THE FORMULA

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.