Product Description

'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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #822491 in Books
• Published on: 2001-11-08
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 340 pages

F1 News
'offers a penetrating and fascinating insight ... incisive, revolutionary and entertaining ... a unique behind the scenes perspective.'

The Independent
'a refresher course on the men who have shaped the structure of the Formula One phenomenon.'

The Times
'Collings rounds up the cast of characters and offers a rare insight into the lives of the club members.'

Customer Reviews

Insight into the Movers & Shakers in the Formula 1 circus
A book for all motor racing and particularly Formula One enthusiasts. The author, Timothy Collings, obviously has the appropriate passes to get into the pits and paddocks of the Formula One circuits and therefore be able to talk with the movers and shakers who run the world of Formula One today. As a consequence he has written a very interesting insight into the sport, or should one say business, of Formula One.

However this book does not only cover the current team managers but also those from the earlier days of Formula One including Walker, Cooper, Ferrari and, in my opinion, the best of all the late Colin Chapman. The book outlines the way in which they built up their motor racing empires and the reasons why they all, including Ferrari, ultimately became also rans and, with the exception of Ferrari, eventually left the circus. The book not only reveals how some of these managers reacted at the death of their drivers but also shows their determination and single mindedness to succeed whatever the costs, both financially and in human terms.

The profiles of these early team owners and managers set the background for how the world of Formula One has progressed over the years to the present team managers, known as the Piranha Club. From the very first chapter, which covers Michael Schumacher's first and as it turned out only race for Jordan and the subsequent contract wrangles with Benetton, it is evident that some of the teams and their managers will stop at nothing to achieve the aims and ambitions of their team.

One criticism of the book is that the publishers have obviously decided that more than a few pictures of the team managers and owners involved in the historical F1 teams and the current day teams were unnecessary.

A very enjoyable read and a worthwhile addition to the library of any motor racing fan.

Too little juice on the workings of the Piranha Club.
I had read the opening chapter, covering M. Schumachers move from Jordan to Benetton in 1991, on a website on the Internet and found it to be very interesting. Finally a book about the inner workings of the F1 circus, how deals are done and how the politcs really work. After having read the book I unfortunately found only this first chapter to really give an insight into the Piranha Club, how the deals are done and how the politics work. The rest is more or less devoted to giving profiles on team bosses, present and past. Although these profiles are an interesting read I miss knowing more about the real power struggles in the Piranha Club, like the FOCA vs. FISA war in the early '80s, the making of the Concord Agreement. So I must say I was rather disappointet in the book.

Not as interesting as it might have been
I found the book disappointing. The chapters covered the individuals who collectively make up The Piranha Club, but very little is said about how The Club operates. There was a significant amount of repetition, as though the chapters had been written independently of each other and not checked. There were also factual errors throughout the book.