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An early bath at the 1965 Monaco GP

May 30, 1965 Monaco

And it’s an early bath for Australian driver Paul Hawkins at the 1965 Monaco Grand Prix. Hawkins’ Lotus spun towards the end of the race and flipped over the edge of the quay. He escaped unhurt but his Climax-powered 33 had to be fished out. He is one of only two drivers to have ended up in the drink during the Monaco GP – the other was Alberto Ascari in ’55.

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1994 McLaren F1
Sold by RM Sotheby’s, £19M

This was the 14th of the 64 road-spec F1s produced and was originally delivered to the Brunei royal family in Titan Yellow. It subsequently passed through the hands of six owners, the fifth of which sent it back to McLaren for a ground-up rebuild during which it was repainted white, fitted with a high downforce kit, had its interior converted to LM specification – and was signed on the left-hand-side luggage compartment by Lewis Hamilton. All that, plus some other mods, cost a cool £265,000 in 2007. As demonstrated by the sale price, F1 values have gone through the roof.

2026 McLaren F1 MCL40A
Sold by RM Sotheby’s, £8.6m

For the first time, a future F1 car has been made available for sale. This 2026 McLaren won’t be delivered to its owner until the first quarter of 2028. The car isn’t officially unveiled until the new year.

1970 Jaguar E-Type
Sold by Iconic auctioneers, Undisclosed

With 72,000 E-types made, it’s not surprising that interesting survivors crop up regularly. This one was exceptional, having been dry-stored for 52 years and showing just 10,534 miles on the clock.

2022 Mercedes-Benz AMG GT track series
Sold by RM Sotheby’s, £342,500

Just 55 Track Series AMG GTs were built in celebration of the tuning firm’s 55th anniversary. Weighing only 1400kg, the GT3-inspired beasts were stripped out and tuned to produce 734bhp.

1985 MG Metro 6R4
Sold by Iconic auctioneers, £219,375

With 410bhp on tap, this was supplied new to Mika Arpiainen and Jarno Mustonen to contest Finland’s Rally of 1000 Lakes in 1986. It failed to finish but won the following year’s Helsinki Rally.

1976 Porsche 911
Sold by Osenat, £102,500

This was one of just 20 2.7-litre, 210bhp Carrera Targas built in 1976. The whole lot was supplied to the Belgian police who requested the Targa top “to make it easier to communicate with other drivers”.

1974 Ford Capri RS3100
Sold by Iconic auctioneers, £50,625

Ford’s Advanced Vehicle Operations built 250 of these Capris with 3.1-litre V6 engines in order to homologate the model for the ETCC. This restored example had retained all of its original features.

1990 Renault 5 GT Turbo
Sold by Artcurial, £61,000

Once it had won its class in the 1990 Ivory Coast-Bandama Rally, this Renault 5 Turbo was wheeled in to the Renault collection in exactly the condition it was in after crossing the finish line – complete with every grain of sand and speck of dirt it picked up along the way.

 

Forthcoming sale highlights

● Barrett-Jackson, Scottsdale, Arizona, January 17-25
Auctions listed across multiple days tend to be online efforts now – but not in the case of Barrett-Jackson, which stages some of the largest live sales on the planet. This eight-day effort will feature muscle cars, customs and hot rods galore, plus some special moderns. Limited edition Dodge Viper in Snakeskin Green anyone?
● Broad Arrow, January 23-February 1
This Global Icons sale will consist of three separate strands: two online collector car auctions, one for cars based in Europe (including a 1971 Lamborghini Miura P400 S) and one for cars in the UK, plus a further online sale of 100 lots of motor sport memorabilia with links to stars including Stirling Moss, John Surtees and Ayrton Senna.

● Gooding Christie’s, Paris, January 29
The first European sale under the new Gooding Christie’s name should set the benchmark for things to come. In addition to the expected slew of high-end and expensive cars, there will be oddities, too – among them a 1983 Fiat Campagnola that competed in the eighth Paris-Dakar Rally and a couple of unusual Fiat beach cars from a single-owner collection.

● SWVA, Poole, January 29
January is often a good time to browse the salerooms with no particular plan other than to snap up anything that looks like a bargain – and there are likely to be plenty available. This SWVA sale will combine a good selection of classics with a few more exotic performance cars. Among the lots is a nicely patinated Rover 100 ‘six’ from ’62 and a good-running 1995 Vauxhall Calibra 2.0 16V.

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An early bath at the 1965 Monaco GP

Were we betting types, we might be tempted to place a few shillings on the likelihood of this becoming the most expensive car to be sold at auction in 2026 – even if the sale is happening in the third week of January.

Bodywork designed by Giotto Bizzarrini, built by Scaglietti

Bodywork designed by Giotto Bizzarrini, built by Scaglietti

Mecum, Sutton Images

With rumours that another of the 36 250 GTOs created fetched as much as £55m in recent years, it’s not unrealistic to suggest that this example might well sell for more – not least since it’s the only white one ever to leave the factory.

And then there’s the remarkable provenance. It was bought new by Jaguar racing guru John Coombs, allegedly to compare against his race-prepared E-types.
In the first three years of its life, chassis 3279GT worked hard for its living at race meetings up and down the country, more often than not with a superstar driver of the era at the wheel.

‘Bianco’ paintwork makes this GTO a one-off

‘Bianco’ paintwork makes this GTO a one-off

Mecum, Sutton Images

Interior is beautifully patinated and original

Interior is beautifully patinated and original

Mecum, Sutton Images

2953cc Colombo V12 delivers 300bhp. Sale will include a spare engine for street, touring and track use

2953cc Colombo V12 delivers 300bhp. Sale will include a spare engine for street, touring and track use

Mecum, Sutton Images

Bonnet louvres and third wing vent were Coombs mods

Bonnet louvres and third wing vent were Coombs mods

Mecum, Sutton Images

Roy Salvadori took it to second place at Brands Hatch on its maiden outing on August 6, 1962, with Graham Hill also taking second at Goodwood in the car just 12 days later.

Mike Parkes, Richie Ginther and Jack Sears also competed in it – with Sears taking a class win at Brands that left him so in love with the ‘Bianco Speciale’ that he bought it, keeping it for 30 years.

Knock-off wire wheels were made by Borrani

Knock-off wire wheels were made by Borrani

Mecum, Sutton Images

Acquired by former Microsoft president Jon Shirley in 1999, Mecum says the car has been “maintained, repaired and re-finished – but never restored”. It even retains the tube that Coombs installed to bring cool air from the nose cone into the cockpit.

But even that might not have prevented him from passing out if he knew what his unique GTO could be worth today.

Graham Hill drove this 250 GTO to second in the 1962 RAC Tourist Trophy at Goodwood

Graham Hill drove this 250 GTO to second in the 1962 RAC Tourist Trophy at Goodwood

Getty Images

1962 Ferrari 250 GTO ‘Bianco Speciale’
On sale with Mecum, Florida, January 17. Estimate: undisclosed, likely £50m-plus. mecum.com

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De Tomaso may not have enjoyed the success of fellow Italian marques Ferrari or Maserati, but its founder Alejandro de Tomaso certainly had a knack for choosing model names – after all, who wouldn’t want to own a car called Vallelunga, Mangusta or Pantera?

Or what about a Guarà? Named after a South American canine (aka maned wolf), the Guarà was De Tomaso’s swansong model and was first seen at the Geneva Motor Show in 1993, making it a contemporary of the McLaren F1 that had entered production the previous year.

The car retains its factory paintwork.

The car retains its factory paintwork.

The Guarà was certainly no competitor to the McLaren, but it did offer some interesting similarities: rear, mid-mounted BMW V8 power, a composite body incorporating Kevlar and glass fibre, and several race-inspired features, such as F1-style inboard suspension and Brembo brakes derived from the Ferrari F40.
Its aluminium, backbone chassis and independent, double wishbone suspension were developed with the help of Argentinian grand prix engineer Enrique Scalabroni who worked with Dallara, Lotus and Williams, to name but a few…

The Guarà’s distinctive body – which from some angles seems to combine elements of Ferrari, Jaguar, Corvette, Lotus Elan and Toyota MR2 – was penned by Carlo Gaino of Synthesis Design and made the 1200kg car slippery enough to enable its 279bhp to push it to more than 170mph.
A nicely trimmed interior, meanwhile, belied the fact that there was no power assistance for the brakes or steering, with the latter and the pedal box being fully adjustable to suit the driver.

BMW 4-litre V8

BMW 4-litre V8

Throw in a six-speed Getrag manual gearbox and the Guarà is starting to sound exactly like the type of analogue sports car that many modern-day driving enthusiasts are mourning the loss of.

And if you’re among them, this Guarà merits a closer look.

many interior components came from BMW

many interior components came from BMW

Of the 21 examples of the coupé version built (there were 52 in total, including roadster and barchetta variants) most had Ford engines – with the one on offer being among the mere eight to get the far more desirable BMW 4-litre M60 V8.

It wasn’t registered for the road until five years after it left the De Tomaso factory, originally being acquired by a Belgian enthusiast who is believed to have kept it for around 20 years before it came up for sale and was exported to the US, where it was acquired by the current owner from a New Jersey dealer.

pop-up lights

pop-up lights

Finished in its original silver paint and with nicely preserved blue leather trim, it has covered a paltry 1600 miles and could well be the best Guarà in existence.
In our opinion, however, it would be even better if someone got behind the wheel and clocked-up a few enthusiastic miles in a car that is renowned for its superb (although same say ‘nervous’) handling and rewarding driving experience.

And it’s rarer than a McLaren F1 and a fraction of the price to boot. Speaking of which – there isn’t one. You’ll have to put your luggage on the passenger seat. Or in the occupant’.

1996 De Tomaso Guarà 
On sale with HK Motorcars, New York, US. £POA. hkmotorcars.com

 

Nothing says sorry quite like a 280 SL

● Let’s say it’s the 1960s and you’re a two-time winner of the British Saloon Car Championship. You’ve spent far too much time away from home and you want to say sorry to the wife. This automatic 1969 Mercedes-Benz 280 SL, inset, was Jack Sears’ apology to the missus. Now on sale at sl shop in Stratford-upon-Avon, it’s “as-new from badge to boot”. £199,995.


● Showrooms still matter, according to research by Market Delivery. The automotive marketing software firm asked 1000 car owners to respond to the question: “When I next shop for a new vehicle, I would prefer not to visit a showroom.” Just 7% agreed; 56% disagreed. “It’s a positive signal for retailers that have a physical presence,” said director Charlotte Murray.
● Originally delivered to Hogan Racing in the US, this 1972 Lola T300, was raced by Brit driver David Hobbs in the ’72 L&M Continental 5000 Championship, with a first outing at Laguna Seca in May. It’s on sale with Klasiko in Malmesbury, Wiltshire for a rather reasonable £64,995 – and comes with spares.


● UK motor trade association SMMT gave a strong reaction after the Budget’s announcement of a 3p-a-mile charge for EVs from 2028, “We should be taking every opportunity to encourage drivers to make the switch to EVs, not punishing them,” said chief executive Mike Hawes.
● Gerry McGovern, chief designer behind Jaguar’s Type 00, might have parted ways with JLR but his divisive concept won a gong at online marketplace Carwow’s annual awards – for Most Talked About Car. LG

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Tom Ingram’s rivalry with Jake Hill will be no more in 2026. That’s because Hill, the 2024 BTCC champion, is heading into the world of international endurance racing. Their proximity to each other on track has been a recurring theme since 2010, when both were 16 years old, and Ingram beat Hill to the title in the BTCC-supporting Ginetta Junior series. And it even featured at the 2024 Goodwood Revival, when the TVR Griffith-mounted Ingram pipped the AC Cobra of Hill to the flag in the RAC TT Celebration – one of the best races seen at the event.

“Jake has been a thorn in my side as long I have his,” reflects Ingram. “He’s the person you would always somehow be on circuit with, no matter what happens. In Ginetta Junior, a GT Supercup car, in a historic car at Goodwood, whatever it might be, somehow we’re always magnets, and end up having a battle. It’ll be a big change not to have that.”

What does Ingram remember of that 2010 Ginetta season? “I don’t think either of us realised what we were signing up for. We were both just mad-keen to go and win races. Jake’s approach was totally different to mine. My approach has always remained the same, to just stay fairly level-headed and bank the points, whereas Jake was always ‘go for it’.

Ingram (TVR) vs Hill (Cobra), Goodwood Revival, 2024.

Ingram (TVR) vs Hill (Cobra), Goodwood Revival, 2024.

Getty Images

“That Ginetta Junior season he won more races than me [Hill 10, Ingram five]. But if he won, the next race would be a non-finish, whereas I’d finish second-second… It’s quite funny how it’s been the same with us over the years. Jake would always be slightly quicker here, but fall foul there. I think Jake and I have brought each other on. It’s that classic thing. If you play golf with somebody worse than you, you just drop to the same level, whereas every single year Jake would get better and I would get better, and we would exchange these hundredths, tenths over the course of the years that would ultimately improve the both of us.”

With Hill’s father Simon well known in the sport as a racer, commentator and safety car driver, the tale of his lad’s struggles to keep the financial boat afloat in the sport was well-known. But it was a struggle too for Ingram, who relied on the altruism of his Ginetta teams and the Jason Plato-helmed KX Academy to keep going, and finally got his break in the BTCC for 2014 as his prize for winning the Yorkshire constructor’s G55 Supercup the previous season. “We were completely green to the whole thing,” Ingram explains of his family. “You make your own luck, I get that, but at the same time I was just… lucky.”

Their Goodwood battle was a classic: “You couldn’t really have scripted it. Jake and I were going for the BTCC title – there was only a handful of points between us – yet we get bolted in these old cars and somehow we’re swapping thousandths again. I think the rivalry was as intense as it was because it was Jake and I. The nice thing is we can be fairly civil off circuit. We’ve fallen out more times than I care to think about, but I at least know that if Jake turned around and said, ‘Do you want to go for a beer?’, I’d be, ‘Why not?’”

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Marcus Simmons meets: Tom Ingram

Tom Ingram frequently employs the words ‘enjoy’ and ‘enjoyment’. As well he might. After all, in early October 2025 he became the king of the British Touring Car Championship for the second time. This crown, following three years after his first conquering of the UK’s most-popular car-racing series, was far more, ahem, ‘enjoyable’.

The Hyundai i30 of Tom Ingram has the edge over close rival Ash Sutton’s Ford Focus; between them they scored 12 wins in 2025

The Hyundai i30 of Tom Ingram has the edge over close rival Ash Sutton’s Ford Focus; between them they scored 12 wins in 2025

“Winning the first title you get so caught up in the emotions of trying to do it that you don’t actually enjoy it,” reasons the 32-year-old, who has been part of the BTCC since his 2014 debut, aged 20. “Winning it this year, we just had a bloody good time. And you know what? This time around felt more like I remember the early Speedworks days [Ingram’s BTCC team from 2014-20], where you’re just having a laugh all the time. You’ve obviously got a very serious job to do, and we all want the best out of it, but you’re also really enjoying yourselves while you’re doing it. Winning it has taught me that you need to have good people around you to enjoy it.”

“You’ve got a serious job to do but you’re also enjoying yourselves”

The psychology of what Ingram is saying is obvious: get everyone on side and success is more likely to come. It certainly produced a monster of a car in the form of the Hyundai i30 N provided to him by Excelr8 Motorsport, his team since 2021.

Last season, crucial to the performance of that machine was Excelr8’s reaction to the BTCC’s surprise abandonment of hybrid. Before that had even been announced, Ingram and team-mate Tom Chilton were out testing at Anglesey with the weight out just after the chequered flag fell on the 2024 season.
“We obviously got the inside scoop of what was going on from the teams meeting that had happened about a week prior [TOCA always has a post-season get-together with its teams to hammer out rule changes for the forthcoming campaign],” recalls Ingram. “And fundamentally that was the most important thing we could go and do. Realistically, when the season finished, Vertu [title sponsor for Ingram’s and Chilton’s Hyundais] came to us and went, ‘How do we access this opportunity?’ We went, ‘By doing this.’ ‘Perfect. Well, let’s go and do it.’

Avensis days with Speedworks

Avensis days with Speedworks

Jakob Eberey

“We got three or four days of bright blue sky with not a single cloud in it, about 12˚C air, 18˚C track, and it was exactly the same for four days. The only way you’d get better consistent testing simulation is to do it on a sim. And the amount of stuff and laps that we did was off the scale, which made such a difference. That was enormous for us.”

Veteran Chilton was important too, especially since – and it’s surprising to hear Ingram say this – “the two of us like a car set-up the same way”. ‘Surprising’, because Ingram has a unique ability to carry astonishing speed into slow corners, drifting across the track on braking to hit the apex with pinpoint precision, the car rotating beautifully while he gets on the power, while Chilton is a good old-fashioned ragger who seems to have grown up watching and learning Gilles Villeneuve videos.

“Tom’s been huge in all this,” asserts Ingram. “He’s not maybe had the results to back it up; some of the time he’s just been unlucky. But he’s been massive with developing everything as well in getting the best out of people and the car.

