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Fast Money: The Backroom Deals, Corporate Espionage, and Legendary Power Struggles that Drive Formula One
*Pre-order the first book to look at the unstoppable rise of Formula One*
Few sports are as synonymous with money as Formula One. Its drivers are among the world's most highly paid athletes, and it costs more than a billion pounds to keep its ten teams ticking over. Celebrities and their entourages flock to glamorous locations around the world - Monaco, Miami, Las Vegas - to be seen on the grid or lounging on a superyacht.
This is a sport where money - the spending of it, the flaunting of it, the ruthless pursuit of it - matters.
Fast Money will be the first book to treat F1 as the business it is. As one of the world's most popular sports, and with races in far corners of the globe, F1 is big business.
With unparalleled insight and decades of reporting, they describe the pivotal moments which have driven the sport to new heights - the influx of tobacco advertising, the Concorde agreement, television deals, the reign of Bernie Ecclestone, and the huge popularity of Drive to Survive. Featuring exclusive interviews with the sports major players and featuring never-before-heard stories, Fast Money reveals the multitude of deal that turned the sport from a pastime for wealthy enthusiasts into the world's most-watched annual sports series.
Few sports are as synonymous with money as Formula One. Its drivers are among the world's most highly paid athletes, and it costs more than a billion pounds to keep its ten teams ticking over. Celebrities and their entourages flock to glamorous locations around the world - Monaco, Miami, Las Vegas - to be seen on the grid or lounging on a superyacht.
This is a sport where money - the spending of it, the flaunting of it, the ruthless pursuit of it - matters.
Fast Money will be the first book to treat F1 as the business it is. As one of the world's most popular sports, and with races in far corners of the globe, F1 is big business.
With unparalleled insight and decades of reporting, they describe the pivotal moments which have driven the sport to new heights - the influx of tobacco advertising, the Concorde agreement, television deals, the reign of Bernie Ecclestone, and the huge popularity of Drive to Survive. Featuring exclusive interviews with the sports major players and featuring never-before-heard stories, Fast Money reveals the multitude of deal that turned the sport from a pastime for wealthy enthusiasts into the world's most-watched annual sports series.
457 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 5, 2025
9 people are currently reading
51 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 31, 2025
this was so boring !! and i swear every single paragraph ended with a stinger along the lines of 'but it wouldn't be the last time X would come back to haunt them'. be confident ending your paragraphs without having to trick the audience into thinking something exciting is going to happen - this is a book about corporate structures and tax litigation - you cannot disguise it as more interesting than it is !!
also like, it's a straight recount of facts with very minimal critical analysis. like, 'Bernie was such a no nonsense colourful character, he once said this incredibly racist thing' presented completely uncritically! like, how do you have a sentence admitting Max Mosley went to a bunch of fascist rallies and not unpack that even in the slightest .... bruh ... truly Bernie is a very interesting character that is pivotal to the development of modern f1 but honest to god he could have commissioned this book himself with how glowing of a writeup it is !! like, that man evil !! he may have been on the island !!
anyway hated the book lol
also like, it's a straight recount of facts with very minimal critical analysis. like, 'Bernie was such a no nonsense colourful character, he once said this incredibly racist thing' presented completely uncritically! like, how do you have a sentence admitting Max Mosley went to a bunch of fascist rallies and not unpack that even in the slightest .... bruh ... truly Bernie is a very interesting character that is pivotal to the development of modern f1 but honest to god he could have commissioned this book himself with how glowing of a writeup it is !! like, that man evil !! he may have been on the island !!
anyway hated the book lol
October 5, 2025
Thank you Mobius Books and NetGalley for the DRC of Fast Money! All opinions in this review are my own.
I like that Fast Money is different than other Formula 1 books I have read. It focuses more on the history of the business side of the sport, especially Bernie Ecclestone's role in it. However, I took a long time to read Fast Money because there was so much information to absorb that I could only read it in smaller chunks. I also found it kind of jarring that the writers would insert themselves into the writing at times and the Post Script seemed a little unnecessary at the end. If you are reporting on a topic in this way, I don't think you should add yourself into or try to defend how factual your writing is and how much you had to fight against people at the end.
I like that Fast Money is different than other Formula 1 books I have read. It focuses more on the history of the business side of the sport, especially Bernie Ecclestone's role in it. However, I took a long time to read Fast Money because there was so much information to absorb that I could only read it in smaller chunks. I also found it kind of jarring that the writers would insert themselves into the writing at times and the Post Script seemed a little unnecessary at the end. If you are reporting on a topic in this way, I don't think you should add yourself into or try to defend how factual your writing is and how much you had to fight against people at the end.
Read
November 26, 2025(DNF @ 40%) Very dry. Sure, it's on me to expect a lot of financial talk from a book called "Fast Money", but it's honestly deadening to listen to "he paid £3mn for a 15% stake, which by 2003 was worth £70mn and then he split the assets between 7 shell companies and secured £800,000 a year" (or similar) a hundred times in a row. Also, the acronyms! Jesus, the acronyms.
December 22, 2025
So so so much interesting information and perspective of the sport. It definitely slumps in the middle and I struggled to stay engaged (hence the 3 month listening period 😅) but definitely worth a listen/read if you’re interested in the journey of F1’s business side and the audacity of Bernie Ecclestone
January 11, 2026
A good book, but nothing more.
My expectation was to get more of an anecdotal book about F1 business.
It turned out to be a lot more financially technical and more about off-shore setup off companies and income streams, profit margin % and so on.
Would recommend if you're interested in the financial and contractual setup of F1 since its beginning and the evolution of that. If you're interested in a light read about the business side of F1, I would not recommend this.
My expectation was to get more of an anecdotal book about F1 business.
It turned out to be a lot more financially technical and more about off-shore setup off companies and income streams, profit margin % and so on.
Would recommend if you're interested in the financial and contractual setup of F1 since its beginning and the evolution of that. If you're interested in a light read about the business side of F1, I would not recommend this.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews