For as long as anyone can remember there has only been one serious Formula One season review, however, in recent years there's been a new kid on the block and it really is getting better and better.

While this is the official season review - hence the foreword by Bernard Charles Ecclestone - the book, published by Haynes, doesn't suffer the misfortune of the official website where virtually anything negative is ignored.

Instead, Haynes has come up with a 280-page book of the 2011 season, including over 500 stunning photographs, together with comprehensive race reports and in-depth technical analysis.

"Sebastian is definitely the best guy there is at the moment," writes BCE in his foreword, a masterpiece of understatement. "He reminds me a lot of Jochen Rindt - as everyone knows I was very close with Jochen. I like Fernando too, he's a good friend of mine. He's suffered this year through no fault of his - the car isn't down to him. Lewis went through a little bit of a bad period, which lots of people do in life, and I think he'll probably reflect on his performance. Meanwhile, Jenson has been on form, and why shouldn't he be as good as Lewis?"

Haynes provides unrivalled access to learn first-hand the details behind the stories of the season's 19 races and Vettel's second successive title. The key personalities involved, including the drivers, plus senior team personnel, throw new light on many of the year's headlines and incidents, presenting an authoritative account of the 2011 FIA Formula One World Championship season.

In addition to comprehensive race reports, superb feature content includes a look behind the scenes at the development of each of the teams' cars over the year, an appraisal by each of the 28 drivers of his own season, and a discussion by a 'round table' of paddock insiders who get together to debate the leading trends and topics of the 2011 season.

Analysis of each race includes an 'Inside Line' from a driver, senior team member or official, such as that of McLaren's Jenson Button, following his stunning victory in the Canadian Grand Prix, fighting through the field to win after lying in last place at half-distance. The dramatic, rain-affected race saw him pass Sebastian Vettel on the last lap, having recovered from an earlier collision with team-mate Lewis Hamilton:

"The incident with Lewis... I couldn't see anything when he was alongside me," says the championship runner-up. "I couldn't see anything in my mirrors. It was one of those things. Then it was really a fight. I got a drive-through penalty for speeding behind the safety car and I had to fight my way through about three times. As we always say, the last lap is the important one to be leading and I led the right half of it!"

Looking back at the season, and his third-place finish in the Japanese Grand Prix - the race at which he clinched the Drivers' World Championship for the second successive year - Sebastian Vettel, says:

"Standing on that podium I realised that my life doesn't get much better than this! Sure, I would have loved to have been on the top step, but just to be on the podium and see the passion that people share with you for what all the drivers do, to be part of that at the moment and then winning the championship with four races to go, I think that says it all. There's not much more to add!"

The official season review captures all the on-track battles, the off-track wrangles and controversies, where despite an increasing emphasis on technology and regulation, the performance the best drivers still shines through.

If you are looking for a first-class, no-nonsense guide to the 2011 season, this is the one for you.

At £30.00, the Official Formula 1 Season Review 2011 is available from all good bookshops and also direct from Haynes.