Total Competition Hardcover – November 3, 2016

I'm enjoy motor sports and participate in autocross and track days. I follow F1 not compulsively but I enjoy good racing. The authors, as intimately involved as they were in the sport, should have been able to produce an exciting and interesting book. Had the first third of the book been as boring as the last two thirds they would not have gotten two stars. I finished about three quarters of the book and got fed up with the redundancy. I came away from the book feeling it was a slap-dash effort to capitalize on the author's names and not a serious exploration of the nature of F1.

I was surprised Mr. Brawn is unfamiliar with concepts like Six Sigma, a whole science around continuous process improvement used widely in the manufacturing space. He describes this as something me came up with on his own, along with starting the design and engineering of next year's car during the current season, as though these are processes he came up with on his own. These are both important processes that are well known and have been used by many other teams in the F1 world, so while Mr. Brawn has been very successful and has, obviously, applied these and other approaches to great effect, I found the tone of the book pretty self-serving and so, annoying. Still, the book is well written and interesting, and provides a lot of insight to the operation of Beneton, Ferrari, Honda and Brawn GP/Mercedes F1 teams during Mr. Brawn's tenure.

This may be one of the most underrated and overlooked books on F1 racing ever published. It is not a manual. Simply put, I'd say it's more a wonderful discussion between a couple of people close to the sport and the politics that explain some of the relationships among the teams. Imagine having the opportunity to sit down with Ross Brawn and discover his view of the period. Strategy? Well sorta, but not really the heart of the book. This is a great extended interview with one of the F1 greats. It's on my bookshelf and be assured I intend to read it over and over. It's as much - maybe more - about the history of the period. It is not going to help you master turn two at SIR. Just buy the damn thing.

For F1 fans who'd like to know more about Ross Brawn and his amazing string of winning seasons this book offers much of interest and humanizes a person who, at least to this fan, has seemed an Arch Druid of the sport. Of less interest to me are the endless pages of theorizing by the co-author about the nuts and bolts of policy and decision making although it may be fascinating to some. All in all it's pretty entertaining for the dedicated F1 crazy.

Fantastic book. It's written like an interview between Parr and Brawn. Parr states in the introduction that he kept the dialogue raw, which seems to be true. That can make some parts a little slow to read, but it adds to the overall feeling of the book. Brawn reflects on his career and lessons learned. Brawn and Parr discuss the strategy that Brawn employed which led him to so much success in racing. He is never boastful, tempering what he says with humility. He often points out that luck and hard work have contributed more to his success then innate ability has.It's not an academic book by any means, but I considered it to be a case study of sorts. As a racing fan and a student of leadership (I have a Master's of Arts in Leadership), I find this personally and professionally valuable.

Not what I expected. Lots of discussion of strategy of F1 in general and within teams but almost no technical engineering information. I found the format of the two principals having a discussion to be frustrating as well. Not a great read. Steve Matchett's books are much better

Ross Brawn has worn so many hats in the Formula 1 arena that his closet must be full! This is a great exploration of one of the most influential team managers, owners, & now racing organization managers in F1 history. I recommend getting bot the audio & printed versions.

Author is well equipped to provide a great view of the inside of F-1 from the design of the cars, company politics, team dynamics, FIA fiddling , honor, betrayal and drivers.A great read and deserving of a place on the bookshelf of any serious follower of the sport. Also a great read in management and leadership

Adam Parr is a clever man who has been successful in a variety of ways. He has worked in mining in various places around the world, he has studied Law and practised at the Bar, he has gained a PhD in ancient history and he has been team principal of Williams F1. Unfortunately he is not a person who I am remotely interested in.His PhD research was into ancient Chinese war theory ('The Art of War') and therein lies the problem with this book.Parr obviously feels that his research merits a wider audience and he uses this book to achieve this.Part of the book is a précis of Ross Brawn's career and this is interesting and enjoyable. Its only fault is that it could and should have been told more fully.The rest of the book is a verbatim transcript of a conversation between Parr and Brawn where Parr attempts to draw a comparison between Brawn's racing strategy and the Chinese 'Art of War' as explained in his research paper.A tenuous link at the best, and really rather heavy going. I found myself skipping chunks of it. I am surprised that Brawn allowed himself to be used in this way.Another problem with this book is that it has half-told Brawn’s story and thus queered the pitch for a decent book about Brawn.

A very enjoyable read for anyone (like me) who is deeply into Formula One.The book is billed as being a look at strategy useful to those with little or no knowledge of F1, but in reality, unless you have a good knowledge of F1 I suspect that at least half the book will make little or no sense.If the book were judged as a wider work on strategy, applicable to a wider audience, it would fail.The pieces on strategy itself, including digressions into the Sun Zu, were for me very weak, and detracted from the book. They seemed to not really fit with the narrative; an example of a book trying to do too much.The parts with Ross Brawn discussing his working practices were truly excellent, and the parts where he discusses his working practices with Michael Schumacher were particularly strong. His focus on discipline, rhythms, routines, and processes, are particularly worthwhile.I found the book overly long. A bolder editor could have taken between 50 and 100 pages out of this book without doing any significant damage. Certainly the portions on military strategy could be removed (an odd digression that is not effective, and quite boring), but also tidying up some repetition.The book is written in a Q&A format, which I found to be a refreshing and interesting way to present a book, giving it almost the feel of a magazine article.

After reading previous reviews I wasn't expecting such an interesting read ! Some of the behind the scenes stuff revealed by RB on the dealings of getting Brawn team going involving Behind his back deals make you realise what a shark infested business world is out there. Ross comes across as a genuinely good and honourable guy although maybe some of the Ferrari 'team orders' make you wonder if that is rose coloured glasses and there might be a slightly different side to that story ? RB doesn't pull his punches when discussing the drivers and team people he has worked with, interesting to read his thoughts on Jenson's mid 2009 season blip and what happened at Mercedes leading to his departure.Previous comments about Adam Parr's sections led me to expect a low interest but I found it insightful and well explained while making lessons learned from military battles relevant.Overall I found it a page turner so would fully recommend it.

I follow F1 since Senna days, and one could not miss the fact that Ross Brawn is a very smart guy, given his work at Brawn GP team.Honda was withdrawing from F1 and Brawn with the help of a Mercedes engine and a brilliant car developed the year before, won the title.What was really a delight for me was to discover in Ross a fine man, with principles and deep caring for people as well as for technical side of the stuff. I found some introduction from Parr were too long but the answers of Ross were clear and full of substance. Every fan of F1 would love the book as it gives insights much deeper than the regular articles about the sport. You get to know also the unseen (and ugly) sides of Toto and Nikki and Bernie, principles of management and working with people.

Brilliant book. Probably not for you if all you're interested in is F1 racing. However very very interesting if you want to know what happens in the background, how people relate to each other, what thinking is required, how the business of running an F1 team goes on. Lots of reference (quite appropriately) to Sun Tzu - The Art of War and how this can be applied to the F1 environment. If you thought F1 was a few groups of people racing cars every few weeks then this book will show you what a small (but essential) part of the whole thing the racing really is. From afar I had already formed a very positive and favourable impression of Ross Brawn. This book has just served to confirm my view, and to convince me that F1 under Liberty Media is in excellent hands if they let Ross lead it the way it needs to go.