“Tom’s philosophy of getting it [the car set-up] is in an entirely opposite direction to the way I get it, but ultimately we want it to do the same thing. And that’s really useful – there’s no point us both doing the same thing. At the end of the final day at Anglesey, we swapped set-ups and went out, and we both did exactly the same laptime as we did before to within a millionth, and both of us went, ‘That feels really good… but this is worse, because we don’t know what to do now!’ At that point it was pick through the bones of what we’d just done and find out what was actually good and what felt good, and come up with a middle ground to it.”

Another key was Ingram doing much of his winter testing on the hard-compound Goodyear tyre. The BTCC rules for 2025 mandated use of this rubber as the ‘option’ tyre at several of the triple-header events, and such was its performance delta to the soft and medium that drivers frequently gravitated to the back of the field when taking their medicine…

“We knew that [the hard tyre] was a weak point for us,” explains Ingram. “We knew that fundamentally the car was amazing on the soft tyre so it was, ‘OK, let’s work on what we’re not so good at, bump those numbers up on where we’re not quite where we need to be.’”

life of pie – Ginster’s sponsored Hyundai i30 N

Life of pie – Ginster’s sponsored Hyundai i30 N

Jakob Eberey

This led to perhaps the standout performance of 2025 for Ingram, at Oulton Park. The sporting rules dictated that the top three in race one had to run the hard tyre in race two. Main title rival Ash Sutton cheekily slipped back to fourth on the final lap to avoid this. Ingram won and then, equipped with the ‘rubber of doom’, he somehow fended off Jake Hill’s BMW for fourth place in the next race.

“It is a circuit I absolutely adore,” he bubbles, “and also we’ve got a real handle on how to get the best out of the car around there. Off the back of that, your mindset is totally different. ‘We’re going to win.’ Not from a cocky, arrogant aspect, you just feel that strong in what you’ve got: ‘Yeah, we’re going to have this. So much so that we can still do this on the hard tyre.’ ‘No you can’t, you idiot, don’t be stupid.’ ‘Yeah we can.’”

The combination of Ingram and engineer Spencer Aldridge, together almost throughout the champ’s BTCC career, is well-renowned. To this, and Ingram’s mantra that it’s about the people working together, we can add data engineer Matt Campbell, plus, as well as Chilton, two further quick – and, crucially, amiable – team-mates in the forms of Adam Morgan and Senna Proctor (who, ironically, Ingram replaced at Excelr8 for 2021). Seasoned team manager Marvin Humphries and his wife Sandra keep everything in line, and Ingram pays tribute to his sponsor since 2012, Hansford Sensors and its boss Chris Hansford: “He’s been the kingpin to this. As much as he’s obviously an incredible personal backer of mine and the team, and a friend, Chris is a great mentor as well – you can rely on everything he says. You can float an idea past him and, even if he won’t react immediately, he’ll give you an answer two hours later and you’d know, ‘Right, that’s the way to do that.’ He’s been beyond perfect.”

Ingram’s first BTCC trophy, 2022

Ingram’s first BTCC trophy, 2022

Getty Images

That all leads to what appears to be a serene Ingram camp, but there’s been more help behind the scenes. In a series with such artificialities as boost penalties, reversed grids as well as that massive tyre offset, it’s vital to keep your perspective: “I did a lot of work with a sports psychologist a few years ago, who I still do some stuff with now, who was great for that sensible approach. You’ve got to win or be second and third, but be sensible with it. You’re keen for risk, but understand what that means at the same time.

“My 2025 season is probably the cleanest you’re going to have”

“Also managing what you can manage – I’ve said it no end of times, controlling the controllables. I’ve got no control over how fast Ash, Jake or whoever is going to be, but I’ve got 99% control over what I can do. If Ash goes out and is four-tenths faster than anyone else, good for you. What do I do about making my stuff better? I’m not going to worry about whether he’s quicker or slower. You just have this real methodical approach to it. The touring car season is really tough, because you have so many ups and downs, and my 2025 season is probably the cleanest you’re ever going to have, with one bad race at Snetterton [a crash]. Everything else was fairly meticulous.”

It’s a long way from five years ago. Back then, Ingram was renowned as the BTCC’s ‘nearly man’. After seven years together, Ingram and Speedworks Motorsport chief Christian Dick seemed inseparable. They had been ever-present in the BTCC top six over four consecutive seasons with Toyota machinery, first the Avensis, then the Corolla. And then came a split, leading to Ingram’s arrival at Excelr8, helmed by Justina and Antony Williams.

Ingram keeps his Hyundai i30 in front of the BMW 330i of last year’s BTCC champion Jake Hill – who has been a rival for years

Ingram keeps his Hyundai i30 in front of the BMW 330i of last year’s BTCC champion Jake Hill – who has been a rival for years

This was down to Speedworks’ rebrand from Team Toyota GB to Toyota Gazoo Racing UK, meaning Ingram could no longer give his sponsors substantial space in the car livery: “It didn’t work for us because we still had a multi-year agreement with Ginsters at the time. The difficulty was Ginsters was mine, and Gazoo was Christian’s. Neither deserved to not have the opportunity to make some money out of it. By making it happen, everybody would have been hacked off and nobody would have won.

“Actually the best thing was to go, ‘Look, none of us want to, but in the interests of us all to do as well at this as we can, we’re going to have to call it.’ And it was late – it was December, which is mental really. I’d thought I was going to be with the team for my whole career.

“I was working for Excelr8 doing some driver coaching for the Minis,” continues Ingram. “I’d kind of got to know a few of the faces, and you could see that it was a pretty cool outfit. They were the only ones in the support series spending good money on appearance, on the cars, and doing a good job on the circuit, and there’s a big value in that. So I thought it’s probably not a bad shout to have a little discussion with Justina and see where we can go, and it all happened super-quick.”
Crucially, Ingram took Aldridge with him, sparking a modern phenomenon where driver-engineer combos tend to go together from team to team in the BTCC. “That was absolutely massive,” he enthuses. “As I’ve said a number of times – while we blow smoke up each other’s arses! – I don’t think either of us would still be in the paddock without the other.

“Certainly from my side I could find an enthusiasm from within, but it needs to be shared with people around you as well. And that’s been a really special thing. Spenny and I have worked together since 2014, my very first test in a touring car, so we kind of know everything about each other in that sense. It was a natural thing to do to convince him that coming with me was the right idea.”

“When you look at the shape, the i30 isn’t far off being spot-on”

The raw material of the Hyundai was good too; its fastback shape is superior aerodynamically to the saloons and hatchbacks surrounding – or usually behind – it on the grid. “One of the big things that we saw, and it’s funny that it’s taken people until the end of this year to work it out, is the massive value of its shape,” points out Ingram. “When I went from Avensis to Corolla, the very first test I thought the boost pipe had fallen off the car, it was that slow. When you start to look at the shapes and sizes of overhangs and wheelbases, distribution and aerodynamic shape, I’d say the i30 isn’t far off being spot-on.”

In his first year with the Hyundai, Ingram placed fourth in the 2021 rankings. For 2022, hybrid was arriving in the series, adding significant weight to the cars. Speedworks had been BTCC organiser TOCA’s official development team for the Cosworth-produced system in the preceding years, so Aldridge used his knowledge of its installation to get a head-start. The Hyundai was on track at Snetterton just after the finish of the 2021 season.

“Once we saw that success ballast was coming out and we’ve got this big lump of lithium in the passenger seat, this was the best opportunity that we’re going to have,” explains Ingram. “We were out about a week after the final race of the season, starting to put that into action in terms of what we needed to do, to get the best position of the battery and all the other things we needed.

Ingram was on fire for the season-ending Brands Hatch rounds, with a win and fastest lap in the penultimate race of ’25

Ingram was on fire for the season-ending Brands Hatch rounds, with a win and fastest lap in the penultimate race of ’25

“We could 3D print the exterior of a battery give or take, fill it with the necessary weight at the necessary height, and simulate it as much as we could before the actual product arrived in the car. In the grand scheme of it, for the cost involved, it was a no-brainer. That was a huge leg up for us.”

Ingram defeated Ash Sutton and Jake Hill in a three-way title decider in the final race of the 2022 season, only for Sutton’s Motorbase (now Alliance Racing) Ford Focus team to instigate a massive development programme on the fourth-generation ST for 2023. Excelr8 got the worst of the weather wherever it went testing, meaning it was still validating its own development some way into the season, but Ingram still claimed the runner-up spot behind Sutton. In 2024 he was second again, this time behind Jake Hill and the West Surrey Racing BMW squad, his challenge scuppered in the very last race at Brands by the Hyundai’s curious abuse of its tyres in semi-wet conditions.

Pinpointing this malaise was the prime purpose of the Anglesey test when it was initially scheduled. After all, it was bound to rain in North Wales in October. Then came the bombshell that hybrid was being dropped, a refocus, and… perfect weather.

A second BTCC crown for Ingram – and an enjoyable one too; and a first manufacturers’ title for Hyundai

A second BTCC crown for Ingram – and an enjoyable one too; and a first manufacturers’ title for Hyundai

Jakob Eberey

For all his talk of a ‘meticulous’ season, Ingram won more races – seven – than anyone else in the 2025 BTCC. And that took the overall victory tally for Hyundai chassis WPMS-NGTC-079, the same car he has used since 2021 and will continue to drive in 2026, to 24. It is now the most successful machine of the BTCC’s NGTC ruleset, which has been in place since the early 2010s. But it was the 24th that was the most special: the penultimate race of 2025, in which he put the title beyond the reach of Sutton.

“I set the lap record on the last lap to win the championship”

“We were looking at it as ‘let’s win it in style’, because you’ve got the confidence,” purrs Ingram of his pace on the soft tyre on the Brands GP circuit. “The race panned out perfectly. I saved my allocation of boost to near the end and set the lap record on the last lap to win the championship. That cements that feeling of just enjoy it with the people around you, knowing that you’ve got such a fantastic product to be able to do it in. It’s rare that you’re ever going to get that opportunity, so why not just enjoy it?” For Ingram, enjoyment is what it’s all about.

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Paul Lawrence: As a stalwart of the UK motor sport scene since the 1980s, Paul has long been a contributor to these pages

Seldom has there been so much change and upheaval in historic racing as there was across the 2025 season. It was a case of shifting sands as prime promoters came under new ownership, clubs changed focus, championships and categories moved around and rival series proliferated. All of this came against a background of challenging financial times and generally smaller grids than anyone would have liked.

Despite the general unease, the positives included a more concerted effort to push back on the excesses of car development in historic racing and the creation of new initiatives like the Motor Racing Legends Generations Cup and the development of the Equipe Classic Racing 6 Hours.

At a fairly grassroots level, the excellent Classic Touring Car Racing Club marked half a century since the inaugural outing for Pre-57 Saloons by further strengthening its offering for anyone wanting to race a period touring car from across four decades. The development and burgeoning appeal of the Super Touring Power event at Brands Hatch had CTCRC races at its core.

One of the annual highlights of the season, the Silverstone Festival, proved to be the last event of the genre as Silverstone switched its prime focus away from a dedicated historic racing festival as an anchor point in the summer season.

Equipe GTS remains popular, with Austin-Healey of Jonathan Abecassis leading a gaggle here

Equipe GTS remains popular, with Austin-Healey of Jonathan Abecassis leading a gaggle here

Jeff Bloxham

MGB-based Generations Trophy at Silverstone.

MGB-based Generations Trophy at Silverstone.

Jordan Butters

Osian Pryce won the Roger Albert Clark Rally

Osian Pryce won the Roger Albert Clark Rally

Paul Lawrence

Audi chases Aston Martin in MRL GT3 Legends field

Audi chases Aston Martin in MRL GT3 Legends field

Jeff Bloxham

Meanwhile at Goodwood, despite some mixed weather for the Revival, the show was as good as ever with strong grids and close racing. BTCC champion-elect Tom Ingram underlined his class in historic cars by sharing the Jaguar E-type of Richard Kent to TT glory.

Events like the Donington Historic Festival emerged bigger and better under new management. The big push from MRL to evolve and expand was clear when the Donington Historic Festival ran in early May. Though grids were realistic rather than record-breaking, the atmosphere, the paddock set-up and the whole package for participants was enhanced. Notable winners across three days included new MRL boss Shaun Lynn who, partnered by son Maxwell, won the three-hour Pall Mall Cup in their Lotus Elan.

The big changes in 2025 went back to the middle of ’24 when Motor Racing Legends was acquired by racer Lynn and Masters Historic Racing was acquired by Frenchman Fred Fatien. Inevitably change was likely and it was quickly apparent that MRL was firmly on the front foot as it added a new GT3 category to its portfolio and the successful new Generations Cup, which pitched two family members from different generations into a two-driver race for Appendix K MGBs.
The trial race at Silverstone at the end of the season was a resounding success and was won by father and son Rick and Joe Willmott. It will grow further in 2026 as a great platform for bringing new drivers into the sport in a fairly stress-free environment.

There is no doubt that attracting co-ordinator Rachel Bailey across from Masters was another major coup for MRL and it seems that MRL has taken the advantage in terms of delivering across a wide range of categories. As the two organisations moved into a similar place in the market, that rivalry will continue into 2026. Importantly, MRL will have a big hand in the re-worked Silverstone Classic next July after Masters stepped away from the event.

At a lower level, but in a similar vein, Equipe Classic Racing continued its determined growth and targeted several traditional Historic Sports Car Club categories in particular, with a move to run period single-seaters and 1960s sports racing cars. ECR was clearly targeting core HSCC grids for its on-going development.

The six-hour Equipe GTS race at Donington in early July was a great success, with 33 cars on the grid and a race headed by a gaggle of Lotus Elans, including the lead car anchored by former BTCC racer Rory Butcher. The race will grow further with a move to the Silverstone GP circuit next year.

The HSCC battled on with its core activities but nothing much in the way of new initiatives and was able to count on the period Formula Ford categories to support much of what was going on.

Under the drive of former club chairman Chris Sharples, Historic Formula Ford 1600 came back from a rather sorry state to once more become the series that it had been only a couple of years earlier with 30-plus grids and close but sporting competition. At the end of the season, Sam Mitchell took the title for the second time after a break of a decade and was able to repeat the championship crown that his father Westie won in 2009.

“The remarkable Rick Morris, 78, won twice over the final weekend”

In Classic Formula Ford, for pre-1982 cars, it was Jordan Harrison who took the title but the remarkable Rick Morris, 78, was a serious contender and won twice over the final weekend of the season. It was a fitting conclusion to Rick’s 53rd season of racing.

Other notable single-seater successes included Formula Junior, in its debut year outside the HSCC, which just seems to go from strength to strength as it heads relentlessly towards a 70th anniversary season in 2028. The UK championship went down to the wire at Silverstone and was won for the third time by Nic Carlton-Smith, this time in his Lotus 20.

Both Thruxton and Castle Combe enjoyed good historic festival weekends but the bid to create a historic racing festival at Snetterton again fell flat as competitors simply voted with their feet.

Sam Mitchell claimed the Historic FF1600 crown

Sam Mitchell claimed the Historic FF1600 crown

Jeff Bloxham

No, it’s not an early-2010s Blancpain field. Christian Albrecht leads in McLaren MP4-12C at Donington

No, it’s not an early-2010s Blancpain field. Christian Albrecht leads in McLaren MP4-12C at Donington

Jeff Bloxham

this year’s BTCC champion Tom Ingram, right, had much to smile about at the Goodwood Revival, which included a win in the RAC TT Celebration with Richard Kent, left, in CUT 7

This year’s BTCC champion Tom Ingram, right, had much to smile about at the Goodwood Revival, which included a win in the RAC TT Celebration with Richard Kent, left, in CUT 7

Jeff Bloxham

Silverstone’s Derek Bell Trophy for F2/5000, with Lola T400 of Michael Lyons (No64), March 782 of Mark Charteris (No11) and March 762 of Alex Kapadia (No88) the frontrunners

Silverstone’s Derek Bell Trophy for F2/5000, with Lola T400 of Michael Lyons (No64), March 782 of Mark Charteris (No11) and March 762 of Alex Kapadia (No88) the frontrunners

Jeff Bloxham

Over in rallying it was also a time of change with the emergence of Category 4 for the cars of the 1980s. Now, Category 5 will be added to cover the story right through to 2000. The adoption of Category 4 fully into the British Historic Rally Championship delivered a new champion in Baz Jordan, who guided his Mitsubishi Galant VR-4 to the overall title with a measured campaign. Some threw their hands up in horror at the prospect of a four-wheel-drive turbocharged car winning the British Historic title but this was a 35-year-old car and, as the saying goes, time waits for no man.

However, it was still among the Category 3 Ford Escort Mk2 pack that the fiercest competition continued and they generally set the pace in the hands of drivers like Dan Mennell, Paul Thompson, the former single-seater racer David Henderson and David Crossen.

Then at the end of the year, the biennial Roger Albert Clark Rally offered the biggest and toughest challenge in UK rallying with five days of competition through the forests in snow, ice, fog and rain.

