Book Review: The Piranha Club by Timothy Collings
Positives
Negatives
With the Alpine-Alonso-Piastri-McLaren summer break shenanigans, a lot of recent media writeups have made reference to the ruthless ‘Piranha Club’ mentality in F1, reminiscent of the early career poaching of Michael Schumacher from Jordan to Benetton back in 1991. Any chance Flavio Briatore is up to his old chess moves? Published back in 2001, Timothy […]
With the Alpine-Alonso-Piastri-McLaren summer break shenanigans, a lot of recent media writeups have made reference to the ruthless ‘Piranha Club’ mentality in F1, reminiscent of the early career poaching of Michael Schumacher from Jordan to Benetton back in 1991. Any chance Flavio Briatore is up to his old chess moves? Published back in 2001, Timothy Collings’ “The Piranha Club” (a phrase coined by former McLaren principal Ron Dennis) was one of the first books documenting the history of major F1 politics and business maneuvering.
Spread across 9 chapters, Collings looks at various eras in Formula 1 that involved back room wheeling and dealing:
- Chapter 2 – The history of Enzo Ferrari including some insights from his secretary of 20 years.
- Chapter 3 – Rob Walker Racing, the early privateer team.
- Chapter 4 – British ‘Garagistes’ and the rise of Colin Chapman’s Team Lotus.
- Chapter 5 – Bernie Ecclestone
- Chapter 6 – Ron Dennis and Frank Williams
- Chapter 7- Luca Montozemolo, Flavio Briatore, Luciano Benneton, Tom Walkinshaw
- Chapter 8 – Williams, McLaren – Jerez 1997 showdown with Schumacher and Ferrari
- Chapter 9 – Stewart Racing and Jaguar
- Chapter 10 – Paul Stoddard & Minardi
When this book was first released in 2001, much of the F1 commercial drama was still reasonably fresh. In 2022, the content is maybe less riveting, it is after all a compilation of material from other F1 books. The dynamics of the clandestine Schumacher move to Benetton with contracted Roberto Moreno punted out of his race seat definitely has eerie similarities to the current Piastri-Ricciardo drama. Obviously Bernie Eccelstone is no longer the godfather facilitator between F1 teams now, so it will be interesting to see how this one plays out.
Tim Collings book at 300+ pages is still worth a read if you’re interested in the dealmaking and politics side of F1.
Wow Factor/Money shot:
Suitable for: F1 business & politics fans
