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The 2021 Formula 1 and MotoGP seasons are just around the corner, and they’ll be hugely informed by the high drama of both championships’ pandemic-disrupted 2020 calendars.
While F1 ended up with a familiar champion in Lewis Hamilton despite many surprises along the way, MotoGP was turned completely inside out by Marc Marquez’s early injury and had a shock new title-winner in Joan Mir.
The Autocourse and Motocourse annuals – available from Icon Publishing – are renowned as the best record of the events of the F1 and MotoGP seasons every year. Here’s more on what you can find in the 2020 editions.
Autocourse
Quite aside from the book’s production values – it really is a thing of beauty – the content encompasses some fascinating pieces, as well as providing a historical record of each race of the season.
Hearing the technical directors of every team explain in detail their cars and development, or reading an in-depth piece on Lewis Hamilton with detailed input from Mercedes’ James Allison is fascinating stuff.
Taking a look back on Red Bull’s 300 grands prix with Christian Horner reveals some great nuggets, as does a retrospective on the life and times of Frank Williams.
Gorgeous photography is boldly used, every piece of statistical information of the season is within the pages and there are extensive reviews of F2, F3, Formula E, sportscar and GT racing, touring cars and American racing. It is the definitive motorsport annual. – Mark Hughes
Motocourse
There are few things more prestigious or more eagerly anticipated every year than Motocourse. The MotoGP bible since 1976, the beautiful hard-backed book has been the definitive review of every season since then, and 2020’s is no different.
Packed full of all the results and recaps of the year, as you’d expect (and very useful it is too, when you’ve got a memory as bad as mine), where the book has really started to shine is through all the extra content and information crammed into it.
From technical recaps with The Race MotoGP Podcast’s own Neil Spalding and the always-excellent 500GP race winner Simon Crafar to features on the top names and key people in the series, it is about as comprehensive recap of the past year as you could ever hope for.
It’s a lovely thing as well, coming as it does weighing a hefty few kilos and in all its glossy glory. It’s not a cheap purchase, but it feels substantial – like it’s worth the money and like it’s something you want to keep on the self forever. Although be aware – starting a collection is an addictive hobby…
It’s not just grand prix racing, either. Production racing gets its own fair share of coverage, with detailed analysis of World, British and American Superbike series. And of course, there’s the results section, which is just nicer than having to google it! – Simon Patterson
