75 great gift ideas for F1 fans

The festive season is upon us and whether you’re buying a gift for an F1 fan or hoping to unwrap some F1 goodies we’ve got a stack of present ideas for you.

Using your F1 gift ideas as a starting point I’ve compiled 75 top presents for F1 fans from videos to books and models to games. Read on for the full list.

Jump to: Videos | Games | Books | Pictures | Models | Clothes
Race tickets | Calendars | Toys | Other stuff

Videos

F1 2009 DVD season review “Not in a hurry”

Always a big-seller and packed with four-and-a-half hours of footage the official F1 season review DVD is a must-have.

Read the review | Buy the 2009 F1 DVD review

Goodwood Festival of Speed 2009

Highlights from this year’s show included appearances from Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button. Have a look at the pictures from the festival to get a preview of some of the great racing cars at the 2009 edition.

Buy the Goodwood Festival of Speed 2009 DVD

Donington Grands Prix 1937-38 DVD

Just released on DVD, some fascinating footage of the Silver Arrows racing at Donington Park before the outbreak of World War Two.

Buy the Donington 1937 & 1938 DVD

Other motor sport DVDs

Whatever other motor sports you’re into there’s bound to be a DVD to suit – like the World Rally Championship, British Touring Cars or Le Mans 24 Hours.

Other F1 season review DVDs

Fill the gaps in your collection:

• 2008 F1 season review DVD – “Luck does not come into it”
• 2007 F1 season review DVD – “Kimi made it at last”
• 2006 F1 season review DVD – “Once again”
• 2005 F1 season review DVD – “Fantastic Fernando”
• 2004 F1 season review DVD – “Michael does it again”
• 2003 F1 season review DVD – “Michael & co.: The dream team”

Not enough for you? Here’s some more F1 video gift ideas.

Games

Finally F1 has an official game! It’s only available on two formats at the moment, you’ll have to wait until next year for Sony PS3 and Xbox 360 versions. There’s also an iPhone edition out now too.

“F1 2009″ by Codemasters for Nintendo Wii

Comes with an adaptor to turn the Wii controller into a steering wheel.

Read the review | Buy F1 2009 for Nintendo Wii

“F1 2009″ by Codemasters for Sony PSP

Play “F1 2009″ on the go – all the functionality of the Wii game in a hand-held package.

Read the review | Buy F1 2009 for Sony PSP

Books

Jenson Button: My championship year

The official book, which explains how Brawn were rescued at the beginning of the year only to discover they had a championship-winning car on their hands.

Read the review | Buy Jenson Button: My championship year

The Brawn Story

Christopher Hilton reviews the amazing story of Brawn GP and the man behind them, Ross Brawn.

Read the review | Buy “The Brawn story”

Jenson Button: A World Champion’s Story

Not yet reviewed, this is Alan Henry’s updated biography on the new world champion.

Buy “Jenson Button: A World Champion’s Story”

Williams

A first-rate book covering the history of one of the most successful F1 teams of all time, with much of the story told by its drivers, team members and, of course, Frank Williams and Patrick Head.

Read the review | Buy “Williams”

Senna versus Prost

The dramatic and destructive rivalry between Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost is told 20 years after their infamous first collision at Suzuka, and draws on a new interview with Prost.

Read the review | Buy “Senna versus Prost”

Legendary race cars

A selection of 25 of the greatest racing cars of all time, from F1 to sports cars and rally cars.

Read the review | Buy “Legendary race cars”

Stirling Moss: All my races

Covering every single one of almost 600 races Moss entered during his career, including all his F1 starts.

Read the review | Buy Stirling Moss: All my races

The Toleman Story

The story of the team which gave Ayrton Senna his F1 debut told for the first time (not yet reviewed).

Buy “The Toleman Story”

Official F1 books

A new series of official F1 books was released for the first time this year. Read the reviews here.

Buy “The Official Formula 1 Annual 2010″
Buy “Formula 1: The Definitive Visual Guide”

Ayrton Senna: An interactive voyage

Or, to give it its full title, “Ayrton Senna – Memories and Mementoes from a life lived at full speed: An interactive voyage.” This is part of the fashion for biographies which include pull-out bits of memorabilia – in this case facsimilies of Senna’s test schedules for McLaren, a racing licence and other interesting documents.

Read the review | Buy “Ayrton Senna: An interactive voyage”

The Treasures of Formula One

In a similar vein to the Senna book above, this F1 history by Bruce Jones features copies of interesting documents taken from the Donington Grand Prix Collection. (Not reviewed – thanks to Journeyer for the tip).

Buy “The Treasures of Formula One”

James Allen on F1 2009: A revolutionary year

ITV commentator-turned-blogger James Allen looks back on the 2009 season. (Not reviewed)

Buy “James Allen on F1 2009: A Revolutionary Year”

Autocourse 2009-2010

Always a popular purchase among F1 Fanatic readers and with good reason: Autocourse is the definitive F1 annual with a comprehensive look back on the Grand Prix season plus mini-reviews of other major four-wheeled racing championships.

Buy Autocourse 2009-2010

Other F1 annuals

Autocourse is great but it’s not cheap. If you’re looking for a low-cost F1 annual for a younger fan, try these for size:

Buy “The Official Formula 1 Season Review 2009″
Buy “BBC Sport 2009 F1 Season Review”
Buy “Formula 1 Yearbook 2009-2010″
Buy “Formula 1 2009: World Championship Review”

These book ideas not hit the spot? There’s plenty more where they came from here.

