What is art? Everything! Why not. Motorsport certainly has the capacity for beauty.

Track-side photography is the most obvious form, and there’s plenty of that around. James Allen’s favourite, Darren Heath, has a handy eye, of which there is plenty of evidence on his website. His blog is also well worth reading – particularly when Michael Schumacher is the subject. Unlike journalists, Heath has the advantage of not needing to talk to the man, but still being on the scene. It’s a good combination.

Cars can be beautiful in and of themselves, of course. Will Buxton has been enthusing over a new book, ‘Art of the Formula 1 Race Car’. Logically, it has a lovely silver and red McLaren on the cover.

Away from photography, I’m a big fan of the BTCC Spotter Guide. The representations of the liveries are exquisitely precise, though not even that can make Martin Johnson’s lame wavy line effort look any better.

Even more diagrammatic, the people behind the Visual Aid books have launched a gloriously clean poster of motorsport circuits. You’ve got to squint a bit – it’s a rather small sample on the website – but if nothing else it highlights that some tracks are uglier than others. Marina Bay in Singapore, for example, is a horribly angular thing. You’ve got to love the bizarre crab that is Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya though.

The style of the Visual Aid books reminds me of the excellent Information is Beautiful – a book of which was released recently too, funnily enough – and the Guardian Datablog. That sort of stylish visualisation of data really appeals to my inner geek; I must get to grips with some graphics software, and do something with motorsport data.