A stunningly researched and comprehensive work of business reportage that somehow reads like a novel, The Formula is a lively hot lap through the untold history and explosive growth of the most glamorous, spectacular, and sordid global sport of them all. With all of the juicy background and context about Formula 1 that you won’t see on Netflix, this is hands down the greatest, most definitive book ever written about F1. A sweeping sports story for the ages.” — Sam Walker, bestselling author of The Captain Class
“No one explains exactly what’s happening in global sports like the duo of Clegg and Robinson. They’ve done it again with The Formula, a fascinating account of how F1 exploded in the Netflix age. Modern F1 is the sports story of this era, and no one could tell it better. In a book about racing geniuses, no one is better at their craft than the storytellers themselves.” — Kevin Clark, ESPN and Omaha Productions
“The fastest read you will ever pick up. The Formula brings you inside the furious present and sometimes bizarre past of the world’s richest, most technologically advanced form of sport. Even if you don’t know how to drive, you should read this book.” — A. J. Baime, bestselling author of Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans
"Entertaining...I binged this book faster than I watched Drive to Survive. Robinson and Clegg’s achievement is to provide more than enough for both hardcore fans and newcomers. Though they lack a protagonist to follow across the decades, their crash course in F1 history is deeply researched and reported." — Financial Times
“An appropriately fast-paced narrative of Formula 1 auto racing, whose popularity is exploding . . . A thrill for fans of F1, and a fine example of fluid sports writing.” — Kirkus Reviews
“[An] exceptional account of an intense sport . . . The authors go beyond the adrenaline-drenched action of the racetracks in portraying the progression of Formula One.” — Booklist
“Deep and intelligent…a portrait of football greatness.” — Arsène Wenger on Messi vs. Ronaldo
“A comprehensive primer into the entwined histories of the two titans and the commercial forces that have molded their careers and, by extension, the sport.” — New York Times on Messi vs. Ronaldo
“While these two soaring greats are known for their transcendent wonder on the field, this rollicking narrative plunges into the complex backstories and entire ecosystems that propelled their colliding trajectories. With a pair of epic hero stories like The Last Dance or Homer’s Odyssey in cleats, this book traces the journey from aspirational prodigies to global commercial billboards, explaining how these two juggernauts and their rivalry shaped the most popular, and lucrative, era of the world’s most beloved sport.” — Roger Bennett, founder, Men in Blazers Media Network, on Messi vs. Ronaldo
“This rigorously researched book avoids becoming hagiography. The result is an ambitious and valuable study for all those who want to understand the modern world of football that Mr. Messi and Mr. Ronaldo have helped forge.” — The Economist on Messi vs. Ronaldo
“This book explains the brilliant backstory behind how each player became a start and how that stardom changed the footballing landscape not just in Spain but in the wider world as well…I read it in a day.” — Rebecca Lowe, NBC Sports, on Messi vs. Ronaldo
2024-01-04
An appropriately fast-paced narrative of Formula 1 auto racing, whose popularity is exploding.
Wall Street Journal European sportswriter Robinson and editor Clegg, co-authors of The Club, begin their narrative in Bahrain with a cast of drivers “without normal human fear receptors.” The drivers represent various brands of race cars whose makers are applying space launch–level science (and budgets) to make their cars cut through the air milliseconds faster than the competition, physics and engineering at play in “a competition where the most decisive action of the season can take place not on the track…but in a wind tunnel simulation.” Perhaps improbably, F1 has become a hugely successful sport of late—“improbably” because, compared to, say, soccer, which doesn’t require an operator’s manual, F1 racing appeals to the inner Einstein as well as the inner Andretti in all of us: “The only way to win championships is to land a series of technical moon shots—and then do it all over again.” As Robinson and Clegg note, profiling drivers and deal-makers alike, F1’s success has come as a result of a steadily growing franchise that has taken races worldwide, starting in Europe and then across the oceans to places as large as China and the U.S. and as small as Singapore, all masterminded by genius entrepreneur Bernie Ecclestone. Along with him came sponsors with the shrewdness to recognize that many F1 drivers were “overcaffeinated adrenaline junkies with scant regard for their personal safety” but a solid appreciation for big purses. Meanwhile, other entrepreneurs and players remade the sport from an arcane pastime to a species of mass entertainment that, the authors suggest in closing, has become something of “a post-sport sport,” capable of being appreciated without ever watching a single race.
A thrill for fans of F1, and a fine example of fluid sportswriting.