Bernie Ecclestone shares his views on Formula 1

The 1960s to the 1990s are often considered the golden age of F1. This era is precisely the one that Bernie Ecclestone shaped, as detailed by Daniel Ortelli and Antoine Grenapin in their remarkable book.

A rare glimpse behind the scenes of Formula 1 arrives just in time for the holidays: “From Jim Clark to Ayrton Senna, Stories from Formula 1” (Casa Editions). What sets this 196-page book apart is the unfiltered voice of the sport's former architect, Bernie Ecclestone, whose comments are virtually impossible to find elsewhere.

Author Daniel Ortelli recounts how the book came about after a chance meeting with Ecclestone at his Chelsea office last December. Freed from his daily obligations, the former commercial director “can let himself go without a second thought and tell us about his experience,” explains Ortelli, offering readers a unique glimpse behind the scenes of an era marked by profound change.

The story follows the evolution of the sport through the eyes of a driver who, after mixed results on the track, reinvented himself as an agent, then team owner, and finally as the man who took control of the entire discipline when no one else wanted to. Ortelli admits that he initially planned to write a complete biography of Ecclestone, but “there were already many of those in English.” He then turned to a tribute, enriching the book with forgotten and unpublished photographs that trace the visual history of Formula 1. Beyond politics, the book does not shy away from addressing the darker side of the sport. It revisits Romain Grosjean's terrible accident in Bahrain, drawing a striking parallel with the fatal accidents of Ronnie Peterson and François Cevert, and reminding readers how thin the line between triumph and tragedy has always been. Yet, as the book shows, this same perilous appeal has inspired millions of people around the world, cementing Formula 1's place as a spectacle that is both magnificent and extremely demanding.