Full throttle: A list of racing books 

 

Editor’s note: Formula One is absurd: hundreds of millions of dollars spent so that 20 people can drive around in circles really fast. And yet it produces stories steeped in depth and gravitas. The literature of racing captures what happens when human ambition meets mechanical limits, when the margin between life and death is measured in tire pressure and wing angles.

 

The books below are of and from a world where milliseconds matter more than minutes, where winning demands a particular kind of madness. From novels that imagine the thrill and romance of speed to memoirs that reveal its cost, from technical deep-dives to corporate exposés, each offers a window into a universe that operates by its unique, relentless logic.

 

Written by: Amritesh Mukherjee 

 

 

Fiction picks

 

The Way to Dusty Death by Alistair MacLean

 

This book, published in 1973 when Formula One was still a death sport wrapped in cigarette advertising, is more of a Cold War thriller that happens to unfold in the paddock. Formula One, here, serves largely as backdrop for international espionage. The title nods to Macbeth’s grim poetry, but MacLean’s more into good ol’ skulduggery than existential dread.

The novel operates on pure pulp logic: villains are identifiably villainous and heroes possess impossible competence.

 

MacLean's prose is melodramatic, and his characters speak in exclamation points: it's racing fiction for readers who prefer their motorsport served with a side of international drama and their entertainment unashamed of its own excess. The Way to Dusty Death captures Formula One when it was still dangerous enough to kill you and romantic enough to die for.

 

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

 

A story less about racing and more about life's lessons seen through a dog's eyes. Enzo, a terrier mix blending a philosopher's soul with a racer's instincts, shares the tale of his human, Denny Swift, an aspiring Formula driver trying to keep his life on track. What starts as a tale of family and love soon comes face to face with illness and injustice. Through it all, Enzo watches, grieves, and hopes with a voice more human than many narrators.

 

Stein’s gamble—putting a dog in the driver’s seat, so to speak—works because of its sincerity. Racing becomes a metaphor for the delicate balance between control and chaos. Enzo doesn’t always understand what’s happening, but what he feels comes through beautifully. If you’re looking for a story about the soul of racing—its perseverance, its sacrifices—this is a great place to start because, sometimes, staying steady on a slick corner is all the triumph you need.

 

Slipstream by Madge Maril

 

Lilah Graywood never planned to end up in Formula One. As a political filmmaker, she's more comfortable with complexity than flash, until a personal loss drags her into the paddock to shadow Arthur Bianco, a reserve driver fighting to stay relevant. Their initial mistrust gives way to a mutually beneficial fake romance, designed to keep both their lives from spinning out.

 

Beneath all the gossip and PR flash, Slipstream is really about two people trying to rewrite their narratives. Lilah's neurodivergence sharpens her perception in a sport characterised by spectacle, while Arthur's charm masks his anxiety. This book is less about the wins or losses, and more about the struggles off track. Formula One is the backdrop, but the heart of this book is tender, appealing to diehards and casuals alike.

 

Ride with Me by Simone Soltani

 

In Simone Soltani's Ride with Me, what happens in Vegas doesn't stay there. It follows you home as a surprise marriage and a social media frenzy. Thomas Maxwell-Brown, a Formula One driver caught in the glare of bad press, and Stella Baldwin, a pastry chef still reeling from viral heartbreak, wake up married after a night neither quite remembers. What begins as damage control slowly becomes something far more intimate.

 

F1, in this story, is the glittering stage to something softer: two people learning how to trust again. Thomas struggles under scandal and familial pressure, finding in Stella a kind of honesty he’s never had. Stella, fiercely independent, allows herself moments of softness. It's a story of public wounds and private healing, about letting someone see you, even as the whole world is watching.

 

Non-fiction picks

 

Go Like Hell by AJ Baime

 

What happens when the ambitions of industry collide with the obsession of motorsport? AJ Baime's Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans captures the fiery 1960s conflict between Ford and Ferrari at Le Mans: Triggered by a failed merger, Henry Ford II's pledge to unseat Enzo Ferrari set off a ruthless war of engineering ingenuity and ego.

 

Baime presents this as a story of driven individuals and clashing visions. Figures like Carroll Shelby, Ken Miles, Phil Hill, and Luigi Chinetti are men caught between genius and exhaustion. The narrative shifts from boardroom machinations to the brutal demands of 24-hour endurance racing, revealing crashes, betrayals, near-victories, and inevitable sacrifice. Whether you're a newcomer to Le Mans lore or a seasoned fan, Go Like Hell invites you into a world where speed is myth and rivalry is king, a theatre where cars race as hard off the track as on it.

