Before the glamour, there was grit. Before the billions, there was belief.

The men who started it all had no template to follow. Some were veterans for whom speed had become the only language that made sense. Others were simply drawn to something they could not yet explain. What united them was a willingness to race on public roads, past trees and stone walls, in cars with no seatbelts and no margin for error.

They built a sport from almost nothing. Some of them paid the highest price. All of them deserve to be remembered.

This is where their story begins. Read a free chapter today.

The 1960s threw Formula 1 headlong into a new era.

Rear-engined cars rewrote the rules overnight, stripping away weight and convention in equal measure. Engineering moved fast. The circuits didn’t. Stone walls and tree lined roads remained exactly where they’d always been, leaving the drivers to bridge the gap between what the machines could do and what the world would allow.

Clark had genius. Hill had grit. Surtees had already conquered motorcycling and came looking for more. Brabham built his own cars and then won in them. Together they defined what a racing driver could be.

This was a decade of transformation. Come and see how it happened.

Some eras are defined by their technology. The 1970s was defined by its people.

Formula 1 had never been more exposed or more gripping. Drivers raced on circuits that demanded absolute commitment and punished anything less with brutal finality. The risks weren’t hidden or managed away. They were simply part of the world these pioneers had chosen to inhabit.

And then there was Hunt against Lauda. A rivalry so deeply human, so stripped of pretence, that it transcended sport entirely. Two men, one championship, and a story that still resonates fifty years on.

This is the decade that explains everything. Read a free chapter and see for yourself.

The power of the 1980s arrived all at once, and the sport had to keep up.

The turbo era announced itself with extraordinary figures, laptimes that kept falling, and teams that pursued every advantage with an intensity that occasionally spilled beyond the sporting. What followed was a decade of relentless, barely contained intensity, where fractions of a second separated champions and the pit wall was as fiercely competitive as the track.

Lauda brought wisdom. Piquet brought cunning. Mansell brought everything he had, every single lap. Prost brought precision. And Senna brought something that had no easy name. Together, they gave the sport a rivalry that still defines what competition means.

This is where modern Formula 1 was forged. Read a free chapter today.

No decade did more to shape modern Formula 1 than the 1990s.

Electronics shifted the competitive landscape and placed new demands on every team. Strategy, data, and engineering precision became central to winning in ways the sport had never experienced before. Formula 1 grew sharper, faster, and more globally compelling than ever.

At the heart of it all were drivers who matched the moment. Senna.
Schumacher. Häkkinen. Each one a study in what sustained excellence really looks like. Together they gave the decade a drama that no algorithm could have designed.

Read a free chapter and rediscover a decade that changed everything.

Formula 1 entered the 21st century with more money, more sophistication and more global reach than ever before. What it never lost was the essential contest at its core.

Schumacher and Ferrari defined the opening years with a dominance that was as technically brilliant as it was strategically complete. Seven world titles. A red car that seemed to redefine the boundaries of what was achievable.

Alonso arrived with the conviction of someone who had never considered waiting. Hamilton stepped into a grand prix car and immediately looked as though he had always belonged there. Championships went to the final race, the final lap, the final corner. The technology had never been more sophisticated. The tension had never been more human.

This is the decade that carried Formula 1 into its modern age. Read a free chapter today.

The 2010s gave Formula 1 two distinct identities, and both were extraordinary.

Vettel opened the decade with four consecutive titles, combining youth and precision in a way that drew inevitable comparisons with the sport's greatest. It felt, briefly, like another era of dominance was settling in. Then the regulations shifted, and everything changed. Hamilton and Mercedes arrived at the front with a composure and consistency that redefined what a championship winning partnership could look like. Six titles in seven years. A performance that will take generations to fully appreciate.

But the decade's most significant development may have been what was happening further down the grid. Margins compressed. The midfield tightened. And then Verstappen appeared, entirely unbothered by expectation or precedent, and made it clear that the next great chapter was already under way.

Own the full story. Start with a free chapter today.

No decade in Formula 1 history began with quite so much uncertainty or responded to it with quite so much purpose.

The pandemic tested every sport. Formula 1 adapted, returned, and came back stronger than it left. New rules created new rivalries. New conversations about sustainability and diversity moved from the margins to the centre, where they belong. And on the track, the racing delivered everything the sport had promised and more.

Verstappen raised the bar. The midfield followed. Fans who had never watched a race before found themselves captivated, and those who had watched for decades found reasons to fall in love with it all over again.

This chapter is still unfolding. Now is exactly the right time to catch up.