Warring team-mates, cheating engineers, striking drivers, fake crashes, and avoidable tragedies—Formula 1: The Controversies looks at the scandals that have rocked motor sport’s top series.
Spanning 75 years of racing drama, this book explores the defining flashpoints of Formula One history, including Oscar Piastri’s contested move to McLaren and the power struggles within Red Bull. You’ll revisit bitter team‑mate battles such as Prost vs Senna, cases of industrial espionage, race‑fixing, and even world champions attempting to game the qualifying process at Monaco.
You’ll discover:
- Some of the craftiest attempts to bypass the tech rules from Benetton to Ferrari.
- The spying revelations that almost bankrupted McLaren.
- A scandal that ended the reign of F1’s most controversial boss.
- The furious team-mate battle at Ferrari, when neither driver finished the season.
- A grand prix in Spain where teams fixed the crash barriers themselves.
- A beloved German driver who died on the brink of world championship glory.
- How the son of a world champion ‘fixed’ F1’s first nightrace.
- The modern-day tragedy of Jules Bianchi—and how it almost happened again…
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Why James Hunt was wrong to blame Riccardo Patrese for a tragedy at Monza.
- When Sebastian Vettel flouted team orders to get payback on his team-mate.
- The years-long feud between two of the greatest drivers in F1 history.
- How Ferrari’s love of team orders spectacularly backfired (at a cost of $1m).
Written by an Autosport journalist whose career spans from the Villeneuve–Pironi era through the Senna–Prost rivalry and the explosive Schumacher–Hill season of 1994, this book offers
rare, first‑hand insight. Gain fresh perspectives from
a writer who stood in the paddock as these events unfolded, interviewing Villeneuve and Pironi, Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill—and who still lends his expertise to TV commentary today.
This is a gripping insider’s account of Formula One’s most defining moments.
Whether you are a new or longtime Formula 1 fan, here is your ultimate, unofficial armchair companion to the popular Netflix series Formula 1: Drive to Survive, providing deeper insight into the players, tech, and history that drive the show’s plot points.
F1 expert Stuart Codling is your guide to all things F1. The
Formula 1 Drive to Survive The Unofficial Companion is a feature-rich guide that
takes you beyond the series’ personalities and off-track drama to present further context. Topics covered include:
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People – Who does what to keep F1 teams rolling? From personal trainers to race engineers, mechanics, pit crew, and team principal, what does it take to succeed in F1? Sidebars and callouts include significant past players and great rivalries including that between Toto Wolff and Christian Horner.
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F1 History in 20 Cars – From Fangio’s postwar Alfa Romeo to Max Verstappen’s Honda-powered Red Bull and Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes, all the great teams feature: Ferrari, Williams, McLaren, Lotus, and more. Callouts features driver gear and great past drivers like Andretti, Brabham, Moss, Schumacher, and more.
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Technology – Who designs and builds today’s mind-bending cars and engines and what does the process entail? Side journeys explore safety features, technology behind key components, and big ideas that flopped.
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F1 Circuits – A look at F1 race course in today, along with features on circuit design, past circuits, and notorious circuit features like Loew’s Hairpin at Monaco and Eau Rouge at Spa Francorchamps.
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Race Strategy – The rules and strategies of race day. Sidebars explore things like tire strategy, the anatomy of a pit stop, and the role of analytics.
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Business – Who pays for the multibillion-dollar spectacle on display in Drive to Survive and how is it possibly profitable? Features and callouts explore the evolution of sponsorship, driver salaries, and backroom deals.
Where relevant, Codling
relates content to specific seasons and episodes, providing even more context for the reality series. The visuals include
scores of action and off-track photos. The result is a visually stunning guide to accompany a wildly popular TV series, and an engaging history spanning seventy-plus years of the world’s most popular motorsport.
