Synopsis:

An engineer looking to prove herself. A driver in need of a comeback. One race season to win it all…

Sienna Skye is a race engineer at GreenSkye Racing, one of the top F1 teams, crunching the critical data so their drivers perform their best on the racetrack. As one of the few female engineers in the sport, she’s determined to show everyone she’s capable of winning a championship for her team.

Finn Di Santis is a driver whose steely determination and killer instincts used to win him Grand Prixes and racing contracts. Now, he’s scraping by at the bottom of the leaderboard with only his charm keeping the sponsors happy. All Finn has ever wanted is to race, but his dream might come to an end if he doesn’t start winning.

When an opportunity arises for them to compete together this season, it could be Sienna’s biggest career moment and Finn’s chance at the comeback of his life. With the cameras and pressure on them, the race is on for Sienna and Finn to fall into sync and bring home victory. As their reluctant partnership turns into something more complicated, Sienna and Finn begin to wonder if there’s more at stake here than their careers. If they can learn to trust each other, they could be the perfect equation to winning it all. But can they make it through the season with their hearts intact?

Review:

The Winning Formula is an immersive romance audiobook that features a full cast – my favourite type of audiobook. The story isn’t read in duet, however, both narrators did each other’s accents pretty well so it wasn’t overly obvious. The production value was pretty high and I really liked the background details like the cars racing and ambient settings. The parts with the race casters were also really fun. These made the book so immersive and it felt like watching Formula 1 on a Sunday.

For the most part the audio performance is great. One thing I really hated though was how both narrators would pronounce data. British people do not pronounce it as ‘dartah’ we say ‘dayta’. It was actually horrible. There were other words like this but I can’t remember what they were now. Otherwise, they did a great job. I think if they actually read their own dialogues throughout, the book would have been even better. But they did a good job nonetheless.

The plot is very predictable but that’s one of the reasons why people, myself included, enjoy reading romance books. I thought the development of Sienna and Finn’s relationship was done well and who doesn’t love listening to an Australian man flirt and fall in love? Swoon.

There isn’t a ton of romance but that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Finn’s grief journey was actually the most interesting part of The Winning Formula. We all know Formula 1 is a very dangerous sport so having a character go through the trauma of their teammate dying during a race was an interesting choice. Obviously this storyline was quite sad but it gave The Winning Formula a layer of emotional depth that a lot of romance books usually lack. It was also great to see a male main character seeking help from those around him to deal with his trauma – we love a man in touch with his emotions.

Also, I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to read an F1 romance book with a female main character that isn’t just there to fall in love with a driver. No, Sienna was a breath of fresh air. I didn’t particularly love her character, but I did love that she has a degree in automotive and aerospace engineering and is a senior engineer for the team. I did hate that her dad owned the team. I feel like being a woman in the sport is already a rarity, you didn’t need to make her a nepo baby at the same time.

The Winning Formula was the first F1 romance I’ve read though, so I probably can’t comment on that too much. However, I do own a few and both are either just ‘I’m here to fall in love with the driver’ or they work the driver in some way.

Another part that was great about The Winning Formula is how accurate the details were about the sport. You do wonder sometimes if an author is just jumping on a trend with these types of books, but you can tell that Cara Veloce is either a fan of the sport or they did a lot of research.

If you have Audible Plus and are a fan of F1, I’d highly recommend checking out The Winning Formula.

---

Check out Young Creative Press on all socials

• Instagram
• Facebook
• Goodreads
• Instagram
• Facebook

You can also check out my StoryGraph here

Like this post? Why not read this one too: What I Watched: August 2025