometimes with only one car.
Probably the biggest thing that Bernie did was improve safety and medical care. He employed Sid Watkins as the official F1 doctor. When promoters refused to let Sid inspect medical facilities Bernie threatened to cancel races if Sid wasn't allowed to inspect facilities or found things were not up to the required standard.
Sid was a wonderful chap and is very much missed, his book is worth a read - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Life-Limit-Triumph-Tragedy-Formula/dp/0330351397/ref=pd_sim_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=2KS044VRWQHPN89Z40TY and the follow up https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beyond-Limit-Sid-Watkins/dp/0330481967

Anyway, back to the money - CVC are capitalists. They buy something and later sell it to make money. In the case of FOM I believe the profit generated paid back about 50% of their purchase price of the years - then of course they sold it to Liberty Media. They've done pretty well out of it.
CVC's strategy was to leave Bernie in place - he knows everyone, he knows the business and his eye for a deal was (is?) pretty impressive. Basically as an employee of CVC his job was to make them as much money as possible - and thats what he did. This has attracted a lot of negative press for Bernie over the years. To some extent he & CVC were "chasing the money" -hence races in India, Korea and many other far flung destinations. You have to remember Bernie is 86 and basically, doesn't understand the internet, social media and all that stuff - this has also caused negative press.

When LM bought FOM and quietly moved Bernie aside many rejoiced because they saw Bernie as all F1's problem personified. Ultimately LM have purchased F1 to make money, so in some respects the rejoicing was maybe a little premature. Having said that, LM clearly have their own ideas on how to monetise F1 - its still early days, lets see what happens.



u/EsbenT · 2 pointsr/AskReddit

Life at the Limit: Triumph and Tragedy in Formula One

It's the second piece of motorsports literature I acquired, and it's one of the best for sure. Very exciting, even if you're not particularly a fan of motorsports, as it tells the history of a very interesting and important man. Basically, Formula 1 and other big motor racing series are relatively safe these days, but you don't need to go further back than the 70's to find a time when death was a natural part of it. This book is about Sid Watkins' crusade to improve the safety at the circuits (swapping flammable hay bales for more suitable solutions, disallowing fuel tanks to surround the cockpit, restricting spectator areas e.t.c.) and in developing rapid response medical rescue (a medical car, hospitals and helicopters on standby the whole race weekend, medical centres at the circuits, teaching Ayrton Senna rescue procedures and so on).

Includes detailed, and very interesting accounts of brokering deals to get all this safety into sport, where the culture was pretty much where you accepted the risk of death. First-hand accounts from some pretty terrible accidents, the aftermath, the further advancement of safety and the story of what is plainly and simply a really interesting and important man; Sid Watkins.

TL;DR - The history of safety in Formula 1, but relevant to all motorsport.

u/crucible · 2 pointsr/formula1

It's covered in Professor Sid Watkins' first book, Life At The Limit. The book starts with the events of May 1994 and then goes right back to the 70s and Watkins's involvement with the safety and medical side of F1 through to the 90s.

Well worth a read, but he does cover many of the fatal crashes in the 70s and 80s in the book because he was usually the first on the scene as F1's doctor. There are some nice light hearted moments and funny anecdotes throughout the book to balance this out.

u/naughtyottsel · 1 pointr/formula1

Prof Watkins' book has a good section on the crash. It's still amazing to me that Peter Windsor escaped mostly unharmed, especially when such horrible injuries befell Frank Williams. Just one of those things, I guess.