Formula 1 reporter Will Buxton is putting the finishing touches on his first book. In 20 interviews captured over the past year with some of motor racing’s biggest names, the Briton has asked legends of F1, NASCAR, IndyCar, WRC, and Le Mans to steer clear from reverie and rose-colored memories.

"The premise of the book, which is titled My Greatest Defeat, is asking them to explore the moment they hit rock bottom," Buxton told Road & Track. "It could be in racing, or their personal lives, and it was fascinating to sit in front of these legends and have them embrace something we’re only coming to accept today, which is it’s okay for men to struggle, to not be alright, and to confront the fact that you can get to these incredibly low places.

Buxton chatted with Alain Prost, Jeff Gordon, Rick Mears, Tom Kristensen, Jimmie Johnson, Dario Franchitti, Emanuele Pirro, Sebastien Loeb, Derek Bell, Ari Vatanan, Emerson Fittipaldi, Carlos Sainz, Mario Andretti, Alex Zanardi, Damon Hill, and more for the book.

"To see these heroes admit they’ve been through their own ordeals and come out the other side to reach incredible successes … it taught me an awful lot about myself while showing a different side of drivers with such immense stature," he said. "It’s been an amazing journey."

Having completed the editing process for interviews spanning nearly 100,000 words, Buxton is finalizing graphics amd artwork for the book created by one of his favorite DC and Marvel comic book talents. Once he’s done, the last step in bringing My Greatest Defeat to market is finding a publisher.

"I have it at a stage where we’re pretty much ready to offer it to publishers," he added. "I have an amazing illustrator on board named Giuseppe Camuncoli who, for fans of graphic novels and comic books, has done The Amazing Spider-Man, Hellblazer, Wolverine, and other titles. He’s done amazing art for each chapter, and we’re ready to go.

"Whether it works as a motorsports book, or an everyday book, the depths that they’ve gone through with injuries, depression, addictions … it’s something that I’m proud of. I’ve been searching for a topic to write on during my 16 or 17 years in the sport, and this one really resonated with me."

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io