F1 Fanatic's top ten gift ideas for F1 fans 2017

Still looking for present ideas for a Formula One fan in your life? F1 Fanatic has ten top recommendations plus dozens more suggestions besides.

How to Build an F1 Car by Adrian Newey

The man who designed more world-beating Formula One cars than anyone else over the past two-and-a-half decades has finally put pen to paper. Adrian Newey’s revealing and witty memoir is the best new F1 book to hit the shelves in 2017. Don’t miss it.

Read the F1 Fanatic of How to Build an F1 Car by Adrian Newey
Buy How to Build a Car: The Autobiography of the World’s Greatest Formula 1 Designer by Adrian Newey

The Mechanic by Marc Priestley

In contrast former McLaren mechanic Marc Priestley’s recollection of his time in F1 is a spikier affair which gives a warts-an-all account of Formula One’s behind-the-scenes extremes.

Already got these on your shelves? Here’s a few more of the new books which arrived in the past 12 months.

F1 2017 by Codemasters

F1 2017 is the first official Formula One game to receive five out of five from F1 Fanatic since Codemasters took over the franchise in 2009. Read why below.

Motorsport Manager by SEGA

While F1 2017 lets you drive the cars, in Motorsport Manager you can do everything else. The team behind it have painstakingly created a rich, constantly evolving, F1-style world for its management simulation. The game appeared late in 2016 so it’s still worth considering as a less expensive option for Formula One game fans.

The official 2017 F1 season review

It doesn’t hit the shelves until next week and review copies haven’t appeared yet. But expect the usual exhaustive account of the year and the pick of the very best F1 footage.

Want a review of an earlier season? Here’s F1 Fanatic’s verdict on the best of the rest:

Autocourse 2017-18

The ultimate annual for motorsport fans includes detailed accounts of all 20 F1 races plus reviews of all the major international and national four-wheeled racing series.

Lego Mercedes F1 Team set

This officially licensed Lego set is features a Mercedes W07 each for Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg plus a grandstand, pit garage, pit wall, television camera and loads more.

Race-used car parts from Memento Exclusives

The 160 wheel rims each Formula One team gets through every race weekend is just one example of the vast amount of material the teams generate during a season. But ever more of this hardware is finding its way into our living rooms thanks to the team at Memento Exclusives and their imaginative range of items made from race-used ex-F1 car parts.

Team gear

As well as clinching his fourth world championship, Lewis Hamilton broke an all-time Formula One record this year by surpassing Michael Schumacher’s achievement of setting the most pole positions. Mercedes has produced a special T-shirt to commemorate the achievement.

The usual vast range of merchandise is available from all the teams. And you should be able to pick up some deals on the last of the McLaren-Honda kit. Or get set for 2018 with the first ‘Halo’ F1 car models.

Virtual reality headset

Virtual reality is everywhere and 2018 looks set to be the year Formula One embraces 360-degree video. The first tests of the technology including on-car cameras have already been completed.

A a virtual reality headset isn’t essential to enjoy the footage, but it’s a great way to experience the unique perspective it gives. Google’s ultra-cheap Cardboard offering offers the easiest way into trying out the technology – just slot your phone in and go.

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Over to you

Got any more festive F1 gift ideas? What’s on your wish list?

Have your say in the comments.

2017 F1 season

Browse all 2017 F1 season articles

13 comments on “F1 Fanatic’s top ten gift ideas for F1 fans 2017”

tgu (@thegrapeunwashed)
11th December 2017, 13:18

I’ll be interested to read the review of the DVD, I’ve bought two season reviews: 2008 and 2010. The first one devoted about 15 minutes to each race and was a decent enough effort (they’ve never really gone to town on these things); the season only had about 5 minutes per race – far too short to get a proper feel for the Grands Prix – a wasted purchase.

I hope that Liberty will get round to doing proper reviews for all the seasons it has access to, after it has launched its online platform: each Grand Prix ought to include technical developments, qualifying session, 15-30 minutes of race footage and then analysis. If it was done right, fans would pay for access.
1. Jere (@jerejj)
  11th December 2017, 13:43
  
  @thegrapeunwashed I have all the official season reviews from 2005 onwards (2005-2010 on DVD and everything on Blu-Ray from 2011 onwards).
2. Jere (@jerejj)
  11th December 2017, 13:44
  
  @thegrapeunwashed I don’t find the race reviews too short to get a proper feel for a Grand Prix, though.
  1. tgu (@thegrapeunwashed)
    11th December 2017, 15:38
    
    @jerejj a five minute race review isn’t sufficient for me, I want to see how all the teams (at least the points scoring teams) perform in the race. The 2008 review was far better in this respect than 2010.
3. Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
  11th December 2017, 16:26
  
  I’ll be really interested to see what route Liberty choose for the season review. I have a slight concern that they will try to go out all rasmataz and miss the point slightly. I would say that they need to embrace the hard-core fan here and try go in depth with action, analysis and detail. Not off track ‘glamour’ that tries to sell F1 (the viewer of this DVD is already sold).
4. Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
  11th December 2017, 16:30
  
  Also I want Clive James doing the voice over!
  1. Jere (@jerejj)
    11th December 2017, 20:46
    
    @eurobrun No, I prefer Ben Edwards. He’s the perfect one for that purpose. He’s been the regular narrator of the official season reviews for a long time already.
  2. paulguitar (@paulguitar)
    12th December 2017, 0:41
    
    @eurobrun
    
    Completely agree. Clive is on an entirely different intellectual plain to whet people are used to not though, sadly.
    1. paulguitar (@paulguitar)
      12th December 2017, 0:42
      
      *what *now
      
      Sorry, red wine spelling!
Bart
11th December 2017, 14:18

I read Adrian Newey’s “How to build a car” in 3 prolonged evenings.
What can I say. Witty, intense yet very accessible. Best book I ever read.

I’m planning on reading it again, but not yet; saving it up for the week after XMas at my inlaws.
1. Lane (@mrlaner110)
  11th December 2017, 19:13
  
  @bart I couldn’t agree more! Adrian writes really well and I thoroughly enjoyed the mix of technical developments, with his family life and anecdotes from the track. It was seamless which is not easy. I read it over the course of three days too. Amazing how much of the current F1 car started on his drawing board.
Panzik
11th December 2017, 17:01

I already have three out of ten of these things c:
Francorchamps (@francorchamps17)
11th December 2017, 22:34

McLaren has some cheap shirts. Ordered 3, they look great and size is perfect.