Book Review - Offtrack by Esha Patel

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Title: Offtrack

Author: Esha Patel

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: Avon

Publication Date: 9th May 2024

Rating: 4 Stars

Formula One meets The Hating Game in this rivals-to-lovers romance between a legacy driver and F1’s first woman driver

Diana Zahrani is Formula One’s first female racing driver this century. All the other drivers are told to race carefully around her, and leave her to her real job: being a pretty face and good advertising for a hypermasculine sport. But Diana’s not worked this hard her whole life just to be a mascot.

World Championship favourite Miguel de la Fuente is not taking any rookie seriously, let alone a woman. With his first championship win looming, all he has to do is stay focused – and make sure Diana stays out of his way.

But motorsports is a small world, and as Diana and Miguel race their way through the season, they’re forced to face each other again and again. When sparks fly, Miguel and Diana must decide for the sake of their teams where their priorities lie: on track, with the championship, or offtrack, with each other…

Esha Patel previously published a book with these characters under this title – this is a completely rewritten title

I'm a massive F1 fan, and I totally felt absorbed into the fast paced world of Formula 1 within the pages of this book. 

It is clear that the nitty gritty of the racing has been well researched and I was cheering on our drivers in each race.  But being a fan of the sport what slightly annoyed me was the inclusion of an Indian Grand Prix, there hasn't been one since 2013 in the country, and there certainly wasn't one in 2022, let alone on the sort of circuit that was being described, i've not even heard rumours of.  And that took me out of the book and my enjoyment of the story while I tried to confirm my suspicions that this didn't exist. 

After all if you are going to name a 2022 F1 race schedule, swapping out the real life Bahrain Grand Prix, for a fictional Indian one doesn't really make sense.  The rest of the races I believe where there, but not necessarily in the right order. Jarred me slightly that there was a GP in Europe as only the second race of the season, they never move to Europe that soon, not even in the first proper season more or less fully back after the pandemic. 

But honestly those are my only negatives and if you aren't a F1 fan those are things you would never pick up on. 

What I did love is Diana, who manages to get an F1 seat for the season.  Being an Arabic woman in a male dominated field, given she had grown up in Saudi Arabia where women weren't even able to drive until fairly recently, makes her an inspirational character and one that I wish existed in real life. 

Some of what she faces and what she is trying to do with the sport, reminds me of things I've heard Lewis Hamilton say, while he tries to get more racial inclusion in the sport.  But it's doubly hard as she is female and half the field were at least initially really horrible towards her. 

Everything she has to put up with in the team and the sport felt incredibly realistic and entirely believable. 

Then there is Miguel, out male lead, part of a F1 legacy family, it's in his blood. But he is passionate about the sport, and there is an instant connection between him and Diana. But he has a sort of arranged marriage coming up, and his priorities have changed a bit this season, making him grow up a bit.  

I absolutely loved Miguel's sister Paula who who is a strong woman, and a race engineer, the one on the radio to him all race . I loved her in this role and it's another area that is women 

There are occasional bits of exploring some of the destinations they are racing in which spoke to my armchair travel part of the brain, while the sport and racing thrilled me. 

I just really hope one day there will be someone like Diana in F1, as it's what the sport needs. 

This was an enjoyable book, and I'm always eager to read more stories set in the world of F1 

Thank you to Avon and Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.