Forza Ferrari: How F1’s Most Famous Team Can Win Again

by Nate Saunders

"Every F1 fan knows the magic Ferrari brings to the sport of F1. The passion of the tifosi is one-of-a-kind. Nate does a fantastic job of capturing the heart, soul, and energy of the legendary big red machine."  – Daniel Ricciardo "A lively, compelling Ferrari book from a Ferrari expert; you won't be able to put it down." – Guenther Steiner  "Remarkable access to such an iconic team that is often shrouded in mystery. Nate lifts the lid on both the successes and failings of Ferrari’s past with must-read insight for both new and existing fans." – Chris Medland


Why has Ferrari struggled so much in recent years? When will Ferrari win another Championship? In Forza Ferrari, FIA-accredited F1 journalist and a leading voice in ESPN's F1 coverage, Nate Saunders looks for answers to these questions and goes beyond simple answers by delving into the shifts within F1 from Ferrari's dominance in the mid-2000s to their current challenges.With an extensive network across the F1 paddock, Nate's close relationships with key figures, particularly at Red Bull, McLaren, and Ferrari, offer him unique access to the heart of the sport. His rapport with drivers like Carlos Sainz, Lando Norris, Kevin Magnussen, and Alex Albon, along with influential leaders such as Guenther Steiner and Stefano Domenicali, ensures a depth of perspective that few can match. As Formula 1 anticipates major rule changes in 2026, and with Ferrari potentially poised for a comeback with Lewis Hamilton signing a multi-year contract starting in 2025, interest in Ferrari has never been higher. Forza Ferrari is perfectly timed to bridge the gap between historical context and the intricate details of F1's evolving landscape and will capture the imagination of new fans as well as seasoned followers of a sport on the brink of a new era.

Genres: Nonfiction, Sports

272 pages, Hardcover

Published April 29, 2025

Reviews

[Nieve Sawyer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Book is ok to begin with but to me it gets a bit boring after a while. I stopped reading it about half way through so it could get better but not willing to take that chance as it doesn’t spark my interest anymore. Would recommend to hard core fans of formula one who understand it better than me.

[Cyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good history of Ferrari, but one short chapter on the whole winning thing, so maybe not much hope I guess. Next year is our year, etc.

[Pershelle Rohrer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a well-told history of the Ferrari Formula 1 team from its founding to the present day, all told through the lens of the team entering another crossroads as they attempted to end a decade-plus-long championship drought after coming up just short for the Constructors' in 2024. This book covers some of the sport's most iconic drivers, including some of the team's earliest drivers such as Ascari and Fangio and moving through the decades to Lauda, Prost, Mansell, Schumacher, Raikkonen, Alonso, Vettel, and more. Finally, the book caps off by shaping the current picture as of the end of the 2024 season where Fred Vasseur leads a team of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz to a close Constructors' battle in 2024 with a 2025 driver lineup of Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton looming. The hype behind Hamilton over the course of that 2024 season brought expectations that he could potentially win his eighth title and that Ferrari would finally be competing for championships again. This book explains how we got there and allows for speculation from multiple angles as to how that partnership would go. Finishing this book two years and one day on from Hamilton's shock announcement that he would be joining Ferrari, one of my first memories as a brand-new F1 fan in 2024, provides me with so much context into the history behind my team and drivers of choice, and I enjoyed getting to know some of the drivers, principals, and other big names from the team's history. Much of the anticipation and great promise behind this current driver pairing remain intact, but after a year that didn't meet expectations in 2025, it remains to be seen if they will be able to nail the new regulations in 2026 and give their drivers a chance to fight for a title or if the experiment will fail and the team will have another shake-up. The arguments at the end of the book for the kind of patience and team culture the team needs to see a possible championship campaign through were interesting, especially through the lens of the types of teams and work environments that succeeded and failed in the past at Ferrari. I loved this book and learned a lot, and I am excited to enter my third full season as an F1 fan with this new knowledge under my belt as a new regulation cycle hits and shakes things up. The storytelling in the book was great, and I enjoyed learning about the team's past eras and reliving some of the most memorable moments of the past few seasons leading up to the present day. This is a great book for Ferrari fans new and old.

[Adrian Cheng · Rating 4 out of 5]

With connections to the Formula One paddock that not many others can possess, Nate offers a tantalising insight into the history and the modern conundrums of what makes what is arguably the most decorated and yet at time, controversial team tick.

Through interview accounts with people within the world of Formula 1 as well as other external sources that reference the sport, it certainly offers a unique insight into the highs and lows of the team and to stir up the hope that the tifosi has experienced time and again, albeit with the resulting disappointment or feeling of triumph\, even up to the point of writing.

Just a note as well that at the end of page 77, it is worth noting that long time Ferrari academy driver Felipe Massa was promoted to Scuderia Ferrari in 2006 after having spent a few years in Sauber instead of Honda, which was the only factual error I could spot in the book.

Regardless of this, this is a noteworthy book to add to any collection that delves into one of the fastest racing spectacles the world has to offer.

[Jack Stevenson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Difficult one to rate. Just found it quite boring overall.

Some stories were interesting. Many were not. I’m not entirely sure who it’s being targeted at - as F1 super fans will likely be aware of the majority of this, whereas F1 newbies perhaps wouldn’t care with much of this? I’d put myself somewhere in the middle of the two categories and still left feeling “meh”.

[Toby Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slightly disappointed that this book didn't directly ask the question in its subtitle: "How F1's Most Famous Team Can Win Again"...

I was more engaged with the earlier sections of this book, discussing the 1990s Ferrari that I wasn't alive to discover, plus the drama of Spygate. Despite my frustration/disappointment, I did enjoy passingly revisiting periods of F1 that I have lived through.

[Harvey Eldridge · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting to learn some stuff about the history of Ferrari that I didn’t know, but disappointed by the mistakes in this book. For a book where it’s 90% history, you’d expect it to at least get the winners of certain races right

[Zach M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great overview. Brought me up to speed on Ferrari and the tifosi. Forza Ferrari.

[Prince Gora · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book about the history of Scuderia Ferrari. Inappropriately named.

[Skylar]

cut to me on my death bed saying "next year is our year, trust me"

[Aditya Aurora · Rating 5 out of 5]

Forza Ferrari is exceptionally researched and very well written. It literally walks the reader through the entire lifetime of the company and highlights the important moments that not only shaped the company but also the ones that proved to be a driving force that helped Ferrari achieve success.

It is a must-read for all Ferrari fans as well as anyone looking to learn lessons in management and strategy.