Through it all, Osian Pryce and Dale Furniss delivered a masterclass performance to win by over two and a half minutes from Paul Barrett and Gordon Noble, while former British Rally champion Matt Edwards and Sion Williams fought back from losing six minutes due to a puncture to finish a remarkable third overall as Ford Escorts swept the podium.

However, the pace of Marty McCormack in the development BMW M3 from Category 4 was a signal that times are indeed a-changing. It’s not only in racing that 2025 proved to be a year of change.

The Lotus Elan of Shaun and Max Lynn pulled away from the E-type of Andy Newall and Marcus Oeynhausen in the Pall Mall Cup at Donington Park in May, eventually winning – more than 23sec ahead of the Jag

The Lotus Elan of Shaun and Max Lynn pulled away from the E-type of Andy Newall and Marcus Oeynhausen in the Pall Mall Cup at Donington Park in May, eventually winning – more than 23sec ahead of the Jag

Jeff Bloxham

Typically dank Spa conditions with Lamborghini Gallardo of Andrew Jamieson and Mike Jordan heading for the incline in the Motor Racing Legends GT3 6 Hours race for cars from 2006-12

Typically dank Spa conditions with Lamborghini Gallardo of Andrew Jamieson and Mike Jordan heading for the incline in the Motor Racing Legends GT3 6 Hours race for cars from 2006-12

Paul Lawrence

You have to hand it to Steve Nuttall for cleverly marking his Chevron B8 with a JPS-style SJN logo – here catching a light at Silverstone’s Masters Sports Car Legends race in August

You have to hand it to Steve Nuttall for cleverly marking his Chevron B8 with a JPS-style SJN logo – here catching a light at Silverstone’s Masters Sports Car Legends race in August

Jeff Bloxham

The Skyline of Ric Wood and BTCC ace Jake Hill has the tricky task of passing a Sierra at this year’s Silverstone Festival; a stone through the radiator would force a retirement

The Skyline of Ric Wood and BTCC ace Jake Hill has the tricky task of passing a Sierra at this year’s Silverstone Festival; a stone through the radiator would force a retirement

Paul Lawrence

Seaside town Filey was the HQ for 2025’s Rally Yorkshire in late September, by which point the Mitsubishi Galant VR-4-driving Barry ‘Baz’ Jordan had already sewn up the British Historic Rally Championship

Seaside town Filey was the HQ for 2025’s Rally Yorkshire in late September, by which point the Mitsubishi Galant VR-4-driving Barry ‘Baz’ Jordan had already sewn up the British Historic Rally Championship

Paul Lawrence

Rick Morris (No2) proved age is no barrier when, at 78, he won both HSCC Formula Ford races at Silverstone in October – with Jordan Harrison (No49) in hot pursuit

Rick Morris (No2) proved age is no barrier when, at 78, he won both HSCC Formula Ford races at Silverstone in October – with Jordan Harrison (No49) in hot pursuit

Jeff Bloxham

Jowett Jupiter of Kevin Zwolinski and Richard Gane and the unique Jaguar XK140 Gomm driven by Rick and Joe Willmott at the RAC Woodcote Trophy & Stirling Moss Trophy, Silverstone Festival in August

Jowett Jupiter of Kevin Zwolinski and Richard Gane and the unique Jaguar XK140 Gomm driven by Rick and Joe Willmott at the RAC Woodcote Trophy & Stirling Moss Trophy, Silverstone Festival in August

Jordan Butters

the new Generations Trophy brought together old and young from the same family – the No137 MG MGB was raced at Silverstone by the Morleys, while No29 was driven by the Wolfes

the new Generations Trophy brought together old and young from the same family – the No137 MG MGB was raced at Silverstone by the Morleys, while No29 was driven by the Wolfes

Jordan Butters

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An early bath at the 1965 Monaco GP

Mat Oxley: An Isle of Man TT winner and endurance specialist, Mat has been writing about bike racing for Motor Sport since 2012

The last rider to dominate a MotoGP season like Marc Márquez dominated 2025 was… Marc Márquez in 2014 and 2019. This wasn’t only a story about the 32-year-old’s dazzling racetrack skills, it was also one of arguably the greatest sporting comebacks of all time.

In July 2020, Márquez broke his upper right arm at Jerez when his Honda RC213V clouted him in the gravel trap. Three surgeries followed – titanium plates, screws and bone grafts – the arm so mangled that even then he couldn’t ride at his best. In June 2022 surgeons sawed the humerus in two and rotated the lower part by 34 degrees, which brought him close enough to full strength.

Spanish GP sprint

Spanish GP sprint… Marc won; brother Álex was second

DPPI

However, by that time Honda had lost its way, so the RC213V was the worst bike on the grid. In 2024 Márquez took a £17m pay cut to leave Honda and join the independent Gresini squad, so he could ride the best bike, a Ducati Desmosedici.

Márquez’s performances with Gresini won him an official Desmosedici ride for 2025, with which he won 11 of the first 16 grands prix to seal his seventh MotoGP crown at round 17 of 22. Next time out a rival sent him flying, the injury forcing him to miss the last four races.

There was an irony to Márquez’s tortuous efforts to make his way into the official Ducati team for 2025 – for the first time in almost a decade the Italian manufacturer’s latest MotoGP bike wasn’t the best on the grid. Too much engine inertia made the Desmosedici GP25 difficult to control during the braking and entry phase. Márquez could ride around this problem, but team-mate Pecco Bagnaia – who had finished first or second in the previous four championships – couldn’t and slumped to fifth overall.

Marc Marquez elbows touch the floor

Marc’s race craft means he’s head, shoulders and elbows ahead

Thus Márquez’s biggest rival was younger brother Álex, aboard a more rider-friendly 2024 Desmosedici for Gresini. Álex, a twice world champion in the smaller classes, surprised many with his speed, which took him to his first MotoGP victories. Between them the siblings won 14 of 22 GPs, more often than not climbing the podium together and making plenty of history along the way.

Álex often chased big brother home, so he had the chance to examine his talent more closely than ever.

“Marc is more comfortable on that line between crashing and staying on the bike,” explained Álex. “No other rider is as comfortable as him at the limit. This is the reality. He can play with the limit because he knows he will have two warnings from the front tyre and he will save them, whereas you will have one and you will crash.”

Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi knee on the floor

Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi finished 2025 with back-to-back victories.

Getty Images

Portuguese rider Miguel Oliveira in Portimão

Portuguese rider Miguel Oliveira in Portimão

Gold & Goose / Red Bull Content Pool

Following July’s Czech GP at Brno, Ducati Corse boss Gigi Dall’Igna congratulated Marc in his garage.

“I already knew, but now I understand better, why we have struggled to win a championship so far,” said Dall’Igna, whose official team had won only two titles since he assumed command of Ducati’s MotoGP project a decade ago.

His words to Marc were extraordinary, especially because only a few metres away sat a crestfallen Bagnaia, debriefing with his crew after another miserable race aboard his GP25.

“No other rider is as comfortable as Marc Márquez on the limit”

Ducati’s struggles with their latest Desmosedici weren’t all their own fault. New concession regulations had been introduced by MotoGP rights-holders Dorna to help the struggling Japanese factories Honda and Yamaha, which had been left trailing by Dall’Igna introducing Formula 1-inspired technologies to MotoGP: downforce aerodynamics, ride-height devices and so on.

The new rules allowed Ducati to go testing very rarely, so it was no great surprise they got their 2025 motorcycle wrong.

Johann Zarco won at Le Mans

Frenchman Johann Zarco won at Le Mans

Gold && Goose/Red Bull Content Pool

Alex and Marc Marquez celebrate with dad Argentina 2025

Dad Julià with Álex and Marc after a Márquez 1-2 in Argentina.

Meanwhile Ducati’s Italian rivals Aprilia – there is real animosity between the two brands – surged forward with their RS-GP, a motorcycle that copies the same basic configuration as the Ducati. The RS-GP won three of 2025’s final four races, suggesting that Aprilia may finally be ready to challenge Ducati, who have won the last four riders’ titles and last six constructors’ crowns.

Aprilia had a new chief engineer and two new riders for 2025, including reigning champion Jorge Martin.

Martin’s title defence was derailed by a grim run of injuries: a broken right hand during pre-season testing, a broken left hand while training for his return, a collapsed lung and 11 broken ribs during his comeback race in Qatar and a broken collarbone in Japan.

In his absence, young team-mate Marco Bezzecchi stepped up, surprising Aprilia engineers with his ability to lead the development process. The Italian’s three victories took him to third overall, a best-ever for the Noale-based manufacturer.

Alex Marquez at San Matino GP

Álex at the San Marino Grand Prix – held at Misano – chasing Marc but Aprilia’s Bezzecchi would take the second spot, with Álex third. This was the ninth consecutive race won by a Márquez – meaning the elder brother was on the verge of taking his seventh MotoGP world title

Gold & Goose / Red Bull Content Pool

Much of Aprilia’s new speed came from improved braking performance. Engineers tweaked the RS-GP’s engine-brake software and increased downforce with innovative new winglets that allowed riders to use more rear brake, without overheating the rear tyre. However, soon after season’s end there were moves to ban the new winglets. Aprilia cried foul, suspecting dirty deeds from Ducati.

Honda was the only other maker to win a race in 2025, and that was in the rain at Le Mans, where French veteran Johann Zarco had 150,000 fans roaring La Marseillaise from the venue’s vast grandstands. This was the goose-bump moment of the year.

Marc Marquez championship win 2019

This season was Marc’s first championship win since 2019, which represents the longest wait in MotoGP history for a rider between titles. It was a return to form following a string of potentially career-ending injuries, winning 11 races and 14 sprint races – taking the title with five rounds to spare. At 32 and back to his best, we’ll surely see more moments of magic in 2026 and beyond

Honda is MotoGP’s most successful manufacturer, with 25 constructors’ championships since 1966, but the company ended 2022, 2023 and 2024 at the bottom of the constructors’ league. For 2025, Honda did something that would’ve been unthinkable a decade ago. It hired a gaijin technical director, former Aprilia engineer Romano Albesiano. Little by little, Honda closed the gap to Ducati – from an average race deficit of 30.1sec in 2024 to 13.5sec – and scored their first dry race podiums since Márquez defected to Ducati at the end of 2023. But they still have a way to go before they’re even close to reliving past glories.

Marc and Álex Marquez at full tilt at the British GP

the Ducatis of Marc and Álex at full tilt at the Silverstone-hosted British Grand Prix, but the weekend belonged to Aprilia, with Bezzecchi taking the flag – Marc had to make do with third

DPPI

Austrian brand KTM – Europe’s biggest motorcycle manufacturer – started 2025 on the brink of bankruptcy, so the fact they managed go racing at all was an achievement.

Not that KTM’s star rider Pedro Acosta saw it that way. Never mind the company’s financial crisis, the Spanish youngster was impatient with lack of progress. The RC16 was often the quickest bike on the grid – surpassing 225mph at Mugello – but usually ate its rear tyre, leaving Acosta helpless in the later stages of races. He finished second in Hungary, Malaysia and Indonesia but never looked like winning.

Red Bull KTM’s Pedro Acosta on track

Red Bull KTM’s 21-year-old prodigy Pedro Acosta finished the season fourth in the standings, behind Bezzecchi. Young Spaniard Acosta, in just his second year on 1000cc machinery, was on the podium five times in the second half of the season

Gold && Goose/Red Bull Content Pool

While Honda improved in 2025, Yamaha slumped to the bottom of the constructors’ league, its inline-four YZR-M1 a mostly useless weapon against the V4-powered machines used by the other manufacturers. There are various reasons why V4 engines work better in MotoGP, mostly race dynamics and tyre performance, which is why Yamaha is finally replacing its inline-four with a V4, basically another Ducati clone.

Test rider Augusto Fernández raced the new machine several times towards the end of the season, the bike’s lack of performance spooking number-one Fabio Quartararo. Yamaha now faces a huge challenge trying to build a competitive motorcycle for 2026, which begins in Thailand on March 1.

Spaniard, 20-year-old Fermin Aldeguer win Indonesian GP

Yet another Spaniard, 20-year-old Fermin Aldeguer – Álex Márquez’s Gresini team-mate – scored his first ever MotoGP victory at the Indonesian Grand Prix on the Mandalika street circuit

Acosta San Marino GP when his chain broke off

Acosta was in fourth place in the San Marino GP when his chain broke off – fellow KTM rider Brad Binder also faced similar problems during the weekend but was the only KTM to finish the race

Gold && Goose/Red Bull Content Pool

British GP Álex Márquez falls off bike

Drama at the start of the British Grand Prix for sprint winner Álex Márquez with a crash in the main race on Turn 1 – but the Spaniard would finish the race among the points in fifth

DPPI

Bezzecchi crowd-surfs after victory in Valencia

Bezzecchi crowd-surfs his Aprilia team after victory in the last race of the season in Valencia – a win which bodes well for 2026, which could see Ducati facing serious opposition

2025 MotoGP Awards, Diogo Moreira, Marc Márquez, and José Antonio Rueda

Valencia’s Circuit Ricardo Tormo hosted the 2025 MotoGP Awards, with prizes for the category winners, from left, Diogo Moreira, Moto2 champion, Marc Márquez, and José Antonio Rueda, Moto3 champion

Álex Marquez’s in Jerez

Álex Marquez’s first premier-class win came at Jerez in April, also setting fastest lap, while his brother was back in 12th, trailing by more than 20sec behind the leading rider. Two more wins for zippy Álex would follow in 2025

Luca Marini and Joan Mir on the grid

Luca Marini (No10) and Joan Mir (No 36) were midfield regulars but helped raise Honda off the foot of the manufacturers’ table following years of finishing rock bottom; Mir made the podium twice

Bezzecchi San Marino GP waving a false leg

Bezzecchi celebrated his victory in the San Marino GP sprint race by waving a false leg wearing a racing boot. But why? Apparently the prosthetic was from one of his top films – 1997’s Three Men and a Leg

DPPI

MotoGP ’25 standings 

Pos. Riders Team Points
1 Marc Márquez Ducati 545
2 Álex Márquez Ducati 467
3 Marco Bezzecchi Aprilia 353
4 Pedro Acosta KTM 307
5 Francesco Bagnaia Ducati 288
6 F. Di Giannantonio Ducati 262
7 Franco Morbidelli Ducati 231
8 Fermin Aldeguer Ducati 214
9 Fabio Quartararo Yamaha 201
10 Raúl Fernández Aprilia 172
11 Brad Binder KTM 155
12 Johann Zarco Honda 148
13 Luca Marini Honda 142
14 Enea Bastianini KTM 112
15 Joan Mir Honda 96
16 Ai Ogura Aprilia 89
17 Jack Miller Yamaha 79
18 Maverick Viñales KTM 72
19 Álex Rins Yamaha 68
20 Miguel Oliveira Yamaha 43
21 Jorge Martin Aprilia 34
22 Pol Espargaró KTM 29
23 Takaaki Nakagami Honda 10
24 Lorenzo Savadori Aprilia 8
25 Augusto Fernández Yamaha 8

 

Pos. Teams Points
1 Ducati Lenovo Team 835
2 BK8 Gresini Racing MotoGP 681
3 Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team 493
4 Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 462
5 Aprilia Racing 395
6 Monster Energy Yamaha 269
7 Trackhouse MotoGP Team 261
8 Honda HRC Castrol 238
9 Red Bull KTM Tech3 213
10 LCR Honda 155
11 Prima Pramac Yamaha MotoGP 125

 

Pos. Manufacturer
1 Ducati 768
2 Aprilia 418
3 KTM 372
4 Honda 285
5 Yamaha 247
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An early bath at the 1965 Monaco GP

Two things have become abundantly apparent about Álex Palou over the last couple of years: he’s mastered the current hybrid-powered generation of Indycars better than any other driver, and he’s extremely good at compartmentalising.

It’s the latter talent that has allowed the 28-year-old Spaniard to maximise the former. While embroiled off-track in a long-running and yet-to-be-resolved legal saga between the Chip Ganassi Racing and McLaren teams over his services that could cost him millions, Palou still established himself as the best IndyCar driver of his generation.

Series runner-up Pato O'Ward claimed the second of his two wins for McLaren on the streets of Toronto

Series runner-up Pato O’Ward claimed the second of his two wins for McLaren on the streets of Toronto

Joe Skibinski

He started 2025 by winning five of the first six races, including the Indianapolis 500, and ended the season victorious eight times in 17 starts to claim his third consecutive IndyCar Series championship and fourth in the last five years.

Palou’s most recent title was also the most remarkable, demonstrating a level of domination not believed possible with a near-spec-car formula. It all makes you wonder what he could have achieved without the distraction of the court case – or for that matter, had he gotten a chance in Formula 1, a dream Palou admits is no longer realistic.

Veteran Scott Dixon was in the right place to claim victory at Mid-Ohio – his 59th IndyCar win

Veteran Scott Dixon was in the right place to claim victory at Mid-Ohio – his 59th IndyCar win

Joe Skibinski

Scott Dixon, the six-time IndyCar champion who is Palou’s Ganassi team-mate, often talks about how difficult it has been for him to adapt to the current generation of Dallara, with the added weight and higher centre of gravity from the aeroscreen and hybrid equipment. “This car with the hybrid suits people with very smooth driving styles, and that’s not me,” admitted the Kiwi.

