Inside The Mind of The Grand Prix Driver - Christopher Hilton

Following my reading of the book Deadly Obsessions, I threw myself into another motor-racing-related work, Inside The Mind of The Grand Prix Driver, written by the late Christopher Hilton (the edition I read dates from 2003). The latter book covered similar ground to Deadly Obsessions, but felt more substantial and absorbing in some respects.

I am not really sure to what extent the book truly gets "inside the mind" of the driver, but I found this to be quite an engaging and illuminating look at the world inhabited by racing pilots, tending to belie some of the assessments which I have seen elsewhere. The interviews with drivers are very revealing, and often entertaining.

There are some valuable nuggets of information about the career paths of certain drivers, and we see how precarious and stressful the driver's existence is, with constant anxiety about job security and one's status within team and sport.  It is true to say that the pressures and the intensity rise with each passing year, but it sounds as though the situation was pretty fraught and demanding even in the early 1980s!

The recollections of various Grand Prix competitors really do bring home the notion of the "survival of the fittest" being one of the main guiding principles of the F1 firmament. To many this might seem like an indictment of the sport, a recognition that one must be ruthless and grasping in order to not just succeed, but merely survive. On the other hand, I was quite inspired by being immersed in this rarefied atmosphere, where the mental and psychological faculties and capabilities are stretched to the limits.

Some of the drivers do come across as deluded in their assessments of their abilities, achievements and relative worth, but these traits have to be placed in the context of the necessity to survive, the nature of the beast. Outsiders, real outsiders, would have difficulty comprehending and appreciating all these things. Anything that helps them cope....

In one or two cases I was left wondering whether the drivers' pronouncements constituted posturing and bravado, a front which enabled them to navigate choppy and hostile waters. I suspect that many "lesser lights" have to put on an act, whereas the true greats can more or less take certain attributes for granted, without having to constantly broadcast their prevalence or importance.

It is pointed out in the book that after they retire from racing some drivers mellow, realise that they no longer require "extreme" attitudes or motivations. Others may have been "contaminated" more profoundly by their experiences and remain in "F1 mode" long after they hang up their helmets.

One of the tests of a book for me is the degree to which it instilled in me an enhanced knowledge and understanding of a subject at hand. This work, on balance, does pass that test. The contributions of Jonathan Palmer, Julian Bailey, Perry McCarthy, Martin Donnelly and Allan McNish I found especially instructive, for differing reasons.

To return to the theme which I sought to develop in my article about Deadly Obsessions, did I learn anything from the Hilton book about how the world has changed in the past two decades? Not really, as this is a drier and less emotive exploration of the F1 community.

Deadly Obsessions - Life and Death in Formula One - Phil Shirley

Upon reviewing my bookshelves in the Spring of 2022, it has come to my attention that many of the books which reside on said shelves are of a similar vintage. Most of them were purchased or received over ten years ago, and I am left wondering how "dated" some of them have become, and to what degree their philosophical orientation, apparently to my approval back then, remains so today.

I decided to treat one book as a "test bed" for my theories. Picked almost at random, my gaze alighted on Deadly Obsessions - Life and Death in Formula One, by Phil Shirley. This work, which was originally published around the year 2000, is essentially an exploration of racing drivers' attitudes towards their chosen profession. Whilst the book was not exactly a masterwork, it did serve my purposes. I think the world started to change when I was not looking, or at least when I was not paying sufficient attention.

The odd factual error, and the occasional inconsistency, did ever so slightly mar my enjoyment of Deadly Obsessions. That said, there is some valuable and intriguing material in the book, although I gained the impression that the author embellished certain episodes in order to replenish his supplies of case studies. 

How convenient also that some of these drivers apparently encountered "premonitions", and contemplated withdrawing from the events in which they would perish or be injured. The talk of premonitions and such-like should be treated with a drum of salt.

The thought occurred to me that this type of analysis of motor racing and its participants is out of kilter with todays sanitized, digital, video-game-like incarnation of the sport. In 1999, some semblance of the visceral and gladiatorial pursuit of yore remained, or at least was detectable in recent memory.

To return to my original premise, what piqued my antennae when shuffling through the pages of Deadly Obsessions was just how noticeably the world has altered in some respects, by way of tone, outlook and "narrative", in the space of two-and-a-bit decades. The roots of some of these shifts were admittedly already present in 1999/2000, if one was smart or perceptive enough to know where to look.

Talk of "masculinity" and "male identity" would clearly, ahem, raise eyebrows if employed nowadays. I do think, however, that examining and discussing such topics is still valid, if one embraces a more inclusive mindset overall.

In more general, "moral" terms, I sense that the mentalities and attitudes, or at least some of them, on display in the book, would be eschewed even by todays Formula 1 competitors, against the backdrop of a more sentimental, hyper-sensitive age. The views on "life and death", safety and risk have changed, if perhaps not as radically as some might imagine, The opinions of Jacques Villeneuve, for example, on such matters would be even more vigorously debated and scrutinized now than they were around the turn of the millennium.

One thing which I liked about the book was its use of short, snappy and digestible chapters. The book was also instructive, in that it illustrated a certain demarcation in philosophies and approaches between drivers. These separations might well have been mirrored in "real life". There were (and are) the rationalists, the romantics, the pragmatists and so forth.

This was not too bad a read, although I think my appraisal of its literary merits have to be viewed in the the context of how my horizons in this area have broadened since 2010. Reading classical and modernist literature, and studying the work of the great philosophers, can render other types of reading matter rather mediocre and shallow by comparison.

I may well continue this new "project" of mine; reading books which were published before the social media era. It will, I think, sharpen my appreciation, and understanding of, recent social and cultural history. One observation which did make its claims on me was how confident and assured the world seemed in 1999/2000. Today's uncertainties and regressions only throw this assessment into sharper focus.