South African Champion: A grand tribute to Formula 1 history

'South African Champion', authored by veteran motorsport journalist and our very own 'Red Mist' columnist Michele Lupini, chronicles a fascinating and largely forgotten 125 years of single-seater and Formula 1 racing in the country on the tip of Africa.

The book is an 'opus' in terms of presentation by Lupini, released this week for online purchase, South African Champion chronicles in fascinating detail the full historical arc of the region’s Grand Prix, World Championship, and National racing from 1900 to the present day.

Featuring a foreword by 1979 Formula 1 World Champion Jody Scheckter, the limited-edition volume includes a comprehensive account of all 33 South African Championship seasons and more than three decades of Grand Prix racing. Organised into fifty detailed parts across eight chapters, it includes championship logs, driver profiles, race results, and statistical data.

The 304-page coffee table book explores every era of South African single-seater racing, from the early 20th-century Grand Prix events to the formal South African Drivers Championship and the many national and regional Grands Prix that followed.

Lupini says of his work: “South African Champion tracks an incredible history while telling a truly epic racing story as it has never been told before. We re-live many a forgotten race, recall significant facts and trends, and uncover a number of startling revelations through the intense research that has gone into creating the book.

“This is the fruit of a quarter century of work that started as a magazine series. It has now most significantly evolved into a tome of its own—recording a century and a quarter of a story that has never been collated in a single publication before," explained Lupini.

The book includes hundreds of photographs, many previously unpublished and some colourised for the first time, alongside exclusive commissioned artworks depicting landmark moments from South Africa’s racing heritage. Each copy is individually signed and numbered by the author, with buyers able to select from remaining available editions.