But it plays right into Palou’s hands. His silky style and ability to manage races is most reminiscent of four-time F1 champion Alain Prost, and it will be interesting to see whether anyone is able to wrest the championship from him over the final two years of IndyCar’s current technical formula.

Ed Carpenter Racing's IndyCar sophomore Christian Rasmussen took honours at Milwaukee

Ed Carpenter Racing’s IndyCar sophomore Christian Rasmussen took honours at Milwaukee

Joe Skibinski

Only two other drivers managed to win multiple races in 2025: McLaren’s Pato O’Ward, who triumphed at Iowa and Toronto and wound up second in the standings, and Kyle Kirkwood of Andretti Global, who took three wins but was relegated by a lack of consistency to fourth in the points. Dixon took advantage of a rare mistake from Palou to score at Mid-Ohio, helping the evergreen New Zealander to third in the overall reckoning.

Christian Lundgaard rounded out the championship’s top five; the Dane went winless in his first season for McLaren but became a much more rounded driver who pushed O’Ward harder than any team-mate he’s had to date. Felix Rosenqvist also failed to notch a win but was generally more consistent and competitive in races than in the past to match his career best with sixth in the standings for Meyer Shank Racing.

Palou's maiden Indy 500 victory was his fifth win from the first six races of the season, but this was a day for patience. The Catalan did not get to the front of the pack until 14 laps from the finish, when he passed 2022 winner Marcus Ericsson. Just as well he did, because the Swede – who finished the race in second place – was later excluded for a technical infringement, not the first such controversy at the 2025 500…

Palou’s maiden Indy 500 victory was his fifth win from the first six races of the season, but this was a day for patience. The Catalan did not get to the front of the pack until 14 laps from the finish, when he passed 2022 winner Marcus Ericsson. Just as well he did, because the Swede – who finished the race in second place – was later excluded for a technical infringement, not the first such controversy at the 2025 500…

Karl Zemlin

Seventh went to Colton Herta, who was winless with Andretti and failed to earn enough points for an F1 superlicence. It’s difficult to get a read on the 25-year-old, who has arguably regressed since becoming the youngest-ever IndyCar race winner at Circuit of the Americas in 2019 and finishing third in the 2020 championship. He’s got the weight of America on his shoulders now as he embarks on a season of Formula 2 prior to hopefully being promoted to the Cadillac F1 team in 2027.

Ganassi Racing entered a technical partnership with Meyer Shank Racing this year, part of which included placing Ganassi-contracted Marcus Armstrong at MSR alongside Rosenqvist. It worked well. While the Swede produced by far his most consistent season to date, Armstrong finished close behind in the standings and looks set to be IndyCar’s breakout star of 2026.

Kyle Kirkwood stole the thunder at Andretti Global from F2-bound Colton Herta, with three race wins helping propel him to fourth in the standings

Kyle Kirkwood stole the thunder at Andretti Global from F2-bound Colton Herta, with three race wins helping propel him to fourth in the standings

James Black

Team Penske had a nightmare season which traced its roots to the start of 2024, when Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin were disqualified from the season opener due to illegal use of the Push to Pass function. When two Penske cars were found to be using illegally modified spec components in qualifying for this year’s Indianapolis 500, more penalties ensued and Roger Penske dismissed three top managers, including president Tim Cindric, a 26-year Team Penske veteran.
McLaughlin’s crash on the warm-up lap for the Indy 500 symbolised Penske’s futile campaign. Will Power and Josef Newgarden finally earned Penske wins near the end of the season, but by then, Power had made the decision to leave the team he had driven for since 2009 to take over Herta’s open seat at Andretti. Ninth, 10th and 12th in the standings were Penske’s worst results since 1999, which was its last winless campaign.

Splitting the Penske drivers in the points was 24-year-old David Malukas, long known to be Power’s replacement-in-waiting – a key factor in why the Australian veteran chose to pursue the Andretti opportunity. Penske placed Malukas with and provided technical assistance to AJ Foyt Racing in 2025, and Malukas was generally more impressive than team-mate Santino Ferrucci. The latter enjoyed a stretch of four consecutive top-five finishes in May and June, including podiums at Detroit and Road America, but ended the year a lowly 16th in the standings, five spots behind Malukas.

O’Ward led the Arrow McLaren charge, his first victory of 2025 coming on the Iowa Speedway oval on his way to the championship runner-up spot;

O’Ward led the Arrow McLaren charge, his first victory of 2025 coming on the Iowa Speedway oval on his way to
the championship runner-up spot;

Aaron Skillman

Ed Carpenter Racing’s Christian Rasmussen was the only other driver to win a race in 2025 in a memorable performance at Milwaukee. Rasmussen usually outpaced his more experienced team-mate Alexander Rossi but showed an occasional wild streak that incurred the wrath of competitors.

Rinus VeeKay was a last-minute signing for Dale Coyne Racing, and it proved to be a solid landing spot for the young Dutchman after five years driving for ECR. By contrast, the Juncos Hollinger Racing duo of Conor Daly and Sting Ray Robb frequently struggled outside of Daly’s fifth-place finish in the season finale at Nashville.

“RLL is pinning its future hopes on F1 cast-off Mick Schumacher”

It was another challenging year for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, with Graham Rahal, Louis Foster and Devlin DeFrancesco all 19th or lower in the championship. Foster showed some speed and earned pole position at Road America to earn a contract extension. RLL is pinning its future hopes on F1 cast-off Mick Schumacher.

Rookie team Prema Racing impressed IndyCar veterans with its professionalism and Robert Shwartzman took an unlikely pole for the Indianapolis 500. Results were thin, though Callum Ilott notched top 10s in four of the final five races.

Penske’s annus horribilis included Scott McLaughlin’s Indy 500 warm-up lap prang to follow illegality snafu

Penske’s annus horribilis included Scott McLaughlin’s Indy 500 warm-up lap prang to follow illegality snafu

Dana Garrett

IndyCar continues to struggle in the marketplace, with several events (notably the final races run at Iowa Speedway) run in front of near-empty grandstands. A new street race around the Dallas Cowboys football stadium will fill an early season hole in the schedule and is expected to be a commercial winner for the series. IndyCar has also switched its 2026 finale to Laguna Seca, which served as the season closer for CART in its 1990s heyday.

The series was pleased with its new partnership with Fox Sports, which claimed an overall 27% increase in viewership over 2024, said to be IndyCar’s best television performance in 17 years. The Indianapolis 500 enjoyed a similar boost with a US broadcast audience exceeding seven million.

With two more seasons of racing on tap with the ancient 2012-based Dallara before IndyCar finally introduces a new car in 2028, the big question is whether anybody can figure out how to beat Álex Palou – the proven master of the series’ hybrid era.

he’ll be needing both hands soon… Palou is now up to four IndyCar Series titles, and here sports his winner’s ring as well as the historic Astor Cup, which has all IndyCar champions dating back to 1909 laser-etched into its granite bases

he’ll be needing both hands soon… Palou is now up to four IndyCar Series titles, and here sports his winner’s ring as well as the historic Astor Cup, which has all IndyCar champions dating back to 1909 laser-etched into its granite bases

Chris Owens

the quirky latest iteration of the Detroit street circuit was first used in 2023. Apart from an incredibly tight and narrow series of bends, it includes a double-sided pitlane. Just remember whether you steer left or right and you should be OK. Palou’s incredible win streak ended here when he was hit from behind by David Malukas

the quirky latest iteration of the Detroit street circuit was first used in 2023. Apart from an incredibly tight and narrow series of bends, it includes a double-sided pitlane. Just remember whether you steer left or right and you should be OK. Palou’s incredible win streak ended here when he was hit from behind by David Malukas

Paul Hurley

popular Aussie Will Power claimed one final win with Team Penske at Portland, but heads for new pastures with Andretti Global for 2026

popular Aussie Will Power claimed one final win with Team Penske at Portland, but heads for new pastures with Andretti Global for 2026

James Black

Álex Palou, leading, was already champion by the time the final round came at the Nashville oval. Here he leads Penske-bound David Malukas and Scott Dixon in a race won by Josef Newgarden

Álex Palou, leading, was already champion by the time the final round came at the Nashville oval. Here he leads Penske-bound David Malukas and Scott Dixon in a race won by Josef Newgarden

Chris Owens

IndyCar Series 2025

Top 25 of the American drivers’ standings

No. Driver Team Points
1 Álex Palou Ganassi 711
2 Pato O’Ward McLaren 515
3 Scott Dixon Ganassi 452
4 Kyle Kirkwood Andretti 433
5 C. Lundgaard McLaren 431
6 Felix Rosenqvist Meyer Shank 372
7 Colton Herta Andretti 372
8 M. Armstrong Meyer Shank 364
9 Will Power Penske 357
10 Scott McLaughlin Penske 356
11 David Malukas Foyt 318
12 Josef Newgarden Penske 316
13 C. Rasmussen Carpenter 313
14 Rinus Veekay Coyne 305
15 Alexander Rossi Carpenter 297
16 Santino Ferrucci Foyt 293
17 Kyffin Simpson Ganassi 282
18 Conor Daly Juncos 268
19 Graham Rahal Rahal 260
20 Marcus Ericsson Andretti 234
21 Callum Ilott Prema 218
22 Nolan Siegel McLaren 213
23 Louis Foster Rahal 213
24 R. Shwartzman Prema 211
25 Sting Ray Robb Juncos 181

 

No. Engine Manufacturer Points
1 Honda 1550
2 Chevrolet 1328
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An early bath at the 1965 Monaco GP

Affectionately known as ‘Sniffer’, Sam has become a fixture of the international race scene with a penchant for FE

When Brit driver Oliver Rowland took the chequered flag in fourth position at Berlin Tempelhof last July, it gave some closure to a motor sport odyssey forged in challenging initial circumstances.

His father, Dave, died suddenly in 2010, when Rowland was just 18 years old. Naturally, at such a tender age, his world was turned upside down.

These times definitely contributed to some wayward experiences in the junior formulas. Professional doubts started to creep into his make-up. Another mentor was lost too, when karting guru Martin Hines died in 2011. That’s where Derek Warwick entered Rowland’s life. The introduction was memorable.

It’s been a long road for Yorkshireman Oliver Rowland, who is now, as the T-shirt proclaims, a world champion

It’s been a long road for Yorkshireman Oliver Rowland, who is now, as the T-shirt proclaims, a world champion

DPPI

“I was standing at Stowe on his first lap in the [MSV] F2 car in the wet [for the 2011 McLaren Autosport BRDC Young Driver Award evaluation], and I remember turning around to Jason Plato and saying, ‘Who’s that?’” recalls ex-Formula 1 veteran and 1992 Le Mans 24 Hours winner Warwick.

“He was phenomenal, I mean really unbelievable. And he made an instant impression on me. He was clearly immensely talented, a bit disorganised and carrying a bit of weight at the time, but I liked him straight away.”

António Félix da Costa, right, battles Mitch Evans in Berlin. Both had tough seasons in FE

António Félix da Costa, right, battles Mitch Evans in Berlin. Both had tough seasons in FE

LAT Images

Facing pressure from the Racing Steps Foundation, which had backed him since 2009 and enabled him to make his way up the Formula Renault ladder, a judgement day of sorts was arriving. “After the second year of Racing Steps, they wanted to kick him out of the programme,” continues Warwick. “He came to Jersey [where Warwick has a home] and we spent quite a bit of time together, talking things through, playing squash, doing fitness stuff, so that I could show him what was needed in order to be a professional.”

Rowland galvanised that advice and moulded himself into a world champion. It took a bit of fate to ensure it though… In October 2018, Alexander Albon, newly recruited to the Nissan Formula E team, was called up at the last minute to the Toro Rosso F1 squad. The late Jean-Paul Driot, boss of the Nissan operation, called Rowland and the seat was his overnight.

Da Costa splashes along on his all-weather Hankooks in Shanghai

Da Costa splashes along on his all-weather Hankooks in Shanghai

DPPI

That chance was taken and, after a few fallow years with Mahindra from 2021 to 2023, Rowland bounced back spectacularly in his second spell with Nissan starting from January 2024.

He sealed his Formula E title in 2025 with a front-end-of-the-season flourish that resulted in four accomplished wins at Mexico City, Jeddah, Monaco and Tokyo to win the title with two races to spare. And the way he did it was typically Rowland. Where the vast majority of teams and drivers work on a collegiate calling-of -races plan, Rowland takes charge and makes many of the key strategy decisions himself.

It paid off, with 133 of his 184 points coming in the first half of the season, at which point his rivals were essentially still asleep. For Rowland it was justification for his return to Nissan.

Sébastien Buemi hit form again in Monaco

Sébastien Buemi hit form again in Monaco

LAT Images

“I wouldn’t say I knew this was going to happen, but it was what I would hope for,” reflects Rowland. “And Tommaso [Volpe, Nissan team boss] and Dorian [Boisdron, team director] did know that this was going to happen and they never stopped pushing.

“Tommaso told me, ‘Come join us, we believe in you. We’ve got a plan: our car won’t be very good next year, but the year after, we’ll win.’”

While 2025 was Rowland’s year, there was another plotline that captured the imagination almost as much, and it involved one of the new champion’s team-mates.
Sébastien Buemi was once the benchmark in Formula E, taking the 2015-16 title and accruing 13 ePrix wins along the way. But by the start of the 2025 season Buemi’s star was faded and waning at Envision Racing. There had been no victory since his last for Nissan at the 2019 New York City ePrix, and his time at Envision had shown only flashes of his potential, while in 2023 he was soundly between by team-mate Nick Cassidy.

Rowland and Dan Ticktum warm them up in Tokyo

Rowland and Dan Ticktum warm them up in Tokyo

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Murmurings had started to echo around the paddock that 2025 might be his final season in the all-electric world championship. Then came Monaco.
Buemi had already provided a couple of promising performances but no results of note. Heading to the principality in early May, Buemi was 19th of the 22 drivers, with just six points to his name. But in the second ePrix on the Sunday in Monaco he wound back the clock, forcing his way to the front amid treacherous conditions and then pulling away from the opposition to win at a relative canter.

As is traditional in Formula E now, Buemi slipped passed the security at the famous Piscine and climbed up to the high board, jumping off with a mixture of terror and relish. In doing so, the Swiss veteran helped to eradicate the depths of despair and laid down a buoyancy for which he was able to secure two more podiums and end the season in a much more positive frame of mind.

The season finished once again at the London Excel. Evans leads the Saturday start from Nyck de Vries

The season finished once again at the London Excel. Evans leads the Saturday start from Nyck de Vries

LAT Images

Another Formula E champion, António Félix da Costa, was also having a rebirth of sorts but only after taking drastic action. After a coruscating three seasons at Porsche that saw triumph and tumult in equal measure, the charismatic Portuguese elected to leave the marque at season’s end.

This was a saga unconfined, one that felt soap opera-esque in its narrative peaks and bewildering troughs. Why it was this way was put down to a clash of cultures upon driver and team. It was stark stuff.

The genesis of it had its roots back in late 2023 when da Costa was told that his parallel endurance racing activity would come, temporarily as it turned out, to an end. This upset da Costa hugely and helped fire a mistrust between himself and the senior ranks of Porsche. It never healed, especially after a poor start to the 2024 season and then a secret test Porsche had organised for Nico Müller, who has replaced da Costa for 2025-26.

Oliver Rowland’s fourth – and final – win of the season came in Tokyo, home ground for Nissan. At that point he had almost double the points of his closest rival in the championship

Oliver Rowland’s fourth – and final – win of the season came in Tokyo, home ground for Nissan. At that point he had almost double the points of his closest rival in the championship

DPPI

While da Costa’s roller-coaster at Porsche was ridden personally, Jaguar’s 2025 was a collective exercise in hanging on for dear life before cresting a considerable rise and dominating the second half of the season. Poor reliability and a lack of pace in the first half was tamed for the final eight races, with Cassidy scoring four wins in the final tranche of races to go from 13th at the Tokyo ePrix in May to the runner-up spot at the London finale just 10 weeks later.

“It was a remarkable turnaround for Jaguar but too late for Cassidy”

This was a remarkable turnaround but came too late for Cassidy, perhaps the overall benchmark Gen3 performer, who had given notice of leaving the team earlier in the season to take up a drive at Stellantis Motorsport. Here, he joins Jean-Éric Vergne as Citroën re-enters global competition.

Formula E has just entered its final Gen3 campaign with the São Paulo season opener. And the pre-season test, which took place at Valencia in October, indicated that it will be the closest ever contest for the series.

