Historically, the 2025 Formula 1 season has been all about the 75th anniversary of the world championship. Started in 1950 with the official mouthful of a name, The Royal Automobile Club Grand Prix d'Europe Incorporating The British Grand Prix, at a very different Silverstone layout, the seven-race championship (which actually included the Indy 500) stayed in Europe for the F1 rounds with stops at Monaco, Bern, Spa, Reims, and Monza.

The first champion was Italian Giuseppe "Nino" Farina driving an Alfa Romeo, first the 158 chassis then switching to the 159. The engine was an Alfa Romeo 158 1.5 L8 s. Farina won the first, middle (Swiss), and last (Italian) rounds. The points system was just for the top five (8-6-4-3-2) with an extra point for fastest lap. Only the driver's best four finishes counted.

Farina scored 30 points beating out teammate Argentine Juan Manuel Fangio who scored 27. Another teammate and Italian, Luigi Faglioli, finished third with 24 points with four second place finishes, but scored 28 points before having to drop results. It was a clean top three sweep for Alfa Romeo who also won every European race, as Fangio won the other three (Monaco, Belgian, French). Johnnie Parsons won the oddball inclusion of the Indy 500, so finished sixth in the world championship.

In the early days, there were non-championship Formula 1 races, oftentimes more were scheduled than there were championship races. In 1950 alone, there were an astounding 18 non-championship F1 races.

A lot has changed. Which is certainly an understatement. To fully capture the history of F1 is difficult at best, impossible at worst. Honing in on certain subjects or years or turning points or personalities can sometimes provide a better understanding of the history. However, there is nothing wrong with a reference book style of retelling the year-by-year events.

This diamond anniversary has brought out a lot of books to celebrate it. Many of them are the general coffee table style books which provide a basic history of the series. Which is fine, if one does a good job encapsulating the broad history of the sport, and even more especially, if they do an excellent job illustrating the book with photographs, providing a true feel of the respective eras.

Formula 1 75 Years: At Speed With The World's Greatest Motorsport does a fine job with the text and an excellent job with the photo selections. In fact, the photos selected in this effort are worth the price of the book alone.

After an introduction of the origins, each chapter is dedicated to a decade. The text is a basic overview (there's only so much one can do with this format), including sidebars which delve into particular important subjects which define the respective decade.

The sidebar topics are consistent for each decade -- Behind the Scenes, Defining Event, Significant Car. Some of these choices may spurn some fun debates. Each chapter wraps up with the world champions' short bios. But, it's the photos and their extensive captions which are the highlights of this effort. If you're a racing history buff like me, the older the photos, the more excited you get at their selections. The book wraps up with a list of race winners.

From that first race in Silverstone and first year of six all European events to 2024 with 24 worldwide events starting and wrapping up in the Middle East. From an Italian to a Dutch world champion. From supercharged and normally aspirated engines of various sizes to Turbo V6 hybrid power units. From so called helmets and no seat belts to cockpit survival cells and halos. The slow, amazing progression of Formula 1 is laid out in front of you.

As coffee table style auto racing history books go, this is one worth having to cover Formula 1. And if your coffee table is already weighed down with other tomes of various racing subjects, well, that's why you bought a sturdy coffee table.

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