75 great gift ideas for F1 fans

Posted on

| Written by

Update: Find the new F1 Fanatic gift guide for 2012 here:


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:

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?óÔé¼?? 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?óÔé¼?? 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

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”

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”

Autocourse 2009-2010

Always a popular choice with F1 Fanatic readers.

Buy Autocourse 2010-2011

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:

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.

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.

Ferrari

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

Force India

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

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. They’re priced in the £2,700-3,000 region. As well as the modern stuff, there are some gorgeous classic models too.

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:

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

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:

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…

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:

Other stuff

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

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.

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

17 comments on “75 great gift ideas for F1 fans”

  1. Thanks Keith, buy i think il be buying the gifts for myslef!

  2. F1 Yearbook is my favourite.Got it last year and I was thrilled.

  3. I did a top 5 STR gifts on my blog http://forzatororosso.blogspot.com/

    These are great though, so much great stuff to get. I actually just bought my mum a bottle of win from Jarno Trulli’s vineyard :D

    1. Could you report back to us with what it tastes like?.

      I’m guessing its squid ink, but i’m a pessimist, you could say i’m a “the glass is half full of squid ink” kinda guy.

  4. What I recommend are the amalgam miniature 1:4 steering wheels. I bought the BMW Sauber F1.09 for myself and the Scuderia Ferrari F60 for my brother (altho it sits on my desk also now :D). I was expecting some plastic, not so detailed steering wheel models, but I must say; the first time I had one in my hands, they were gorgeous hand crafted models with all the details. And they weigh alot!!! I have now ordered the McLaren Mercedes MP4-24 one.

  5. I had bought Official F1 books

  6. thanks a lot Kieth i am going to Dubai anyways so i will try to find these stuff there.

  7. I have to say for any Senna fans the Interactive Voage book was brilliant I felt although it is solely focusing on Senna so isn’t too balanced.
    I think I’ll be getting a Ferrari model but I’ll probably get that myself. Have a guess which driver? :P
    I may end up breaking it. Knowing me I’ll be a total child and have it racing around my desk :)

    1. The trick is not to remove the model from it’s box and then you wont be tempted!

  8. I just bought JB’s Brawn in 1:43 for myself even though I cant really afford it. Keith’s reasoning that there wont be many more was all the convincing I needed to buy one!

    1. wont be many more was all the convincing I needed to buy one!

      No it’s just a good excuse for having it :P
      And of course I’ll remove it from it’s box. I know many people like to keep these items in mint condition but I like to have bit of fun and enjoy them as I’m never going to sell them :)

      1. Ahh, fair enough! I’m keeping mine boxed until I can afford a large mahogany glass-fronted cabinet with several shelves. Then I’ll remove them and display them appropriately – ideally I’d like to get every car from a certain season and line them up in grid order corresponding to their final championship position for that year.

        Wow, I’m really sad!

        1. I don’t think it is sad. I really enjoy reading your posts as you clearly have a huge amount of enthusiasm. :)
          Dan, if you can, take some pictures and show us :) But take any season where Ferrari ended up at the front :P

          1. Damn, that means I won’t be able to do 1993 – One of my favourite Ferrari’s is also one of the worst! :(

        2. Its not sad Dan,
          Ive got 4 cabinets full of models, plus 4 waiting for a new cabinet,
          All ranging from Senna’s Toleman through to last years grid, although I only have a full 1996 grid :(
          Must. buy. more. models…..

  9. why can’t i find a copy of the formula one yearbook 2009-2010, mine has been on order since last year and no book shop has it in yet. whats going on

  10. i’ve been looking for “formula one yearbook 2009-2010” too.
    I think it has been cancelled – never published

    I’ve done a lot of searching

    This site lists it as cancelled
    http://www.bertrams.com/BertWeb/public/itemLookup.do?method=list&ITEM=9782847071672

    Grand Prix Legends has the Official Yearbook marked as “This is an alternative to BK3252 which has been cancelled from production.”.
    http://www.grandprixlegends.com/books-and-dvds/season-reviews/formula-1/the-official-formula-one-season-review-2009-haynes.html

Comments are closed.