Rowland’s fellow Brit Sam Bird has been in Formula E since the very start of the series in 2014. After 12 wins from 141 starts, the 38-year-old is off the grid for the new season, but has picked up a role at Nissan as reserve and development driver. Here he is on his final race weekend in London with McLaren, which has exited the series to focus on its upcoming Hypercar programme

Rowland’s fellow Brit Sam Bird has been in Formula E since the very start of the series in 2014. After 12 wins from 141 starts, the 38-year-old is off the grid for the new season, but has picked up a role at Nissan as reserve and development driver. Here he is on his final race weekend in London with McLaren, which has exited the series to focus on its upcoming Hypercar programme

LAT Images

At the end of 2026, Gen4 will come, and a group manufacturer test has already evidenced that potentially this could be a true game-changer [see Hot Wheels, January]. The 600kW of available power, permanent four-wheel drive and new racier rubber from Bridgestone will be a part of the cocktail that should persuade more natural detractors that electric racing’s bite can outweigh its naturally neutered bark.

the DS Penske of Maximilian Günther at a rather soggy Monaco. The amiable Austro-Bavarian took victories in Jeddah and Shanghai across the course of the season, and stays at the team for the new campaign

The DS Penske of Maximilian Günther at a rather soggy Monaco. The amiable Austro-Bavarian took victories in Jeddah and Shanghai across the course of the season, and stays at the team for the new campaign

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traffic jam in Monaco. While the leading contenders disappear down to Portier, Lucas di Grassi dives down the inside of Lola Yamaha Abt team-mate Zane Maloney, across the kerb, and uncomfortably close to the Envision Jaguar of his early days Formula E nemesis Buemi

traffic jam in Monaco. While the leading contenders disappear down to Portier, Lucas di Grassi dives down the inside of Lola Yamaha Abt team-mate Zane Maloney, across the kerb, and uncomfortably close to the Envision Jaguar of his early days Formula E nemesis Buemi

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exciting British talent Taylor Barnard was fourth in points for McLaren in his rookie season. The 21-year-old is now at DS Penske for the 2025-26 championship

exciting British talent Taylor Barnard was fourth in points for McLaren in his rookie season. The 21-year-old is now at DS Penske for the 2025-26 championship

LAT Images

Berlin’s Tempelhof airport circuit was the venue for Rowland putting the title to bed. A fourth- place finish was enough for the Yorkshireman to arrive on home soil in the UK for the London finale with an unbeatable points tally. The title defence began in Brazil in early December

Berlin’s Tempelhof airport circuit was the venue for Rowland putting the title to bed. A fourth- place finish was enough for the Yorkshireman to arrive on home soil in the UK for the London finale with an unbeatable points tally. The title defence began in Brazil in early December

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Nick Cassidy was the form man at the end of the season, winning the last three races for Jaguar, including both in London, where he is pictured celebrating. The Kiwi has finished in the top three in the standings for three seasons running, but has signed a Stellantis deal for the new season. As well as racing for Citroën in Formula E, that means a well-deserved break into the WEC Le Mans Hypercar ranks thanks to a seat at Peugeot for a driver who also boasts crowns in Japan’s two major series

Nick Cassidy was the form man at the end of the season, winning the last three races for Jaguar, including both in London, where he is pictured celebrating. The Kiwi has finished in the top three in the standings for three seasons running, but has signed a Stellantis deal for the new season. As well as racing for Citroën in Formula E, that means a well-deserved break into the WEC Le Mans Hypercar ranks thanks to a seat at Peugeot for a driver who also boasts crowns in Japan’s two major series

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Rowland leads Porsche power in Tokyo in the form of Cupra Kiro racer Dan Ticktum and the German marque’s factory star Pascal Wehrlein. Eventually, Wehrlein passed Ticktum to finish second in a race won by Rowland

Rowland leads Porsche power in Tokyo in the form of Cupra Kiro racer Dan Ticktum and the German marque’s factory star Pascal Wehrlein. Eventually, Wehrlein passed Ticktum to finish second in a race won by Rowland

the new venture of Lola, Yamaha and Abt took its bow. The best result was a second for 2016-17 champion Lucas di Grassi in Miami. Here, the Brazilian is pictured in action in the rain on a shortened version of China’s Shanghai Formula 1 circuit

the new venture of Lola, Yamaha and Abt took its bow. The best result was a second for 2016-17 champion Lucas di Grassi in Miami. Here, the Brazilian is pictured in action in the rain on a shortened version of China’s Shanghai Formula 1 circuit

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Formula E 2025 table

Where the drivers and teams ended the year…

No. Driver Team Points
1 Oliver Rowland Nissan 184
2 Nick Cassidy Jaguar 153
3 Pascal Wehrlein Porsche 145
4 Taylor Barnard McLaren 112
5 A. Félix da Costa Porsche 111
6 Jean-Éric Vergne DS Penske 99
7 Jake Dennis Andretti 93
8 Nyck de Vries Mahindra 92
9 Edoardo Mortara Mahindra 88
10 Max Günther DS Penske 85
11 Dan Ticktum Cupra Kiro 85
12 Sébastien Buemi Envision 84
13 Mitch Evans Jaguar 74
14 Stoffel Vandoorne Maserati 62
15 Nico Müller Andretti 48
16 Jake Hughes Maserati 40
17 Lucas di Grassi Lola Yamaha 32
18 Sam Bird McLaren 31
19 Robin Frijns Envision 23
20 Norman Nato Nissan 21
21 Felipe Drugovich Mahindra 6
22 S. Sette Câmara Nissan 2
23 David Beckmann Cupra Kiro 1
24 Zane Maloney Lola Yamaha 0

 

No. Team Points
1 Porsche 256
2 Jaguar 227
3 Nissan 207
4 Mahindra 186
5 DS Penske 184
6 McLaren 143
7 Andretti 141
8 Envision 107
9 Maserati 102
10 Cupra Kiro 86
11 Lola Yamaha Abt 32

 

No. Manufacturer Points
1 Porsche 383
2 Jaguar 350
3 Nissan 342
4 Stellantis 274
5 Mahindra 213
6 Lola 54
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An early bath at the 1965 Monaco GP

Gary Watkins: Our sports car racing expert has been writing for MS since 1996. He’s the only print journalist to have covered all 101 WEC races

After a Le Mans 24 Hours victory in each of its first two campaigns with the 499P Le Mans Hypercar, Ferrari had an avowed aim for 2025: to win a maiden World Endurance Championship title with the car. Target number one was the manufacturers’ crown. Come the end of the season, it achieved that goal — and also won the other big prizes on offer. The Prancing Horse collected the drivers’ trophy with James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi and Alessandro Pier Guidi and made it three in a row at Le Mans, though with a difference.

Jota’s Cadillac led at Le Mans

Jota’s Cadillac led at the start of Le Mans.

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Ferrari Miguel Molina, Antonio Fuoco and Nicklas Nielsen

Ferrari’s Losail winners, from left: Miguel Molina, Antonio Fuoco and Nicklas Nielsen

The difference was that victory at the centrepiece round of the WEC went not to one of the blood red factory 499Ps run by AF Corse, but to the yellow car entered on a satellite basis by the Italian team. That meant the winning entry shared by Robert Kubica, Phil Hanson and Yifei Ye wasn’t eligible for those much-coveted manufacturers’ points. Yet as the WEC circus departed Europe after Le Mans for the second leg of the championship, Ferrari looked well set to achieve its objectives.

“With half the championship done, the 499P was unbeaten”

Ferrari made a flying start to its 2025 Hypercar class campaign. With half the championship done, the 499P was unbeaten, the factory cars dominating the first three races. And on another day one or more of the two might have beaten the yellow car at Le Mans, not withstanding Kubica’s superlative performance. The 499P was in the ascendant from the get-go.

It was dominant at the Losail International Circuit in the first race in February, maintained the upper hand through its home race at Imola in April and still had an edge at Spa-Francorchamps in May. A win for Nicklas Nielsen, Antonio Fuoco and Miguel Molina first time out was followed by two for team-mates Calado, Giovinazzi and Pier Guidi.

Ferrari 499Ps at the front of the Spa 6 Hours

Ferrari 499Ps at the front of the Spa 6 Hours, which would see a second victory in ’25 for James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi and Alessandro Pier Guidi

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The diminishing advantage was explained by the Balance of Performance and how it was calculated in 2025. Cynics suggested that it also explained how Ferrari stole the advantage in the first place.

Ferrari argued that it had made significant strides with the 499P over the second half of 2024 and on through the short off-season that followed. There had been a solo upgrade under the evo joker rules that define the scope of development allowed for both LMH and LMDh machinery in Hypercar, but more importantly, it claimed, was a no-stone-unturned approach to getting the most out of its existing package. That meant extracting the maximum away from the scene of its two big victories, the Circuit de la Sarthe at Le Mans. It knew it would be crucial in its bid for some end-of-season silverware.

It was searching for “a better understanding of our car to exploit the aero, the tyres, the potential”, explains Ferrari sports car technical director Ferdinando Cannizzo. “Last year we segmented all the tracks to understand how best to set up the car,” he says. “We put in our pocket different options for the car to be fast on different circuits. This is what gave us the possibility to be very strong at the start of the season over four tracks with completely different characteristics.”

Toyota Hypercar champion in 2024

Toyota was the Hypercar champion in 2024, but only won once in ’25 – in the Bahrain 8 Hours

The counter argument is that Ferrari played the system. The hypothesis goes that it knew what was coming in terms of the BoP and ‘adjusted’ its performance at the back end of 2024 accordingly. The BoP was calculated on the previous three WEC races, which meant the Austin, Fuji and Bahrain events counted when it came to working out the BoP for Qatar. The conspiracy theory, however, isn’t borne out by the facts. The best of the 499Ps was the fourth-fastest car last time out in ’24 in Bahrain, then the two cars third and fourth at Austin, though admittedly they were nowhere in the race in between at Fuji.

“Toyota notched up a 1-2 at Bahrain, where it has always excelled with a bit of help from the BoP”

The BoP system was modified through the season. Three races became two out of three, but Ferrari’s early season successes still worked against it as the series began its post-Le Mans leg at Interlagos in July. Any advantage, achieved by whatever means, had been mitigated, just as it was gearing up for two tracks – Interlagos and Fuji – at which the 499P had never been at its best.

2025, Ferrari’s 499P seven WEC

By the close of 2025, Ferrari’s 499P had taken seven WEC wins over three seasons.

Ferrari’s promise that the 499P would be a stronger all-round package was backed up by its performance at those two tracks, particularly at the latter. The results, however, didn’t follow. Fuji was a race at which Ferrari looked as though it might lose its grasp on the titles. It left Japan with just one manufacturers’ point, and its drivers with none, courtesy of no fewer than five penalties for on-track misdemeanours racked up across its two cars.

Ferrari scored just 32 manufacturers’ points in the three races after Le Mans, championship leaders Calado, Giovinazzi and Pier Guidi only 10 in the drivers’ classification. The poor run coincided with an upturn in form at Porsche and, in particular, the 963 LMDh shared over the full season by reigning champions Kévin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor. They were joined for long races by Matt Campbell for a campaign that got off to a faltering start.

Bahrain WEC’s Ferrari win

Bahrain was the WEC’s final round – a Ferrari 3-4-5

Estre and Vanthoor collected six points from the first three races, then finished second to the yellow Ferrari at Le Mans, just 14sec down at the end of 24 hours. Yet they didn’t pretend they were genuine contenders: they made it look close courtesy of a faultless run interrupted only by one slow puncture in a race where Ferrari made mistakes. Nor did they think the championship was a realistic target. “We were like, OK, this is not going to happen because obviously Ferrari was strong and winning all the races,” reckoned Vanthoor.

A fourth at Interlagos, followed by a wet-weather win in Austin and then a third from the back of the Hypercar grid in Fuji gave them more than an outside chance of the title heading for the season finale in Bahrain. Porsche, too, could steal the makes’ crown courtesy of some consistent scoring from the Porsche Penske Motorsport factory team’s second car. The German manufacturer was keen to point out that a repeat of the Fuji results in the heat of the desert would yield both crowns.

Le Mans 24 Hours, Ferrari’s No51

Heading into the Le Mans 24 Hours, Ferrari’s No51 trio of Alessandro Pier Guidi, Antonio Giovinazzi and James Calado led the Hypercar drivers’ championship, 18 points ahead of sister car No50 driven by Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina, and Nicklas Nielsen. This is No51 in practice

The reality was that the odds were stacked against it, more so when the BoP for Bahrain came out. The 963 went to the grid as the heaviest of the Hypercar pack. Toyota notched up a 1-2 result at a track where it has always excelled with a bit of help from the BoP, while Ferrari had a car that might have been able to challenge the Japanese had it not opted to play the percentages in pursuit of glory. So in control of its destiny was it that it could afford to swap the positions of its two factory cars in the closing stages of the race to ensure a 1-2-3 finish in the points. Third for Nielsen, Fuoco and Molina gave them third in the standings behind Calado and co and the entry shared by Kubica, Hanson and Ye.

It was more than enough to yield the manufacturers’ crown, a first for the marque at world championship level with a prototype since 1972 when it claimed the old World Sportscar Championship at a canter with the 312 PB. It was mission accomplished for Ferrari in 2025.

Le Mans 24 Hours 2025 sunset

WEC round four – the 93rd Le Mans 24 Hours, June 14-15. The first half of the championship was dominated by the Ferraris but there would be no more wins for the Italians in ’25 from round five onwards. The Jota Cadillacs impressed in Le Mans qualifying but both failed to make the podium (4th, 7th). The spoils went to the 499P of Phil Hanson, Robert Kubica (the first Polish driver to win outright here) and Yifei Ye (likewise, the first Chinese)

Aston-Martin-hypercar-in-2025-Le-Mans

Aston Martin joined the Hypercar field with its Valkyrie for 2025 – a season of testing the water, which it certainly did at a sopping Austin in September. Aston No009 was driven by Alex Riberas and Marco Sørensen at COTA but the team’s fortunes ran short – both Valkyries dropped out late in the race when a podium was a possibility. Results improved through the season, with Riberas and Sørensen finishing fifth in the penultimate round in Fuji

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Le Mans 24 Hours No50 Ferrari of Fuoco, Molina and Nielsen

After ending the Le Mans 24 Hours in fourth, the No50 Ferrari of Fuoco, Molina and Nielsen – winners in 2024 – was disqualified due to an absence of four bolts from the central rear wing support.

Ferrari

Jenson Button in São Paulo celebration spraying champagne

In his final season of competitive racing, Cadillac’s Jenson Button earnt a podium in São Paulo with Earl Bamber and Sébastien Bourdais – a 1-2 for the Jota-run team (Button came 10th in the final standings)

9X8 LMH of Loic Duval, Malthe Jakobsen and Stoffel Vandoorne

On home soil, the 9X8 LMH of Loic Duval, Malthe Jakobsen and Stoffel Vandoorne finished outside the top 10 but the driver trio turned on the style in Austin in September, finishing third after six hours

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24 hours yellow Ferrari nose

24 hours of grime have festooned the 499P of Hanson, Kubica and Ye; Kubica drove the final three-and-a-half-hour stint to give Ferrari its 12th win at Le Mans, one behind Audi, seven behind Porsche.

Paul-Loup Chatin, Charles Milesi and Ferdinand Habsburg

From left: Paul-Loup Chatin, Charles Milesi and Ferdinand Habsburg (of the Habsburg dynasty), who gave Alpine fans something to cheer about after winning in Fuji – its first victory in the Hypercar class

Getty images

Champions of the WEC consecutively from 2018:19-24

Champions of the WEC consecutively from 2018/19-24, even the podium seemed out of reach for Toyota this season but BoP put it on a par with it rivals in Bahrain. The result? A 1-2 finish

WEC’s in Bahrain the Ferrari driven Giovinazzi

As we’ve grown to expect, WEC’s season came to a close in the Middle East; in the second hour in Bahrain the Ferrari driven by Giovinazzi moved to within three tenths of Conway’s Toyota – but that’s as close as the Italians came to taking the lead

Ferrari chairman John Elkann, the winning WEC

While the Formula 1 team floundered, attracting the ire of Ferrari chairman John Elkann, the winning WEC team put a smile on the chief’s face: “It’s the fulfilment of a dream – the culmination of a journey we began in 2022,” he remarked

Toyota’s Bahrain 8 Hours-winning pit stop

Toyota’s Bahrain 8 Hours-winning No7 car was driven by Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries – but has the Japanese maker lost ground on Ferrari? We’ll find out in the first race of 2026 in Qatar next March

WEC 2025 Hypercar

Top 20 of the world drivers’ championship

Pos. Driver Team Points
1 James Calado Ferrari AF Corse 133
1 Antonio Giovinazzi Ferrari AF Corse 133
1 A. Pier Guidi Ferrari AF Corse 133
2 Phil Hanson AF Corse 117
2 Robert Kubica AF Corse 117
2 Yifei Ye AF Corse 117
3 Antonio Fuoco Ferrari AF Corse 98
3 Miguel Molina Ferrari AF Corse 98
3 Nicklas Nielsen Ferrari AF Corse 98
4 Kévin Estre Porsche Penske 94
4 Laurens Vanthoor Porsche Penske 94
5 Alex Lynn Cadillac Jota 93
5 Norman Nato Cadillac Jota 93
5 Will Stevens Cadillac Jota 93
6 Kamui Kobayashi Toyota Gazoo 89
6 Nyck de Vries Toyota Gazoo 89
6 Mike Conway Toyota Gazoo 89
7 Brendon Hartley Toyota Gazoo 66
7 Ryo Hirakawa Toyota Gazoo 66
7 Sébastien Buemi Toyota Gazoo 66
8 Matt Campbell Porsche Penske 65
9 René Rast BMW M Team 47
9 S. van der Linde BMW M Team 47
10 Earl Bamber Cadillac Jota 46
10 S. Bourdais Cadillac Jota 46
10 Jenson Button Cadillac Jota 46
11 Julien Andlauer Porsche Penske 46
12 Paul di Resta Peugeot 44
12 Mikkel Jensen Peugeot 44
13 Jean-Éric Vergne Peugeot 38
14 Paul-Loup Chatin Alpine Endurance 37
14 F. Habsburg Alpine Endurance 37
14 Charles Milesi Alpine Endurance 37
15 Robin Frijns BMW M Team 37
16 Jules Gounon Alpine Endurance 36
16 F. Makowiecki Alpine Endurance 36
16 Mick Schumacher Alpine Endurance 36
17 M. Christensen Porsche Penske 34
18 Mathieu Jaminet Porsche Penske 31
19 Loic Duval Peugeot 28
19 Malthe Jakobsen Peugeot 28
20 Kevin Magnussen BMW M Team 27
20 Raffaele Marciello BMW M Team 27

 

# Manufacturer Points
1 Ferrari 245
2 Toyota 171
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An early bath at the 1965 Monaco GP

Anthony Peacock – Anthony has 25 years of experience as a journalist and author. In his spare time, he enjoys wearing bobble hats

The World Rally Championship in 2025 stood out for its records. And from the start it was clear that we were in for something very different. Expanded to 14 rounds for the first time since 2008, there were three new rallies: in the Canary Islands, Paraguay and the season finale in Saudi Arabia.

