The Formula
How Rogues, Geniuses, and Speed Freaks Reengineered F1 into the World's Fastest-Growing Sport
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15
How Rogues, Geniuses, and Speed Freaks Reengineered F1 into the World's Fastest-Growing Sport
Ratings4
Average rating4
Wall Street Journal reporters and authors of The Club, Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg tell the riveting saga of how Formula 1 broke through in America, detailing the eclectic culture of racing obsessives, glamorous settings, gearheads, engineering geniuses, dashing racers, and bitter rivalries that have made F1 the world's fastest growing sport. For decades in America, car racing meant NASCAR, and to a lesser extent IndyCar, with Formula 1--the wealthiest racing league in the world--a distant third. Fast forward to 2023, and F1 has emerged at the front of the pack powered by a passionate yet nascent American fanbase. The F1 juggernaut has arrived, but this checkered flag was far from inevitable. In The Formula, Wall Street Journal reporters Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg tell the epic story of how F1 saved itself from collapse and finally conquered America through guile, fearlessness, and above all, reinvention. With fast cars, big money, glamorous locales, and beautiful people as the backdrop, The Formula reveals how F1's sudden arrival in the US was actually decades in the making, a product of the sport's near-constant state of transformation and experimentation. Bringing unique insight and access to F1's most storied teams and personalities--from Ferrari to Bernie Ecclestone to Christian Horner to Lewis Hamilton--The Formula offers a riveting portrait of the drivers, corporations, cars, rivalries, and audacious gambles that have shaped the sport for half a century. The end result is a high-octane history of how modern F1 racing came to be--the first book to tell the story of the outrageous successes and spectacular crashes that led F1 to this extraordinary yet precarious moment. More than just a sports story, The Formula is the tale of a disrupter that broke into the crowded American sports marketplace and claimed its place through cash, personality, and a new understanding of what a sport needs to be in the age of wall-to-wall entertainment.
Reviews with the most likes.
A good but not comprehensive summary of the story of Formula 1.
The authors focus mainly on the off-track history and stories with some interesting insights that average fans or those with even more knowledge on the subject would enjoy.
There's very little attention given to early formula 1 seasons and to the modern day era too; with much of the crux of the book focussing around Bernie Eccelstone and his tenure in the sport.
It's a very good read for those wanting to understand the story behind the sport that is formula 1 but equally it doesn't fulfil many other areas of interest. The sport itself doesn't feature much in the book, rather the backstory and peoples that shaped it. It's hard to describe but a lot felt missing and the latter chapters felt more rushed or neglected which didn't bode well as it was the most recent history.
