This article provides a detailed case study of F1 motor racing teams to better grasp the nature of contemporary elite formation. Drawing on an analysis of senior figures in F1 teams, and on a wider study of the industry, we argue that this affluent elite needs to be understood as part of a temporal ecology which deploys a technical habitus which has formed over a longue durée. In drawing out the significance of this approach, we extend analytical repertoires to focus on processes of accumulation. Building on the thinking of Bourdieu, Piketty and Kluge and Negt, we explore how this approach might have wider resonance in the resurgence of current analysis of the formation of ‘elite constellations’.
BourdieuP (1986) The forms of capital. In: RichardsonJ (ed.) Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education, New York: Greenwood, pp. 241–258.
14.
BourdieuP (1998) The State Nobility: Elite Schools in the Field of Power, Stanford: Stanford University Press.
15.
Bower T (2011) No Angel: The Secret Life of Bernie Ecclestone. London: Faber & Faber.
CastellsM (1996) The Rise of the Network Society, Oxford: Blackwell.
18.
CastellsMHallP (1994) Technopoles of the World: The Making of Twenty-First-Century Industrial Complexes, London: Routledge.
19.
Ciolfi J and Stuart S (2013) Organizational succession in F1: An analysis of Bernie Ecclestone’s roles as CEO of Formula One management. International Journal of Motorsport Management 2(1). Available at: http://scholar.wssu.edu/ijmm/vol2/iss1/1 (accessed June 2017).
FlemmenM (2012) The structure of the upper class: A social space approach. Sociology46(6): 1039–1058.
32.
ForeD (2014) Introduction. In: KlugeANegtO (eds) History and Obstinacy, Boston, MA: MIT Press, pp. 15–68.
33.
FroudJLeaverATampubolonGWilliamsK (2008) Everything for sale: How non-executive directors make a difference. The Sociological Review56(s1): 162–186.
34.
Goodall AH and Pogrebna G (2014) Expert leaders in a fast-moving environment. The Leadership Quarterly. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2014.07.009 (accessed June 2017).
Heaton R (2011) UK must value F1 industry – Williams chairman Adam Parr, 28 June. Available at: www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/13945607 (accessed June 2017).
39.
Ingham GK (ed.) (2005) Concepts of Money: Interdisciplinary Perspectives from Economics, Sociology and Political Science, Vol. 8. London: Edward Elgar.
40.
IrvinR (2008) Super Rich: The Rise of Inequality in Britain and the United States, Cambridge: Polity.
41.
JenkinsM (2010) Technological discontinuities and competitive advantage: A historical perspective on Formula 1 Motor Racing, 1950–2006. Journal of Management Studies47(5): 884–910.
42.
JenkinsMFloydS (2001) Trajectories in the evolution of technology: A multi-level study of competition in Formula 1 racing. Organization Studies22(6): 945–969.
43.
JenkinsMPasternakKWestR (2009) Performance at the Limit: Business Lessons from Formula 1 Motor Racing, 2nd edn, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
44.
JonesO (2014) The Establishment, London: Penguin.
45.
JoyceP (2013) The State of Freedom: A Social History of the British State since 1800, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
46.
KlugeANegtO (2014) History and Obstinacy, Boston, MA: MIT Press.
47.
Ladbrooke R (2013a) First day of school, 5 February. Available at: www. jobinf1.com/2013/02/05/first-day-of-school/ (accessed June 2017).
PikettyT (2014a) Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
60.
PikettyT (2014b) Capital in the twenty-first century: A multidimensional approach to the history of capital and social classes. British Journal of Sociology65(4): 736–747.
61.
PinchSHenryN (1999) Discursive aspects of technological innovation: The case of the British motor-sport industry. Environment and PlanningA(31): 665–6.
62.
PrieurASavageM (2013) Emerging forms of cultural capital. European Societies15(2): 246–267.
SavageM (2010) Identities and Social Change in Britain since 1940: The Politics of Method, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
66.
SavageM (2014) Piketty’s challenge to sociology. British Journal of Sociology65(4): 591–606.
67.
Savage M and Williams K (eds) (2008) Remembering Elites. Oxford: Blackwell.
68.
SavageMCunninghamNDevineFFriedmanSLaurisonDMckenzieLet al. (2015) Social Class in the 21st Century, New York: Penguin.
69.
SavageMWardeADevineF (2005) Capital, assets and resources: Some critical issues. British Journal of Sociology56(1): 31–48.
70.
ScottJ (1982) The Upper Class, Basingstoke: Macmillan.
71.
ScottJ (2008) Modes of power and the re-conceptualization of elites. The Sociological Review56(s1): 25–43.
72.
SklairL (2003) Globalization, capitalism and power. Developments in Sociology10: 101–121.
73.
SmithD (2012) Technological discontinuities, outsiders and social capital: A case study from Formula 1. European Journal of Innovation Management15(3): 332–350.
74.
SolitanderMSolitanderN (2010) The sharing, protection and thievery of intellectual assets: The case of the Formula 1 industry. Management Decision48(1): 37–57.
75.
StiglitzJE (2012) The Price of Inequality: How Today’s Divided Society Endangers Our Future, New York: W. W. Norton.
ThriftNJ (2008) The material practices of glamour. Journal of Cultural Economy1(1): 9–23.
93.
VolschoaTWKellyNJ (2012) The rise of the superrich: Power resources, taxes, financial markets, and the dynamics of the top 1 percent, 1949 to 2008. American Sociological Review77(5): 679–699.