 

Total Competition by Ross Brawn & Adam Parr

 

At first glance, Total Competition: Lessons in Strategy from Formula One looks like a career retrospective: Ross Brawn’s greatest hits, from the dominant Ferrari years to the fairytale Brawn GP season. But it soon shifts into a more reflective gear through conversations between Brawn and former Williams executive Adam Parr, using Formula One to explore strategy and the psychology of winning.

 

Inspired loosely by The Art of War, each chapter pairs reflections on strategic philosophy with a conversational exchange. Parr asks, Brawn answers, and together they dissect everything from race-day decisions to political rivalries to the inner architecture of championship teams. This is a study in the architecture of excellence and what it really takes to win in a sport where the margins are razor-thin.

 

How to Build a Car by Adrian Newey

 

Adrian Newey has spent more than 40 years crafting some of the fastest, most dominant Formula One cars. But How To Build A Car: The Autobiography of the World's Greatest Formula 1 Designer is less about the machines themselves and more about the obsession and personal cost behind their creation. Part memoir, part engineering deep-dive, it covers his time at Williams, McLaren, and Red Bull, and all the lessons and losses that came along the way.

 

Newey juxtaposes his early design experiments, fuelled by his motorsport obsession as a teenager, with modern F1's world of blown diffusers and regulatory loopholes. Despite his private nature, he writes in detail about the pain of Senna's death in a car he designed and frustrations with ever-tightening rules. Interwoven with technical sketches (yes, he still prefers pencil over CAD), the book details 11 Grand Prix cars, including the championship-winning RB7 and its groundbreaking technology. If you want to understand not just how F1 cars are built but how their builders think, this is as close as you’ll get.

 

Senna Versus Prost by Malcolm Folley

 

Between 1988 and 1993, the question wasn't who would win, but which of two titans. The late Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost ruled Formula One in an era defined by their rivalry. Senna Versus Prost: The Story of the Most Deadly Rivalry in Formula One revisits this partnership, from shared McLaren garages to Suzuka crashes, with journalist Malcolm Folley using rare interviews with Prost and others to build something richer.

 

Folley investigates how two very different personalities managed the quest for perfection. Senna, intense and relentless, often described his drive as a divine calling; Prost, methodical and pragmatic, valued survival alongside success. Their rivalry played out in car settings, behind-the-scenes politics, and on-track signals through broken deals and aired grudges. Folley avoids painting heroes and villains. Instead, he gives us two brilliant, flawed men chasing the same goal in entirely different ways.

 

Enzo Ferrari: The Man and the Machine by Brock Yates

 

For nearly seven decades, Enzo Ferrari cast a towering shadow over motorsport. Some hailed him as a visionary; others condemned him as a tyrant. Brock Yates's biography resists simplification, tracing the arc of a man who, more than a company, built a mythology. Starting in war-torn Italy and concluding with Ferrari's death in 1988, the book charts the rise of the Scuderia and the cult of the prancing horse.

 

It captures the contradictions of its founder: a racing obsessive who rarely left Modena and a brand-builder who despised the customers who enriched him. Ferrari clung to old-school ideas: believing horsepower alone could win. He seldom attended races, viewed road cars as a financial necessity, and often got into battles with Fiat and Alfa Romeo. And yet, Yates doesn’t forget the thrill of it all. He brings to life moments like Tazio Nuvolari’s Grand Prix miracle and the deadly glamour of old-school Le Mans. More than a biography, the book is a study of racing as devotion.

 

The Piranha Club by Timothy Collings

 

Formula One has always had two sides: the public spectacle and the backroom game. The Piranha Club: : Power and Influence in Formula One is Timothy Collings’s pass into that second world: the cutthroat empire of power plays and billion-dollar deals that turned F1 into a global empire. The evocative title comes from Ron Dennis, who once greeted a rival with: "Welcome to the Piranha Club." Both the phrase and the predatory mentality it represents became defining features of modern F1.

 

Through sharp biographical sketches, Collings profiles the kingmakers of modern F1—Enzo Ferrari, Bernie Ecclestone, Ron Dennis, Frank Williams, Flavio Briatore, Jackie Stewart, Max Mosley—and the power struggles that defined contemporary Formula One. He explores notorious incidents: Michael Schumacher's controversial Jordan exit, the FIA's political maneuvering, and the systematic pressure that eliminated independent teams. The racing may stop on Sundays, but The Piranha Club shows us how the real battles never do.

 

 

Amritesh Mukherjee is a reader, writer and journalist—mostly in that order. Covering literature, cinema, and art through his writings, he's fascinated by the stories that shape our world. You can follow him on his Insta and X account.