The Formula: How Rogues, Geniuses, and Speed Freaks Reengineered F1 into the World's Fastest-Growing Sport

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER | A Sports Illustrated Best Book of the Year | An NPR Best Book

UPDATED EDITION INCLUDES THE STUNNING RISE OF McLAREN

In The Formula, Wall Street Journal reporters Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg tell the riveting motor racing saga of how Formula 1 broke through in America. Taking you inside the paddock, The Formula details 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, car racing in America meant NASCAR, while Formula 1, the wealthiest racing league globally, was a distant third. Today, F1 has surged to the front, powered by a passionate new American fanbase. But this success was far from inevitable. Robinson and Clegg reveal the epic business story of F1, detailing how the league saved itself from collapse and conquered America through guile, fearlessness, and reinvention.

With fast cars, big money, and beautiful people as the backdrop, The Formula shows how F1’s sudden arrival was decades in the making. The book offers unique insight and access to F1’s most storied teams and personalities, from Ferrari to Bernie Ecclestone to Lewis Hamilton to McLaren. It provides a definitive history, offering a riveting portrait of the drivers, cars, and audacious gambles that have shaped the sport for half a century.

Now updated with the rise of McLaren, the result is a high-octane history of modern F1 racing, covering the outrageous successes and spectacular crashes that led to this moment. More than just a sports story, The Formula is a tale of how a disrupter broke into the crowded American sports market through cash, personality, and a new understanding of sport in the age of entertainment.

This definitive history of Formula 1’s rise reveals:

The Bernie Ecclestone Era: Learn how one man’s audacious gambles and under-the-table deals transformed a chaotic circus into a billion-dollar global empire.

Legendary F1 Rivalries: From Senna vs. Prost to Hamilton vs. Verstappen, uncover the bitter feuds, spectacular crashes, and psychological warfare that defined the sport.

Engineering and Innovation: A deep dive into the technical moon shots, rulebook loopholes, and design geniuses who bent the laws of physics to find an unfair advantage.

Conquering America: The full story of F1’s decades-long struggle to break into the crowded American sports market, from disastrous races in Las Vegas to its recent explosive growth.

Joshua Robinson is the European sports correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, and has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post and Sports Illustrated. 

Jonathan Clegg is an editor for The Wall Street Journal, and his work has also appeared in the Daily Telegraph, the Independent (U.K.), and FourFourTwo magazine. 

They are the co-authors of The Club: How the English Premier League Became the Richest, Wildest, Most Disruptive Force in Sports; Messi vs. Ronaldo: One Rivalry, Two GOATs, and the Era That Remade the World’s Game; and The Formula: How Rogues, Geniuses, and Speed Freaks Reengineered F1 into the World’s Fastest-Growing Sport.