By contrast, the controversial hybrid powertrains were gone – replaced by traditional 1.6-litre turbo units, albeit powered by biofuel – while Hankook took over from Pirelli as the sole tyre supplier. The points system was simplified again after a controversial overhaul in 2024, with full points now awarded at the rally finish (plus Power Stage and Sunday bonuses).

Right from the beginning, those records began to crumble. Sébastien Ogier became the first person to win the season-opening Monte Carlo Rally – in fact, any rally – 10 times (with five different manufacturers). By the end of the season, the 41-year-old Frenchman had clinched his ninth World Rally Championship title to equal Sébastien Loeb’s benchmark: something that only a few years ago Ogier said he had absolutely no interest in doing…

Still, sitting at 67 wins, Ogier has some way to go before reaching his compatriot’s benchmark of 80 victories. More significantly, Ogier became the first part-timer to win the WRC title since Loeb missed the last four rounds of 2006 with a broken collarbone.

The big difference, of course, was that Loeb never meant to break his collarbone; that was just what you might call a racing (or rather mountain bike) incident.

By contrast, the semi-retired Ogier never intended on doing a full season, but after Finland in the summer he saw it might be worth going the distance. In total, he participated in 11 rallies this year, and was on the podium for every single one of them apart from the Central European Rally, where he crashed out while leading. Ogier took six wins during the year to show his team-mates the way; four more than Elfyn Evans, who was runner-up, and three more than Kalle Rovanperä, who eventually finished third in the standings.

And that leads us neatly to another contentious aspect of the 2025 season. The 25-year-old Rovanperä dropped a bombshell by announcing his thinly veiled Formula 1 ambitions in October, which will take him to Japan to race in Super Formula next year, and then maybe Formula 2 in 2027.

The signs were already there. Last year, Rovanperä took a sabbatical to try out a few different things (including a run in a Red Bull F1 car) while doing a part-programme in rallying. When asked back then whether he would still be in rallying full-time if things had been a bit less intense and more social – like they were when his dad Harri was a factory WRC driver – Rovanperä’s answer was unequivocal: “Yes, definitely.”

As a rally driver, he still has what it takes: witness his breathtaking run to 15 wins out of 18 stages on the all-asphalt Rally Islas Canarias, or his mastery of Rally Finland, which this year became the fastest-ever rally in WRC history, with a winning average speed of 80.75mph.

Now, though, the young Finn has an opportunity to rewrite more history by becoming the first WRC champion to make it into Formula 1 full-time; let’s call it the ‘reverse Räikkönen manoeuvre’.

Ott Tänak, the winner of this year’s Acropolis Rally and the fourth-place finisher in the championship, doesn’t have the same chance to make history, but he too is quitting the sport, this time aged 38, to spend more time with his family.

While their motivations are very different, two former champions walking away while a part-timer in his forties wins the title isn’t a great look for rallying.

After taking the WRC runner-up spot five times now, and finishing every rally this year in the top six, the consistency of Evans is beyond doubt – but the Welshman believes he needs to take more risks in order to reverse the trend. Having led the championship after round two in Sweden, and then re-taking that lead following the Central European Rally with just four events to go, this was the closest the Welshman came yet – just four points shy at the finish. But it wasn’t quite enough.

“Kalle Rovanperä announced his thinly veiled F1 ambitions”

Perhaps even more frustrating was Thierry Neuville’s title defence. Despite an influx of new management, Hyundai simply didn’t have an answer to Toyota throughout 2025, winning only two of the 14 rallies. Like the sport as a whole, the South Korean manufacturer is at a crossroads. Right from the beginning of the year there were questions about Hyundai’s long-term commitment to the WRC – and even now, there’s only a deal in place for next year, before the regulations change in 2027.

M-Sport, whose best result in 2025 was fifth place for Grégoire Munster (on the Safari and in Japan) is in a similarly precarious situation – but this is nothing new to them, and as a private team they are more in control of their own destiny. Irish driver Josh McErlean, M-Sport’s new signing this year, actually did better than expected despite having no previous Rally 1 experience, bagging seven points finishes throughout the season.

Yet there was only one team really in it. For Toyota, it was a crushing steamroller: the Japanese marque claimed its fifth consecutive manufacturers’ title (another record) and locked out the top five on Rally Finland (for the first time since Lancia in Portugal 1990).

And here’s where the past reaches out to the future. Because as of next year, we’re treated to the return of the Lancia factory team to the WRC. Yes, it will only be WRC2 – for now at least. But it’s a much-needed good news story in a year that’s been looking for consolation prizes. The new Ypsilon – whose poster boy is Italy’s two-time world champion Miki Biasion – has become one of the fastest-selling rally cars of all time in both Rally 2 and Rally 4 guises, which is a measure of the ravenous public appetite for Lancia’s return. And just maybe we can expect a return to the top tier soon…

The other standout story was Oliver Solberg’s astonishing win in Estonia as a guest driver, which was enough to earn him a permanent place on the Toyota squad in 2026. The 23-year-old claimed the first proper stage on Friday – his maiden stage win at top level – to take a lead he would never lose, with eight more stage wins and a victory margin of more than 25sec by the finish. The result was notable for being Toyota’s 100th WRC win, en route to a breathtaking advantage of 211 points in the final manufacturer rankings.

But their most significant win came three events later, on Rally Chile. On Ogier’s 200th WRC start he claimed the Japanese manufacturer’s 103rd victory – which made Toyota the most successful-ever brand in the history of the rally championship, overtaking Citroën.

The numbers this year were simply staggering. But the backstories behind them even more so.

Thierry Neuville’s defence of his WRC red smoke flare

Thierry Neuville’s defence of his WRC title began here in the Monte Carlo Rally but he’d have a long wait for a win this season – late November, in fact

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Ott Tänak’s WRC win, in Greece

Ott Tänak’s 22nd WRC win, in Greece, will be his last.

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Elliott Edmondson and Oliver Solberg embrace after win

Elliott Edmondson and Oliver Solberg fly their respective flags after their win in Estonia

TGR WRT/McKlein

Elfyn Evans behind the wheel

Elfyn Evans’ spectacular start had us all believing that he might ‘do a Burns’ this year

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Toyota’s Kalle Rovanperä sardinia rally

Toyota’s Kalle Rovanperä, pictured, slipped to third in the drivers’ championship after the Sardinia Rally, a point behind Sébastien Ogier

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Sardinia WRC stars took to the sea

it wasn’t all drive, drive, drive in Sardinia, as the WRC stars took to the sea – although championship leader Evans might have been contemplating pushing Ogier over the side

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Ford Puma, but M-Sport’s Luxembourger driver Grégoire Munster in the air

It isn’t often you get to see the underside of a Ford Puma, but M-Sport’s Luxembourger driver Grégoire Munster was most accommodating in Rally Chile en route to an eighth-place finish; his best result in 2025 was fifth in Kenya and Japan

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Josh McErlean and Eoin Treacy warm up by the fire

Josh McErlean and Eoin Treacy were hardly hot property in Sweden – they were classified 46th, a disappointment after their seventh in Monte Carlo. Nevertheless M-Sport’s Irish duo showed speed in these northern climes despite the inexperience

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Latvian Martiņs puncture in the Acropolis Rally

Latvian Martiņs Sesks ran into bad luck with a puncture in the Acropolis Rally in June – as had happened on the gravel in Portugal the previous month. But he had a good season, leading in Saudi Arabia and showing much promise

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Ogier rally under the stars at night

Ogier made history in the Monte Carlo Rally when he registered his 10th win in the event, a tally stretching back to 2009; he sat out the next two rallies in Sweden and Kenya. By the end of the season his number of WRC wins totalled 67

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Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta among the wildlife in WRC round three

No guesses needed for naming this rally. Toyota’s Japanese driver Takamoto Katsuta is among the wildlife in WRC round three. He didn’t finish the rally – it was his second retirement of the season and it was only March

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In Kenya, Welshman Evans Safari Rally

In Kenya, Welshman Evans worked his Yaris hard – and it brought results. He won the Safari Rally and talk was already turning to winning the WRC championship

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Neuville Safari Rally in the air

Neuville was already well-acquainted with the unpredictability of the Safari Rally and found himself at an awkward angle in this year’s event. He’d end up third in the rally, but at this stage of the season it was Elfyn Evans who was really flying

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Evans and co-driver Scott Martin celebration in kenya

Evans and co-driver Scott Martin were treated to a celebration with a local flavour with win number two for 2025 in the bag. However, this was the final win of the season for the Brits and Ogier would be back for the next rally, in the Canaries

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Tänak Sweden rally drifting in the snow

Cool as ice Tänak has previously won Rally Sweden twice before but had to settle for fourth in his Hyundai i20 this season. Later in the year he’d announce that he would be stepping down from WRC to spend more time with his family

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Munster’s Rally Portugal information

Vital information for Munster’s Rally Portugal strategy, but he’d score just two points in WRC’s round five. Munster has been with M-Sport since 2023 but his results this year were slightly down on last year, ending the campaign on 40 points, six shy of ’24

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Greek driver Jourdan Serderidis Acropolis Rally in a Puma

Still going at 61, Greek driver Jourdan Serderidis is an M-Sport part-timer, here at the Acropolis Rally in a Puma – his final WRC outing in 2025

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WRC, Ogier win in Japan

It does WRC few favours having world-famous drivers picking and choosing which rallies they’ll enter but as the season progressed, Ogier became an ever-present from Finland onwards – here taking another win in Japan

TGR WRT/McKlein

Frenchman Adrien Fourmaux Rally Estonia in the air

Frenchman Adrien Fourmaux was a crowd-pleaser in Rally Estonia, on his way to a third-place finish in his Hyundai. His finest performance came in Saudi Arabia – second place

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Rally Japan Isegami’s Tunnel – with Neuville’s Hyundai

Not all rallies feature a haunted tunnel, but Rally Japan, the penultimate date on the WRC calendar, includes Isegami’s Tunnel – with Neuville’s Hyundai in a hurry to reach the other side

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Rovanperä Formula 1 drive via the Japanese Super Formula series

Rovanperä signed off his final WRC season with three wins and a third place in the standings after 14 rounds. He’s now chasing his dream of a Formula 1 drive via the Japanese Super Formula series

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Toyota was the winner of all but two rounds in 2025, with Evans

A Toyota was the winner of all but two rounds in 2025, with Evans, pictured, playing his part. Even towards the end of the year for Elfyn, which included four consecutive second-place finishers, it wasn’t enough…

DPPI

Sébastien Ogier and Vincent Landais in Saudi Arabia

Sébastien Ogier and Vincent Landais stand victorious in Saudi Arabia – as the tricolour proclaims this is a ninth WRC title for Ogier, who now ties with Sébastien Loeb as rally’s greatest

TGR WRT/McKlein

Sébastien Ogier in Saudi Arabia

As happened in 2025, WRC in 2026 will reach its conclusion in Saudi Arabia. Will Ogier want another title to push aside Loeb? Can Evans pick himself up to try and go one better than this season? It all starts again with the Monte on January 22-25

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WRC ’25 standings

Top 25 rally drivers in this year’s championship

No. Driver Team Points
1 Sébastien Ogier Toyota Gazoo 293
2 Elfyn Evans Toyota Gazoo 289
3 Kalle Rovanperä Toyota Gazoo 256
4 Ott Tänak Hyundai 216
5 Thierry Neuville Hyundai 194
6 Takamoto Katsuta Toyota Gazoo 122
7 Adrien Fourmaux Hyundai 115
8 Sami Pajari Toyota WRT2 107
9 Oliver Solberg Toyota Gazoo 71
10 Grégoire Munster M-Sport Ford 40
11 Josh McErlean M-Sport Ford 28
12 Martins Sesks M-Sport Ford 16
13 Yohan Rossel PH Sport 16
14 Gus Greensmith Gus Greensmith 14
15 Nikolay Gryazin Nikolay Gryazin 12
16 Jan Solans PH Sport 7
17 Alejandro Cachón A. Cachón 7
18 Jourdan Serderidis M-Sport Ford 4
19 K. Kajetanowicz K. Kajetanowicz 3
20 Fabrizio Zaldivar Toksport 3
21 Roberto Daprà Roberto Daprà 2
22 Jan Cerny Jan Cerny 2
23 Roope Korhonen Roope Korhonen 1
24 Eric Camilli Eric Camilli 1
25 Filip Mares Filip Mares 1

 

No. Manufacturer Points
1 Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT 735
2 Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT 511
3 M-Sport Ford WRT 205
4 Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT2 158
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An early bath at the 1965 Monaco GP

Lewis Hamilton wins China Sprint Race

it seemed like a fairytale. The Chinese Grand Prix was Lewis Hamilton’s second race event as a Ferrari driver, and in the Saturday sprint he took victory. It all began to go wrong after the main event at Shanghai

Grand Prix Photo

Red Bull’s white livery for the Japanese GP

Red Bull’s white livery for the Japanese GP and the Degner Curve underpass creates a bleached-out effect as Max Verstappen pushes on to claim pole position. That achievement set up his superb race victory

Oscar Piastri was number one for the second time in 2025 at the Bahrain Grand Prix

Oscar Piastri was number one for the second time in 2025 at the Bahrain Grand Prix. The Australian’s McLaren crossed the finish line 15sec clear of George Russell, moving him onto Norris’s heels in the points

Miami Grand Prix, with poleman Verstappen leading

Blast-off at the Miami Grand Prix, with poleman Verstappen leading fellow front-row man Norris. But it was third qualifier Piastri who went on to take his fourth victory from the first six grands prix

DPPI

Max Verstappen leads Piastri at the restart following an early safety car at the Saudi Arabian GP

Verstappen leads Piastri at the restart following an early safety car at the Saudi Arabian GP. But he would have to serve a penalty in the pits for cutting across Turns 1/2 at the initial start, and Piastri went on to win

Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull f1 Imola

back at the scene of his first tryout in F1 back in 2020 for the Team Formerly Known As Toro Rosso, Yuki Tsunoda pushes on at Imola’s Variante Alta chicane. The Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix was Tsunoda’s fifth race since being called up to the senior Red Bull team in place of Liam Lawson. The Japanese finished 10th

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Lando Norris celebrates victory at Monaco

After a run of victories for McLaren team-mate Piastri, Norris did his title chances – and his self-confidence – no end of good by claiming pole position for the Monaco Grand Prix and going on to win one of F1’s blue-riband races. To make it all the sweeter, he did so under pressure from the Ferrari of home hero Charles Leclerc

Barcelona Piastri leads the race

The scoring tower at the Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona is a famous F1 landmark, and looms over Piastri leading the Spanish GP away en route to another victory. But the race is most notorious for the Verstappen ‘road rage’ incident with George Russell. The points lost from his ensuing penalty were more than he lost the title by

Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri battle at Austrian GP

Norris, left, and Piastri do battle during the opening stint of the Austrian Grand Prix. An earlier pitstop for Norris paid off and he went on to lead the Australian home for a McLaren 1-2. It meant he closed the points gap to Piastri to 15

DPPI

Silverstone clouds at the british gp

Thanks to its own micro-climate, Silverstone is famed for scenes such as this of forbidding clouds. The British Grand Prix was subject to changeable wet-dry conditions, which caught out some, including George Russell, who spun his Mercedes on slick tyres on a damp track

DPPI

McLaren side-by-side action Norris and Piastri at Belgian Grand Prix at Spa

More side-by-side action from McLaren duo Norris and Piastri as they blast up the Kemmel straight during the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa. Unlike in Austria, this time it was Piastri who led home a 1-2 for the team

DPPI

Isack Hadjar celebrates win

Isack Hadjar entered the 2025 season as the ‘other’ F1 rookie, in the sense that Red Bull seemed to have promoted him from F2 to Racing Bulls because there was no other option for the seat. He ended up being a star of the season, crowned by his third place in the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort. “What have we done?” he yelled over the radio, and well he might… It became one of the most significant factors in his ‘promotion’ to the Red Bull senior team in 2026 – an altogether more challenging proposition for any driver

Monza crowd watches the Italian GP podium

The fervent Monza crowd watches the Italian GP podium, after Verstappen beat the McLaren duo. The Woking team’s switcharound to Norris’s benefit after the final pitstops would prove controversial, and Piastri would not win again

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Red Bull celeberate Max Verstappen crossing the line

Hot on the heels of his Monza win, his first since Imola nine GPs earlier, Verstappen doubled up with his second consecutive victory on the streets of Baku in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Combined with seventh place for Norris and a shocker for Piastri, who crashed out on the opening lap, was the title really out of reach?