Pictures

Car-a-day by Rob Ijbema

Rob Ijbema paints a diverse selection of paintings of racing cars and supplied one for the winner of our 2009 Predictions Championship.

Motorsport in print

Check out the distinctive drawing style of Motorsport in Print which have a large collection of pictures available, including many from 2009, at reasonable prices. (Thanks to Katy for the tip!)

Darren Heath

Ace F1 photographer Darren Heath now offers his pictures to buy as prints. They aren’t cheap, but quality like this is hard to match.

Models

There are, of course, too many different models from the 2009 season alone to list them all in one go, so here’s a couple of highlights. It is often the case with these models that stock arrives at short notice. Keep an eye on Leigh of Grand Prix Legends’ blog if there’s a particular model you’re waiting for:

Brawn

With Mercedes taking over they won’t have cause to make any more Brawn models in the future so these could become quite collectable. Various sizes and models from different races are available:

• Jenson Button, Brawn GP, Australian Grand Prix (first win) 1:18 scale
• Rubens Barrichello, Brawn GP 1:43 scale
• Jenson Button, Brawn GP, Brazilian Grand Prix (world championship win) 1:43 scale
• Jenson Button, Brawn GP, Brazilian Grand Prix (world championship win presentation) 1:18 scale

Red Bull

A breakthrough year for Red Bull with Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber winnign six times between them. The RB5 was one of the better-looking of 2009’s cars too.

• Red Bull two-car set, Chinese GP (one-two finish) 1:43 scale
• Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull 1:43 scale
• Mark Webber, Red Bull 1:43 scale

McLaren

What began as a nightmare season for McLaren ended with an unexpected pair of wins. With Mercedes buying into Brawn these could be the last of the McLaren Silver Arrows.

• Lewis Hamilton, McLaren-Mercedes 1:43 scale
• Heikki Kovalainen, McLaren-Mercedes 1:43 scale
• Lewis Hamilton, McLaren-Mercedes 1:18 scale

Ferrari

The F60 may not be remembered with great affection by Ferrari fans in years to come but Kimi Räikkönen at least managed to wring one win out of it at Spa-Francorchamps. But no Fisichella model yet, it seems.

• Kimi Räikkönen, Ferrari 1:43 scale
• Felipe Massa, Ferrari 1:43 scale

Force India

A terrific season for Force India with their first pole position and podium finish, courtesy of Giancarlo Fisichella.

• Giancarlo Fisichella, Force India 1:43 scale
• Adrian Sutil, Force India 1:43 scale

Amalgam large-scale models

Huge, 1:8 scale models with prize tags to match. If anyone actually has one of these models, please do write in and tell us about it. These massive, highly detailed have price tags to match – in the £2,700-3,000 region. As well as the modern stuff, there are some gorgeous classic models too.

• Jenson Button, Brawn GP, Brazilian Grand Prix (world championship win) 1:8 scale
• Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, 2009 1:8 scale
• Ayrton Senna, McLaren-Honda MP4/6, 1991 Japanese Grand Prix (third world championship win) 1:8 scale
• Gilles Villeneuve/Jody Scheckter, Ferrari 312T4 1:8 scale

Clothes

Brawn

It’s not a great time of the year to buy F1 clothing as all the teams will be bringing out new lines in time for the start of the 2010 season. But, as with the models, this is your last chance to get your hands one some Brawn-wear:

• Jenson Button Brawn GP cap
• Brawn GP T-Shirt
• Brawn GP ladies T-shirt

Ferrari

Some teams come and go but Ferrari will always be around. This red T-Shirt with the Cavallino Rampante crest has a timeless quality:

Buy the Ferrari Scudetto T-Shirt

Retro F1 clothing

If you’re looking for something a bit different, have a look at Retro F1 Clothing’s T-Shirts in the style of classic F1 teams Tyrrell and Hesketh.

Race tickets

Only yesterday afternoon a friend of mine got in touch asking for advice on how to buy F1 tickets for her partner. Last week we covered several races which are offering discounted tickets at the moment.

Whichever race you pick, you’ll find lots of useful information on what tickets to buy and where to sit in the ’spectators experiences’ pages here: F1 circuits.

Calendars

No great surprises here: 365 days and a selection of pictures in several F1-themed flavours:

• Buy the Official Jenson Button Calendar 2010
• Buy the Official Ferrari F1 Calendar 2010
• Buy the Official Mclaren F1 Calendar 2010
• Buy the Autocourse F1 Calendar 2010

Toys

Good to see that F1’s oldest rivalry even extends to them using different brands for construction toys. Ferraris come in Lego, McLarens in Mega Bloks…

• Buy the 1:10 scale Ferrari F1 Lego racer
• Buy the Ferrari F1 Lego truck
• Buy the McLaren F1 Mega Bloks Racing Rig

Scalextric

What will surely be one of the great F1 battles of 2010 is already available in Micro Scalextric form – Jenson Button vs Lewis Hamilton:

• Buy the Top Speed (Button vs Hamilton) Micro Scalextric set
• Buy the McLaren-Mercedes World Champion Scalextric Set

Other stuff

Five final ideas at reasonable prices that didn’t seem to fit in anywhere else:

• Red Bull Racing Xtreme 3200 dpi Gamer Mouse and Mousepad
• Lewis Hamilton mouse mat
• F1 mug gift set
• F1 car cufflinks
• Motorsport Digital Archive: 1980s (other decades available)

Are you buying or hoping to receive any F1 gifts this year? Name your perfect present – and suggest any good ones I’ve missed – in the comments.