A review by leebraries
The Mechanic: The Secret World of the F1 Pitlane by Marc 'Elvis' Priestley

adventurous informative tense fast-paced

4.25

so I picked this book up because I was in a bit of a slump, and I really wanted to get through something quickly and I realized that the way to do that would be to read about something that I’m so passionate about these days and that happened to be Formula One obviously I wasn’t going to turn to novels so I decided OK why not read this book that’s about the lives of the mechanics and engineers that work in the pit lane of Formula One quite obviously as an engineering student this appeals to me on an intellectual level, but also as a fan of the sport, it’s nice to have something that details the inner workings of what are usually unsung heroes of Formula One as a sport that’s highly technical. It really is up to not only the driver, but also the people working in the factories and especially in the pits so going into this book I was expecting a lot of that technical knowledge, and while it didn’t disappoint  on that aspect I also really like the more human aspect of it did a good job of humanizing the drivers, the big bosses that worked in Formula One. It did a good job of detailing just how wild this sport was with it influx of cash and it also featured heavily two of my favorite drivers Lewis Hamilton and give me recommend so I was really happy about that and I did find the writing style to be a bit juvenile at some point and I wasn’t a huge fan of like  some of the pacing because it felt somewhat like it was jumping a bit from one event to the other without clear like flow I guess but that aside I did genuinely enjoy the book and I flew through it so yeah if you’re a fan of Formula One, and you like getting into the nitty-gritty of beyond just the races and what you see on track then reading this book is a great way to say shape that interest like what’s happened for me  and yeah I guess if you’re also fond of watching YouTube videos about formula, one like I am, then you probably enjoy the book because it goes into that same deep dive, but just more personal level and with a different point of you than just the average Formula One fan because this is an actual mechanic who worked in McLaren by the way and experience all the highs and lows of the sport, so yeah good book definitely would recommend recommend