'Welcome to the Piranha Club!' Ron Dennis (head of McLaren) to Eddie Jordan on the inception of the Jordan team. The Piranha Club is the first serious study of Formula One's most intriguing and influential figuras - the men who wield the real power. Author Tim Collings has written an entertaining and incisive analysis of the Formula One paddock, explaining how it works, who runs it, how it makes money and what sort of people exist there. Formula One hardly needs selling. It has massive television audiences worldwide and huge crowds at all the race tracks. It oozes colour, drama and glamour, not to mention money. It is the meeting point of sport, commerce, showbusiness, and gossip with technology, the automotive industry and big-time international politics. You are as likely to share a table for lunch in the paddock with Liz Hurley, Naomi Campbell or Michael Douglas as with a politician, a royal or a pop singer. The place is tumbling with intrigue and interest. It is run like clockwork and the guys who run it are the most intriguing of all. Bernie Ecclestone and Max Moseley, Luca di Montezmolo, Alain Prost and Jackie Stewart, Ron Dennis, Frank Williams, Eddie Jordan and the rest. They are from all sorts of backgrounds, but they share the common interest of Formula One motor racing - and finding a way of making money successfully. These high rollers are big people Control-freaks, racers, corporate power brokers and ego-trippers. All different. All drugged by the speed of the business.
| ||||||||||||||||||
|
There is a newer edition of this item:
|
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
'Incisive, revolutionary and entertaining, a unique behind the scenes perspective on the politics and power plays within Formula One.' -- F1 News, November 3 2001
Incisive, revolutionary and entertaining, offering a unique 'behind the scenes' perspective on the politics and power plays within Formula One -- F1 News, November 3 2001
Incisive, revolutionary and entertaining, offering a unique 'behind the scenes' perspective on the politics and power plays within Formula One -- F1 News, November 3 2001
From the Inside Flap
When Eddie Jordan attended his first meeting as a member of the elite organisation of Formula One team owners, he was greeted by the words, 'Welcome to the Piranha Club' and a broad and ironic grin. If Jordan thought the message was a joke, he was soon to learn otherwise.
In Grand Prix motor racing, life is lived in the fast lane in every sense. Only the fittest survive. It may be the most technologically advanced, most compelling, extravagant and glamorous sport on earth, but it also remains firmly Darwinian.
This is the story of how this exclusive club - beset by arguments and intrigues, chicanery and controversy - continues to stay beyond the reach of the lawyers and command a television audience that leaves other sports green with envy.
In The Piranha Club, Timothy Collings goes behind the scenes in the Formula One paddock and talks to the men at the heart of the business within the sport. He analyses the development of a unique television sports show which straddles news, gossip, industry and high finance, and profiles the characters who haunt its corridors of power. He strips away the glitz and greasepaint of the pit lane and paddock to introduce the reality of men like Bernie Ecclestone, Max Moseley, Frank Williams, ROn Dennis Eddie Jordan and Flavio Briatore.
It is a tale of danger and risk-taking, of plots and arguments and, above all, of a resounding level of ambition and energy that reveals how colourful and thrilling are the lives of Formula One's major movers and shakers. The dictionary tells us a piranha is a predatory South American fresh-water fish, noted for its voracity. The Piranha Club explains why Jordan was met with such an alarming greeting.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Intrigue and power in the world of Formula 1 racing,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Piranha Club : Power and Influence in Formula One (Paperback)
I had heard of this book from another enthusiast. Having watched Formula 1 racing for years as a TV spectator I often wondered what was really going on "behind the scenes". After reading this author's accounting some of the mysteries came uncloaked. I also realized that every occupation, career, job, has it's own version of the "Piranha Club" going on so if you think this only happens in Formula 1, guess again.
The personalities, their manipulations of situations, the power struggles between the players. Really interesting and left me wondering if there was another "chapter" coming given the upheavals that have occurred in the past 3-to-5 yeara with "Crashgate" and with Ron Dennis moving away from team McLaren's leadership to the production car side. And what is in store for Bernie with the investment group scandal? Who will assume the role when he is no longer there?... It now will be even more intriguing to watch from afar as this plays out to the future. Good read and good background on the history of the sport, how it has grown and expanded in the past and where it may go in the future. Highly recommended reading if you are a fan or even just curious.
13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
More anecdotes please...,
By
This review is from: The Piranha Club: Power and Influence in Formula One (Hardcover)
This book chronicles the different life stories of the prominent personalities of the F1 paddock - Bernie Ecclestone, Max Mosley, Frank Williams, Ron Dennis as well as some of the old members like Enzo Ferrari, Walker, Cooper and Chapman. Also chronicles the rise of Paul Stoddart, the owner of the Minardi Team. Instead of delving on the inner workings of the Piranha Club, the author opts to present a collection of biographies of the more prominent members of the Club. There are some anecdotes on the inner workings interwoven between the life stories of the team principals(e.g. Schumacher's transfer from Jordan to Benetton, poaching of Minardi's chief engineer by Toyota, Frank Williams closeness with Ron Dennis) but they are few and far between. If the author could have made these inner workings of the club as the main thesis of the book then it could have been a far worthwhile read.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
