Customer Reviews

Winning: The Business of Formula

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This book examines the sport outside of the actual racing. The cost of the series, the sponsorship, and the politics. It also examines the history of the sport to show how the sport evolved into what it is today. It highlights a few teams as examples of the way the teams approach the f1 environment. It is an interesting sport where Michael Schmaucher makes more in a year than the total budget of some of the less competative teams (i.e. Arrows). Don't be fooled by the Nov 2000 publication date. This is a book that was written in 1998 and then published for the US market in 2000. There is a final chapter that I am sure was supposed to be substituted for the original final chapter (It is in large part a cut and paste of the original final chapter), but due to poor editing both chapters are included in the book. Overall I enjoyed the book and found that it really helped my understanding of the sport. Before this book, I could never understand how the underfunded teams survived.

A well written book covering the various players (the teams, FIA, advertising, sponsors and the media) that make up Formula One today. The book traces the origins of the sport and how it has evolved into the media event that it is today.

The book is an easy read and makes watching Formula One racing more interesting.

This is a really boring book. As you read it, you're always waiting to get to the interesting part that never really arrives. Hotten's writing style is very dry and the book reads like a textbook. He also constantly repeats the same things over and over again - yes, I already know that F1 is very expensive, Ferrari is passionate and Williams has great engineering.

Even the layout of the book can get frustrating. The chapters don't flow well and the whole book comes off as being incoherent and repetitive. Hotten should have gathered all his facts and then let someone else write and edit the book for him, probably down to about half its current size. I'm not sure if I can recommend another book for people interested in learning about the F1 business, but I can certainly advise against getting this one.