Johnny Tipler

Of the three years that Ayrton Senna drove for Team Lotus, 1985 to 1987, was one of the headiest periods in the history of motor racing. Not only were titanic battles raging between the four leading teams — McLaren, Williams, Ferrari and Lotus — in the second phase of the mega-powerful turbo era, rivalry between the top F1 drivers, on and off the track, was wound up to fever pitch.

Selected by both Top Gear and Classic Car magazines as Book of the Month for November 2005.

On Amazon: Ayrton Senna - the Team Lotus Years by Johnny Tipler

Nicknamed “Super Swede”, Ronnie Peterson rose from karts to F3 to become European F2 Champion in 1972, and came closest to winning the F1 World Championship in 1973 and 1978. By common consent the fastest driver in Formula 1 in that era, Ronnie Peterson was, paradoxically, a quiet shy person and an all-round nice guy. As Johnny Tipler’s book reveals, Ronnie invariably strove to wring the ultimate performance out of anything he drove.and that, ironically, was probably what cost him the F1 World Championship. Not content with nearly winning, he sought to annihilate the opposition and, in the process, subjected cars and tyres to stresses greater than they had been designed to accept. If they didn’t break, he usually won, but not often enough to gain the title.

Johnny Tipler’s biography of this determined and popular man recalls his great victories - his two Formula 1 championships and 14 grand prix wins, and triumph at the Indianapolis 500 and the Le Mans 24 Hours. He also considers Hill’s later move from driving to team ownership, a new stage in a tireless career which was so cruelly cut short when he and the principal members of his team were killed in a plane crash in 1975.