Panoramic view Marina Bay Circuit

Panoramic view of the Marina Bay circuit during the Singapore Grand Prix. Those with extremely good eyesight may be able to ascertain that Tsunoda leads here from Esteban Ocon and Carlos Sainz. Williams driver Sainz scooped the final point for 10th in a race won by the Mercedes of Russell

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Hamilton stands on the grid at the Spanish Grand Prix

Hamilton stands on the grid at the Spanish Grand Prix. This was one of the rare occasions he started ahead of ace qualifier Ferrari team-mate Leclerc, although he would finish sixth to the Monegasque’s third

Max Verstappen after the Qatar GP

The title really was on for Verstappen after the Qatar GP. A strategy blunder from McLaren under an early safety car helped the Red Bull man to another win, and set up a three-way title fight

Max Verstappen holding Las Vegas trophy

Verstappen’s win in Las Vegas was further boosted when Norris, finishing second, and Piastri, fourth, were later excluded for insufficient plank thickness. Max left the US on equal points with Piastri

DPPI

Lando Norris doing doughnuts

As Piastri alights from his second-placed McLaren, Norris pulls doughnuts in his after taking third in the final round in Abu Dhabi. The result was enough to earn the Briton the championship by just two points

DPPI

McLaren Celeberate championship

He’s in there somewhere… McLaren folk go wild for Norris. World champion in his seventh F1 season, a first title since his F3 European glory in 2017, and a second king of the racing world, after Jenson Button, to hail from Somerset

F1 final standings

Who finished where in the final points…

No. Driver Team Points
1 Lando Norris McLaren 423
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull 421
3 Oscar Piastri McLaren 410
4 George Russell Mercedes 319
5 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 242
6 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 156
7 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 150
8 Alexander Albon Williams 73
9 Carlos Sainz Williams 64
10 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 56
11 Nico Hülkenberg Sauber 51
12 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls 51
13 Ollie Bearman Haas 41
14 Liam Lawson Red Bull / RB 38
15 Esteban Ocon Haas 38
16 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 33
17 Yuki Tsunoda RB / Red Bull 33
18 Pierre Gasly Alpine 22
19 Gabriel Bortoleto Sauber 19
20 Franco Colapinto Alpine 0
21 Jack Doohan Alpine 0

 

No. Constructor Points
1 McLaren 833
2 Mercedes 469
3 Red Bull 451
4 Ferrari 398
5 Williams 137
6 Racing Bulls 92
7 Aston Martin 89
8 Haas 79
9 Sauber 70
10 Alpine 22
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An early bath at the 1965 Monaco GP

Pierre Gasly

10. Pierre Gasly

He never gave anything less than his all in an outclassed, underpowered car. But Pierre Gasly’s fast corner prowess combined with the Alpine ’s good high-speed downforce could occasionally transcend the limited competitive circumstances. He got the car through to Q3 more times than it deserved even if at other times it was often hanging off the back of Q1. He’s talked of how good he believes the 2026 Alpine-Mercedes is going to be almost as a mantra. If it actually is, he will be fully deserving of it.

Alex Albon

9. Alex Albon

There were times when Alex Albon was making the difference for Williams, particularly early season. His drives at Miami and Imola were especially finely judged. But as Carlos Sainz’s pace became more consistent and the competition between them intensified, so he became a little more ragged and error-prone. His best qualifying laps are dramatic to behold as he races against the clock on both the track and his career.

Isack Hadjar

8. Isack Hadjar

The season’s best rookie from an outstanding crop of talent, Isack Hadjar hustled the driveable Racing Bulls car to eye-catching effect. What was remarkable was the relentlessness of his performances, with barely any of the usual peaks and troughs of someone with empty F1 data banks. He was invariably super-fast in the first few laps of a green track, just like Max Verstappen. Tough and fearing absolutely no one, he has all the assurance of someone who knows he belongs here.

Carlos Sainz

7. Carlos Sainz

It took a while to adapt himself to the Williams from the very different Ferrari, but the polished class of Carlos Sainz eventually surfaced and he brought a lot to the still-developing team. In Baku he ended the team’s long podium drought, followed up with another in Qatar while his third place on the Vegas grid in treacherous conditions was fully deserved. It’s not inconceivable he could be winning races for Williams in the near-future.

Oscar Piastri

6. Oscar Piastri

Until Baku, Oscar Piastri looked immune to pressure and his performances consisted of unflustered speed and race craft. His move on Lando Norris in the opening lap of Spa was the bravest pass of ’25. In just his third F1 season he found himself leading the championship, not as troubled as his team-mate by the foibles of the car but just comfortably leaning into its strengths. But he didn’t get the rub – the Silverstone penalty after a 13sec lead had been wiped out by a safety car was galling. In Baku the hangover of a team decision which had gone against him at Monza saw him crack. A lack of pace in Austin and Mexico lost him the title lead.

Lando Norris

5. Lando Norris

When Lando Norris gets in that groove, there’s a Max Verstappen-like turn of speed in there. But he’s nowhere near as robust or complete. As a driver working on himself, he’s still evolving, still getting better. Although the MCL39 was faster than its predecessor, Norris found it a more difficult drive, very honestly admitting he was not on top of it for much of the first half of the season, even though he was winning races. But just as it looked like the season was getting away from him, he turned it around, found the code to unlock both the car and himself to devastating effect. There’s more to come from him.

Fernando Alonso

4. Fernando Alonso

Even Fernando Alonso doesn’t know for certain if the last tenth of performance from his early career is still there. Without a front-running car and a top team-mate he can’t be sure. But he feels like he’s as good as he’s ever been and the relentlessness and smart-thinking were all on full display many times. He whitewashed Lance Stroll by a bigger margin than ever and on tracks where the Aston could be loaded up with downforce he’d be right there in qualifying. As recently as Qatar he had it on the second row ahead of faster cars. It would be fascinating to see how he performs in a competitive Adrian Newey car. We may get to see it in 2026.

George Russell

3. George Russell

Consistently superb, George Russell pounced on the two occasions the Mercedes was fully competitive to take immaculate victories – in Montreal and Singapore. In between times he kept the McLaren drivers on their toes on several occasions and showed great, feisty spirit. Completely at ease in the position of unquestioned team leader, his performances set the bar for rookie team-mate Kimi Antonelli to aspire to in delivering every time he got in the car.

Charles Leclerc

2. Charles Leclerc

There were times when Charles Leclerc had the Ferrari in grid positions that flattered it by an outrageous degree. It was a notably second-rate car he was putting on pole in Hungary and the front row in Monaco, Austria, Austin and Mexico. At Monaco he was spellbinding as he pushed Lando Norris for pole. He was using an extremely difficult set-up and hanging on to the car to pull these sorts of qualifying outcomes from it, and even though his races were a dispiriting blur of lift and coast instructions his raging against the limitations never eased. This was a Gilles Villeneuve-like season in a mediocre machine.

Max Verstappen

1. Max Verstappen

An incredible season in pulling everything possible out of the often-recalcitrant RB21. There were days when even he couldn’t drag it into the ballpark in the first half of the season but if it was anywhere near, Max Verstappen would be there challenging for pole, and sometimes achieving it. But only occasionally could that be translated into victory against the McLaren’s superior tyre usage. But once Red Bull succeeded in extending the car’s balance window by endowing it with a better front wing, he was on the rampage, really putting the frighteners on McLaren and its drivers in the title chase.

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An early bath at the 1965 Monaco GP

Mark Hughes – This year was Mark’s last full season of day-to-day Formula 1 race reporting after 30 years of following the F1 circus

The surface colours of the season constantly changed but the background of its canvas was always papaya as McLaren delivered a formidable weapon for its drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri; the unvarying competitive constant that was the MCL39. In the season’s first half Max Verstappen and Red Bull would occasionally appear, Jackson Pollock-like, to throw a splash of blue and yellow, making a mess of McLaren’s weekend, before retreating once more to plan some later ambush. There’d then be a few races where McLaren could relax into an apparently safe run to both titles. But those blue ambushes came more regularly after the summer break and their intensity and relentlessness prised apart the previously hidden weakness at McLaren.

When Verstappen and Red Bull applied the strain, the McLaren facade of serenity cracked and the radial fractures became visible as the team tried to fend off Verstappen while simultaneously equalising the opportunities of its own two drivers in chasing down their first world titles. It was a hell of a task to take on and we saw many times the confusion and discord it created.

What complicated that task immensely was the close and unusual dynamic between McLaren and Norris. This is something that has been widely misunderstood by the watching world, unsurprisingly so because it absolutely does not conform to any Formula 1 precedent and flies against traditional sporting mentality.

“Norris has a turn of speed which even Max acknowledges is special”

Norris has been very open throughout his F1 career about his struggles with mental health. He’s been a poster boy for awareness campaigns on the subject as he’s fought his demons – ever-more successfully with each season – around depression, anxiety and doubt. Fundamental to his way of coping with these issues is an openness of his weaknesses, a trait so alien to this sport. F1 is a harsh environment to be carrying that and yet he’s doing it – and he’s succeeding. Not with quite as much success as would come his way if he didn’t have those issues, but then he wouldn’t be who he is. That would be some different man who isn’t him.

He has immense talent – when it all slots into place for him he has a turn of speed which even Verstappen acknowledges is pretty special. But he doesn’t always have full access to it and can’t always combine it with hard-headed choices in wheel-to-wheel combat. His performances can still be a little brittle on the outer edges of competition where the mental pressures are vast, forceful and insistent and the specific skill requirements so complex and ever-changing. Norris asking for – and getting – help angers some. As does him talking about his limitations. Others – particularly from within his own Gen Z age group – love him for it. The polarisation of the world in the social-media age has swept through F1 as a new generation of fans have clashed with the traditional, older core. The values around what has always been the natural competitive dynamic of hard-headed, ruthless striving – embodied in Red Bull and Verstappen – has clashed with some newer racing fans. But those fans clash with each other too and you feel the whole sport is becoming increasingly tribal. There’s been a further step-change in that this season.

On the one hand much of the younger generation values divergence and tolerance, but there are other parts of the same generation dismissive of that as ‘woke’ – and the readiness to be outraged and offended at opposing views just powers the tribalism further.

What has all this got to do with the shape of the F1 season? Well, quite a lot. Those in charge at McLaren –the emotionally intelligent Andrea Stella and the pragmatic Zak Brown – understand Norris’s challenges and try their best to accommodate them. So when Stella talks of possible unconscious bias in some of the decision-making on the pitwall – notably in Qatar – he was referring not to some preference for Norris over Piastri but to the fact that Norris has required more maintenance than the more robust Piastri.

Norris has more often got himself into a situation requiring help: his lock-up in Q2 at Monza, for example, where Piastri was asked to give him a tow to ensure his graduation to Q3. Piastri has required no help, which is to his credit but it illustrates the tricky waters a team can get into if it attempts to make everything theoretically equal. The team bodged Norris’s pitstop the following day and, feeling it unfair that he was compromised by a team failure, he was gifted the place he’d lost to Piastri back. That was on the cusp of unreasonable. Helping him escape the consequences of his own mistake the day before – and enlisting title rival Piastri to do it – was probably beyond that line.

Smile! Oscar Piastri, Max Verstappen and Lando Norris with the F1 World Championship trophy before the season finale

Smile! Piastri, Verstappen and Norris with the F1 World Championship trophy before the season finale

That is at the core of how McLaren has operated around Norris’s vulnerabilities – something made more apparent by Piastri having stepped up his game in his third season, joining up the searing speed and ruthless racecraft more consistently. This applied the stress to more clearly expose the team’s way of accommodating Norris. It wasn’t that the team was deliberately favouring Norris; more accurately it’s the team needing to help him more because he simply isn’t as self-reliant as Piastri, a much more traditionally tough racing driver. So Norris’s more fragile/brittle performances have put him in situations requiring help more frequently, which has ended up being not entirely fair on Piastri.

So some see McLaren as a woke entity, which is being shown by the advancing hard-charging ruthless Verstappen/Red Bull machine that acknowledging and accommodating weaknesses has no place in F1. Well, McLaren has shown that it can. If Max is a generational talent, McLaren is a Generation Z team that has emerged from the vulnerable Norris/emotionally intelligent Stella axis.

That new culture among the sport’s followers has been building for a while. But in 2025 it became part of a title fight for the first time, an interesting twist unconnected to the increasing Hollywood-isation of the sport which has made some very rich men even richer. The huge success of the Brad Pitt F1 movie boosted F1’s valuation yet-further. To the extent that the Mercedes team is now valued at £4.6bn, a sum that would have bought you the whole sport twice over just a decade ago.

“The highest profile star F1 has ever seen was nothing more than support cast this year”

Increasingly, it feels like there are two parallel versions of F1: the showbiz one preoccupied with the superficialities and ‘influencers’ – and the real one. Much of the more recent following is invested in the former and uninterested in the latter. The entertainment and the sport; that’s always been a dichotomy but the distinction today is clearer than ever. A tweet about Carlos Sainz’s preferred brand of shades would almost certainly generate more hits than one explaining his adaptation to less engine braking on the Williams compared to the Ferrari.

As the passing of the years changes the sport’s complexion, the natural law of the jungle still applies. It can be cruel. Lewis Hamilton, once the pride of the pack, had his status challenged back in 2021 by Verstappen, and he was on the very cusp of seeing off the usurper when the outcome of that epic season was invalidated by that infamous call completely outside of the sporting regulations. It’s arguable whether Hamilton has ever been quite the same since and if he thought he could be reinvigorated by his late career switch to Ferrari at 40 he was set to be very disappointed. What he found at Maranello was a team lacking in several key areas of organisational structure – and a team-mate in Charles Leclerc faster than any he has ever encountered. A mediocre car with a super-fast team-mate was the nightmare scenario for someone with a bigger bank of success than any driver has ever had.

Lewis Hamilton with Ferrari

It’s been a tough first season for Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari, who’s been second-fastest to team-mate Charles Leclerc

The car required a lot of adapting to, particularly its reliance on engine braking to help with rotation into a corner, something Leclerc has incorporated brilliantly into his driving over the years. Hamilton’s late-brake muscle memory, already unsuited to this generation of car, liked this one even less. Watching him under the spotlight come to terms with the shortfall in his own performances was often uncomfortable to witness. It felt like you were intruding on a personal torment at times. The highest-profile star the sport has ever seen was nothing more than support cast on track this year. New stars formed and one of them, Kimi Antonelli, replaced him at Mercedes and another, the searingly fast Ollie Bearman, looks set to take his place sooner or later at Ferrari. A third, Isack Hadjar, was so unerringly quick in the Racing Bulls that he’d be announced as Verstappen’s 2026 team-mate. Gabriel Bortoleto – protege of the still impressive Fernando Alonso – was the fourth starring rookie. All of which just made the spotlight on Hamilton’s struggles even more intense.

At the time of writing he was hanging his hopes on the new generation of ’26 car proving less stubbornly resistant to how he likes to drive. But it was difficult not to think that the Hamilton of a few years ago would have much more comfortably learned new tricks. China sprint victory aside, 2025 was a desolate season, only further emphasising the changing backdrop through which the sport charges with barely a backward glance. That time was being measured in F1 by more than just lap times was never more apparent than in this season.

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An early bath at the 1965 Monaco GP

The season ended rapid-fire on consecutive weekends and amid those shots a new world champion was crowned. In Vegas Max Verstappen re-lit the dying embers of his title challenge with a victory around the cold desert night-time track, one which was decided in the opening seconds after he suckered the pole-sitting Lando Norris into a Turn 1 error. Things got yet better for the Red Bull driver post-race as runner-up Norris, together with his fourth-placed McLaren team-mate and title rival Oscar Piastri, were disqualified for excessive plank wear. Although this left Norris still 24 points clear with two races to go, it brought Verstappen level with Piastri.

