First Among Champions: The Alfa Romeo Grand Prix Cars [Illustrated] (Hardcover)

David Venables charts the history of Alfa's involvement in Grand Prix since the earliest days of A.L.F.A through the golden years of the P2 and P3 to the first Formula 1 World Championships of 1950 and 1951 and the reign of the superlative 158/159. Understandably the story concentrates on the years 1930 to 1951 and would (should?) have ended there had it not been for the lamentable re-entry to F1 in the late 1970s when a combination of politics, dubious engineering and sheer bad luck failed to realise but a few hollow victories.

Venables tells the story with great authority but thankfully left the rose-tinted spectacles at home when describing the many lows as well as the highs. The reader gains an insight into just what motor racing was like in those bygone days- especially the grave risks that drivers took every time they drove.

This book will appeal not only to Alfa Romeo enthusiasts but to anyone with a genuine interest in motor racing's history- particularly its human (as opposed to technical) side.

Thoroughly recommended.

The place he gives to the 158/159 chapters reflects the original project. It's no mistery that he's fascinated by the exceptionally long and successful career of that model. He found a nice lot of original and/or little known period pictures, many of which even in colour, which are high-quality printed. The story he tells about the cars' developments is comprehensive, having sorted out many points remained unclear up to the publication of this book. Only sometimes the 'how and why' is a little on the short side, but it's still a pioneer work to put all the story together. Race entries are also well covered.

The first chapters, on pre-158 GP cars are also accurately covered, but they don't show the edge found in the main topic. It's still a very good story, even if connoisseurs would have wished more detail about obscure parts of Alfa Corse, like the 1937 - 1938 years.

The third part of the book, covering the 1970 - 1980s attempts of Autodelta in Formula One is not Venable's cup of tea, as he writes himself the story would have been nicer without those unsuccessful efforts. Nevertheless, he produces a very interesting material on the activities in those years, i.a. the supply of 33-derivated V8s to F1 teams in the early 70s. Such matters had never been covered before, and the unsuccessfulness of the cars doesn't detract from the interest of telling their story.

Only the technical appendix describing the cars can be found short, if not inaccurate when dealing with the F1s of the eighties.

Overall, it's in all respect an excellent and pleasant reading, widely appreciated among Alfa people