Pitstop for Oscar Piastri in the Qatar Grand Prix

Pitstop for Oscar Piastri in the Qatar Grand Prix

Grand Prix Photos

The competitive dynamic which had brought Verstappen within McLaren’s panic range had been driven by the strides Red Bull had made in improving the car from Zandvoort onwards as McLaren switched off all development, apparently cruising to both titles. Obviously, the constructors’ was sealed up long ago but Verstappen’s flurry of victories since they found a way to engineer-in some front end on the RB21 disturbed what had looked like the season’s natural order.

Victory in Vegas for Max Verstappen

Victory in Vegas for Max Verstappen meant Red Bull’s star was firmly in the title chase

DPPI

Until that happened the hue was papaya with only occasional interruptions of blue on tracks at which the Red Bull was quick enough that Verstappen’s skills could make the winning difference: Suzuka, Imola. Even when he got pole at other tracks – Jeddah, Miami, Silverstone – it was a triumph of cockpit skills and new tyre grip masking the car’s shortfall to the McLaren’s super-flexibility; quick everywhere, super-fast when it was about controlling rear tyre temperatures. It would almost invariably triumph on race day regardless of any Verstappen qualifying heroics. Sometimes Norris would unlock the code better than Piastri, sometimes not.

“Norris blocked but if that was from the Max playbook, getting too late on the brakes was not”

But ever since Red Bull got onto a very fruitful front wing development curve it’s been a factor. It was still a little trickier to set-up, but fast enough to get Verstappen into regular contention. Around the treacherous wet Vegas track, Norris was on a very handy pole but that 0.3sec margin didn’t buy him any extra space to Verstappen right alongside him on the front row.

Lando Norris and Max joust at the start

Lando Norris and Max joust at the start

Although the track was now dry, it remained very cold. Drivers were being instructed by their engineers to do as many as five burn-outs to the grid. But Norris was distracted at this moment – by Verstappen hanging back. His burn-outs were not as thorough as Verstappen’s and even from the less grippy side of the grid the Red Bull got a better launch. Norris very smartly veered left to block but if that part was straight from the Verstappen playbook, getting too late then onto the brakes was not. As the McLaren ran wide, so Verstappen slipped easily by into the lead – and George Russell’s Mercedes also managed to grind by before they reached Turn 4.

wet track at Vegas 2025

Proof that it rains in Nevada: a wet – but drying – track at Vegas.

This was par for the course for Russell and Mercedes in ’25; more consistent than the year before but without quite the same peaks. It controlled its tyre temperatures better than the year before but not as well as the McLaren. It had great traction but lacked the Red Bull’s high-speed downforce. On the two occasions where it was fully competitive – Montreal and Singapore – Russell took immaculate victories.

Back to Vegas: once Verstappen had got ahead he never looked back – other than to check his mirrors on his out-lap to see how close the undercutting Russell got to him. The answer: very close. But in caning his new tyres in the eight laps between his stop and Verstappen’s, Russell had damaged them and after being rebuffed once on Verstappen’s out-lap the Merc’s grip was spent. Verstappen pulled well clear and Norris overtook Russell with just 16 laps to go. The McLaren was 5sec behind but unable to close the gap to Verstappen. In fact in the last four laps Norris dropped dramatically off the pace as his race engineer guided him through where to lift and coast – for what turned out to be concern about the plank wear.

Qatar GP, Max Verstappen on track

After his win at the Qatar GP, Verstappen had leapfrogged Piastri to second place in the title race

Red Bull Content Pool

Piastri was similarly afflicted but because there was a broken sensor on his car it couldn’t be monitored. Post-race the planks on both McLarens were found to be around a hair’s breadth below the minimum permitted 9mm. Disqualifications swiftly followed, promoting Russell to an official second ahead of team-mate Kimi Antonelli. The latter’s was a remarkable drive from 17th on the grid, keeping up great pace on very old tyres, so that Piastri was unable to pass him. He’d stopped on the second lap to make the compulsory change of tyre compound and ran then to the end on what was effectively a zero-stop strategy.

“Verstappen pulled himself within a 12-point reach of Norris going into the season finale”

McLaren had no sooner finished apologising to its drivers for the Las Vegas disqualifications than it was doing so again in Qatar for a monumental strategic error which lost Piastri what had looked set to be a straightforward victory and left Norris back in fourth. Inevitably, the recipient of the McLaren debacle was Verstappen, who thereby pulled himself within a 12-point reach of Norris going into the season finale.

It had all looked so good for Piastri in Qatar, bouncing back into form after a difficult few races. After winning the sprint race unopposed from pole he proceeded to beat Norris to pole for the main event, the McLaren pair a quarter-second faster than second-row starters Verstappen and Russell. The complications were rooted in the Pirelli stipulation for this weekend of a maximum of 25 laps for any set of tyres, for safety reasons. With it being a 57-lap race, it was an enforced two-stop – and you couldn’t pit before lap seven without having to switch to the much slower three-stop.

Nico Hülkenberg, out at Losail

A dejected Nico Hülkenberg, out at Losail

Grand Prix Photos

So when there was a safety car on lap seven (for debris from a Nico Hülkenberg/Pierre Gasly collision) it locked the race into total uniformity. Except for McLaren. The strategists were all looking at laps seven and 32 as the crucial ones. The lap seven safety car ensured the strategy clicked into a non-variance lap-32 second stop for everyone, unless you chose to stay out on lap seven – which would be a crazy thing to do. Coming in then gave you one of your two pitstops for free, with zero time loss (as you’d be back onto the tail of the safety car after stopping). Yet McLaren kept both cars out, thereby incurring a theoretical 26sec penalty (the pitstop time loss to the field here at racing speed) to make up. Although McLaren had the fastest car here it wasn’t by anything like enough margin to overcome that.

With the safety car out early enough in the lap to give plenty of time for the strategists to consider choices, there was bemusement as the two McLarens continued, with Verstappen peeling off from between them to pit, followed by everyone else. Red Bull strategist Hannah Schmitz called her cars in. “Are you sure?” asked one of her team. “McLaren are staying out.” “Yes, I’m sure,” she replied. So was everyone else.

McLaren, however, with its collective mind focused on not disadvantaging one driver over another missed the bigger imperative of the moment.

“The misjudgement is something we will have to review internally,” said Andrea Stella after the race. “We’ll have to assess for instance whether there was a certain bias in the way we were thinking that led us as a group to think that not necessarily all cars would have pitted. There can be some biases in the way that you think.”

Red Bull pitlane in Qatar

McLaren’s pit decision in Qatar played into Red Bull’s hands; a “misjudgement”, said Stella

The bias he was referring to was the self-imposed restriction of equality of opportunity for each driver. If they’d brought both cars in, Norris would have been delayed exiting the pits by the other cars coming in and would probably have lost places at a track at which overtaking is difficult.

Nor was the McLaren pitwall figuring that everyone else would pit, as Stella explained. “The reason was we didn’t want to end up in traffic after the pitstop. But obviously everyone pitted and made our staying out incorrect. Because Verstappen was fast and the tyre deg low, our decision was significantly penalised. Oscar was in control of the race and deserved to win it and we lost Lando the podium as well.”

The McLarens made their first stops on laps 24 and 25. Everyone else made their second stops on lap 32 as their tyres reached the stipulated maximum. The McLarens made their second stops on laps 42 and 44. Piastri rejoined 15sec behind Verstappen with 13 laps left. Norris came out behind both Carlos Sainz’s Williams and Antonelli. The Mercedes was fast at the end of the straights and even with the help of DRS Norris could find no way by until, going into the final lap, Antonelli suffered a big twitch on the entry to Turn 9 and as he ran four wheels off the track on the exit, so Norris slipped by for the extra two points for fourth place.

The Las Vegas victory was Verstappen’s sixth of the season, drawing him level on wins with the McLaren drivers and now slotted between them in the points table – with just the Abu Dhabi season finale to go.

Those two disastrous races for McLaren at Vegas and Qatar as Verstappen’s rampage continued had been potentially catastrophic for the team but the maths still favoured Norris for the last weekend. Verstappen kept that pressure applied by scorching around the track to a comfortable pole position, ahead of Norris and Piastri. With the three title contenders filling the top grid slots, and the strategists on the McLaren and Red Bull pitwall considering the points permutations, the final race of the season got underway in the dusk of another desert night.

Lando Norris, Formula 1 world champion 2025 stands on car

Lando Norris, Formula 1 world champion 2025 – but McLaren made hard work of the win!

DPPI

As everyone’s tyre blankets came off Red Bull was surprised to see that McLaren had fitted Piastri with hards. The medium was much the favoured tyre on which to start and hards on Piastri’s car made clear how McLaren planned to run this race: as a co-ordinated two-pronged campaign to ensure a McLaren driver took the title.

They maintained grid formation into Turn 1 but once Piastri had passed Norris on the first lap – into the fast Turn 9, with no resistance from Norris – then McLaren could prevent Verstappen from backing Norris into the pack. Not that it would necessarily have worked if he had – the track layout is now quite different to how it was when Lewis Hamilton had backed Nico Rosberg up in 2016. But this took that option off Verstappen’s menu. Norris meanwhile could give his tyres an easier time as he let his two rivals go and just gauged his pace back to the chasing Ferrari of Charles Leclerc.

Norris was unable to take advantage of his early pace though, as McLaren was forced to pit him early so as to fend off an undercut threat triggered by Russell. Verstappen and Piastri pulled away from the field as Norris fought his way through the midfield he’d not been able to clear because of the early stop. The last of these was Verstappen’s team-mate Yuki Tsunoda, having his last race for the team, and running long on a set of hards so as to be in place to delay Norris in just this situation. His weaving on the straight up to Turn 9 forced Norris off the track to complete the pass. But he was finally safely through. Needing only a third-place finish for the title, all he had to do from there was keep a wary eye out for the overachieving Leclerc.

When Ferrari switched Leclerc to a two-stop, so McLaren was obliged to cover him off again with Norris. Leclerc continued to charge hard but after a few laps his tyres had had enough, and Norris was secure again. Verstappen had already passed Piastri on track even before the latter made his pitstop. It had been an immaculate drive from the four-time title holder, but the fifth would have to wait as Norris became the 11th British F1 world champion.

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An early bath at the 1965 Monaco GP

There is an omission from Will Farmer’s article on music and motor sport [Pump up the volume, January]. The Radio 1 Fun Day was held at Mallory Park in May 1975 and remains the most bizarre race meeting I have ever attended.

Expecting a day’s club racing we were surprised to see that the queue for the circuit extended to the Leicester suburbs, but nothing prepared us for what happened when the Bay City Rollers arrived (by helicopter, obviously). Most of the near 50,000 crowd was already fired up by the presence of such luminaries as The Three Degrees, Showaddywaddy and DJ David Hamilton, but events took a surreal turn when the Rollers took to a powerboat on the circuit’s infield lake. The fact that they did so during a Formula Ford race did not deter many fans from jumping over the barriers, running across the track and then swimming towards the Rollers’ boat.

Some fans were rugby tackled by burly marshals – cue cheers from the few of us there for the racing – but many more had to be fished out of the lake. I was in my po-faced prog rock era and remained unamused. Pity that neither Bill Boddy nor DSJ were present, as their copy (perhaps headed The wrong crowd and too much crowding) would have been priceless.

John Aston, Thirsk

As a regular reader since the ’70s of your (by the way) excellent magazine, I felt surprised and to a certain extent disappointed while reading 50 greatest drives by women [November]. No intention to doubt the author’s personal selection, but wondering why one of our best known and very successful women drivers Christine Beckers has been forgotten in your selection.

Her racing career: 1966-1986

● Successful in multiple disciplines: circuit, rallying, rally-raid, hillclimbing, autoslalom and NASCAR.

● Six-time Belgian women’s drivers’ champion (1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1972, 1974).

● Le Mans 24 Hours 1974 – 2-litre class winner with Marie Laurent and Yvette Fontaine.

● Le Mans 24 Hours 1977 – 11th overall, accompanied by Lella Lombardi.

● Paris-Dakar 1979, 1980, 1982 – the first woman on this rally.

● Alfa Romeo and Inaltéra team driver.

● Guinness World Record – oldest woman to drive an F1 car: at 80, she drove an Arrows-BMW A8 at Zolder last year (2024).

Eric Janssen, Belgium

Anyone interested in the history of car racing should be grateful for the 50 greatest drives by women article which appeared in the November issue of Motor Sport. It shows that there is still a wealth of interesting subjects waiting to be covered by pioneering journalists.

Christine Beckers

Christine Beckers didn’t make the cut in our greatest drives by women list

However, I was truly disappointed to see that Christine Beckers, one of the most talented female racers of all time, had not been included in the list. All through her career she has shown how well she mastered a wide variety of motor sport disciplines such as touring car races, endurance races, rallying, rally-raid, hillclimbing and even NASCAR.

Jan Wintein, Belgium

The late, great Sir Terry Wogan used the phrase “Is it me?” when seeming to hold a point of view that went against the established one.

Am I the only one who doesn’t seem to hold up Ferrari as some sort of supernatural being, entitled to unquestioning reverence by its disciples? Over many years there has been this myth that F1 would cease to exist without them and they appear to have received special treatment out of all proportion to their rivals. I’m not dismissing the successful years under Todt, Brawn and co, but these almost seem to be dwarfed by the many mediocre phases. Enzo was often dismissive of other teams and shrugged his shoulders if a rival went out of business.

After years of underperformance and the traditional interference from management, Ferrari seem intent on tearing themselves apart once more. Would The Circus really grind to a halt if they pulled out? I think not. Yes, they would be missed, but so are many other teams who no longer exist. Is it me?

Dave Bradshaw, Guernsey

I loved the features on Jim Clark’s 1965 cars and races [December]. I thought you might be interested in some very poor-quality photos that I took at the Guards Trophy meeting, Brands Hatch, August 1965.

1965 Guards photos by David Tarbutt

Big names at the 1965 Guards Trophy included Jim Clark, Graham Hill and John Surtees – as photographed on the day by David Tarbutt

Photos show JC in F2 Lotus and his celebration lap after winning the British Eagle F2 race, JC in poor-handling Lotus 40, already on opposite lock entering South Bank compared with Dan Gurney in McLaren Elva and Jackie Stewart in Lola T70.

Also poster of the meeting showing three British F1 champions. Plus blurred pic of JC in Cortina Lotus on three wheels.

David Tarbutt, Headley Down, Hampshire

Thank you for your article The ultimate two-car garage [December]. Being of a certain vintage, this in-depth history of these two iconic Porsche 356s was much appreciated. For many of us at that time we seldom got to see a 356 on the road in the UK and it was Jenks who brought them to our attention. His references to UYY 34 in his Continental Notes gave us an insight into his many adventures. This included his participation in the Silverstone 6 Hours relay when he noted this unknown Scotsman was lapping 3sec quicker than any other 356… welcome a certain James Clark.

Porsche 356s

These Porsche 356s once owned by Jim Clark and Jenks have brought back memories for a reader

My thanks to Tom Pead for his work in bringing these two cars together and all who worked on the restorations. It’s fitting that this should appear in Motor Sport and I feel sure DSJ would approve.

Alistair Crooks, Victoria, CANADA

I very much enjoyed reading your article about BUY 1, the Coombs Mark II 3.8 [Getaway with you, January]. It brought back (mostly) happy memories.

As a boy I recall sitting in the cockpit of the Le Mans-winning D-type (possibly the 1956 car), which happened to be centrepiece at the Coombs showroom in Guildford. Its presence there would have been testimony to the prestige with which Coombs was held in Jaguar circles. This would have been in the years when we would attend the Easter Monday Goodwood meetings, often accompanied by the celebrated motoring cartoonist Russell Brockbank.

BUY 1 – Coombs in Guildford, such as Tony Gomis’s

The registration reads BUY 1 – and many did from Coombs in Guildford, such as Tony Gomis’s dad

Coombs Jags invariably featured in the saloon car races, which would have encouraged my father to buy first a 3.4 and then a 3.8 from Coombs. I doubt that they had any of the special tweaks mentioned in your article, but they were ‘sufficiently fast’, although not always entirely reliable.

I remember a rear spring breaking as we set out from home for a summer trip to Spain. Inevitably we missed our ferry. I can only assume that, to preserve the engine from serious damage, the ignition had to be substantially retarded to cope with the low-octane Spanish fuel. On another occasion my father experienced complete brake failure, fortunately without consequences.

One fine day the 3.8 ‘disappeared’ from Godalming station car park. True to form it had been nicked by bank robbers. It eventually turned up worse for wear. It wasn’t replaced by a further Coombs car.

Tony Gomis, LONDON

A few words of thanks to Doug Nye for everything he’s written this year. Increasingly, this early-50-something gravitates to his column when each issue lands for the wit, depth of insight and revealing perspective that a ‘look back’ provides – both as subject matter that’s simply interesting in itself, as well as how past mistakes and successes can be applied and learned from (or not…) in the context of modern motor sport.

Long may his writing continue! All the best to all at Motor Sport and thanks for another year of great work.

Hugo Brailsford, via email

18-20 Rosemont Road, London, NW3 6NE email: [email protected]

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