Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2025 i Motor Sport Magazine

Some champions are hard to like. Novak Djokovic is an astonishing athlete, but an acquired taste. Chris Froome in his pomp won the Tour de France four times but left many cold. They were, to reach for the commentators’ phrasebook, to be admired but not loved. You could have said – and many have – the same of Max Verstappen, the newly crowned four-time Formula 1 world champion, and until a few weeks ago I would have agreed with you. There was something machine-like in his clinical composure behind the wheel, the feeling that rather than relying on the flair and fire of some of his rivals he had instead acquired his undoubted superiority via a lifetime of cold-eyed practice. And then there were the circumstances of his 2021 title……

As street circuits go, Montjuich Park had everything: the climbs and hairpins of Monaco (and then some), with fast-flowing sections demanding inch-perfect precision. First used for car racing in 1933 when the word ‘safety’ translated only to closing the road, the track held four grands prix in the 1960s and ’70s but fell victim to its own intricacies at the 1975 Spanish GP when four bystanders died, struck by Rolf Stommelen’s flying Hill GH1. That catastrophe sealed the fate of this thrill ride circling the slopes of a hill surmounted by a 17th-century castle, weaving first through parkland, past the Olympic Stadium, into an urban backdrop and a sweeping curve past a lavish fountain and on up to the start/finish line, the nearest thing to a straight it offered. Those…

Hard to believe 20 years have passed since NASCAR stopped determining its Cup Series champion by the traditional means of collecting points throughout a full season. Matt Kenseth won the 2003 Cup title despite winning only one race in a year when Ryan Newman won eight times yet finished a distant sixth in the standings. NASCAR despised the notion that Kenseth claimed the crown by ‘points racing’ and in a knee-jerk reaction tried to create a system that would reward winning races. Limited to 10 drivers (later expanded to 12 and then 16), the so-called Chase for the Cup was controversial from the start, especially when NASCAR tweaked the format into elimination-style Playoffs in 2017. NASCAR’s efforts to inject motor sports with the kind of ‘walk-off’ moments occasionally found in…

Pre-race in Vegas, the expectation was unanimous: it would be a one-stop, just as it had been last year. Even Pirelli’s tyre selection of the softest combination in its range (C3/4/5) wasn’t expected to lead to the levels of thermal degradation or wear to require stopping twice. The corners are short and generally slow and the tyre-cooling back straight is the second-longest of the season. But the tyre challenge changed. Partly because track grip was even lower than in ’23, partly because it was even colder – and partly because Pirelli had increased the minimum pressure of the front to an unprecedented 29psi. This combination promoted graining – and caught almost everyone by surprise. The graining is triggered by the tread surface being hard and brittle, tearing off the edges…

A quarter of a century before Jean Todt oversaw Ferrari resurgence with Brawn, Byrne and Schumacher, Luca di Montezemolo set the template of how it should be done with Mauro Forghieri and Niki Lauda. The 312T series through the 1970s was Ferrari’s answer to the dominant British garagistes – that of course included Ecclestone’s Brabham. This one, the original high airbox T (for Transversale gearbox), inspired Lauda to his mid-decade pre-eminence. Chassis 022 won the French GP in his first championship season. Driven by both Lauda and Clay Regazzoni through 1975 and ’76, it was purchased by Ecclestone as recently as 2019. Runaway win for Ferrari, Paul Ricard, Castellet, July 6 The outcome of the French Grand Prix was made abundantly clear just before practice ended on Saturday afternoon when Niki…

By 2002, Ferrari’s axis of power – shaped by Rory Byrne, Ross Brawn and Michael Schumacher – had gone full supersonic. The F2002 was dominant – too much unless you were wearing red – as Schumacher clinched his third Ferrari title and equalled Juan Manuel Fangio’s tally of five at the French Grand Prix in July. This chassis is the winner of three GPs, with six podium finishes, and was driven by both Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello. It set the template for strangulating success in Formula 1 that both Mercedes and Red Bull would eventually follow. Taken from Simon Taylor’s Modern Times, Motor Sport, September & October 2002 We’re all fed up with Michael Schumacher monotonously winning F1 races: but it’s still quite something that he tied up the title…

Before Cooper, Lotus and the 1960s British ‘takeover’ of F1, there was Vanwall. Active as a racing entity for a few short years, Tony Vandervell’s ‘teardrop’ racers paved the way for everything that would follow. It’s fitting VW10 should reside in Ecclestone’s collection, particularly of course because of his relationship with Vanwall’s promising third driver of 1958, Stuart Lewis-Evans. This is the car Stirling Moss drove to victories in the 1958 Dutch, Portuguese and Moroccan GPs, yet still missed out on becoming world champion – in a season that changed his attitude to such trinkets. The last of this type built, it also took pole position at Monaco in Tony Brooks’ hands. The death of Lewis-Evans from injuries sustained in the Casablanca finale disconnected Ecclestone from motor racing for years.…

It was September 3, 1939, an inauspicious date for Europe and the world; the day on which Britain and France declared war on Nazi Germany after the invasion of Poland some 48 hours earlier. Yet on the streets of Belgrade – today the capital of Serbia, then of Yugoslavia – five drivers took to the grid to compete in the only grand prix during the Second World War. It is often referred to as The Forgotten Grand Prix, a curious footnote of motor sport history, but one that reminds us about the powers and interests that govern the sporting world. Dr Marko Miljkovic, a research assistant at the Institute of Economic Sciences in Belgrade and author of The Automobile is Freedom: The History of Automotive Culture in Serbia, 1903-2023, tells…

Lewis Hamilton’s last race for Mercedes after 84 grand prix victories and six world titles was a neat summation of his desultory last three seasons there. Quick in the practices at Abu Dhabi, he failed to get past the Q1 hurdle of qualifying after a bollard dislodged by a car in front of him became trapped under his car. He then staged a strong recovery to fourth in the race. There have been tantalising glimpses of vintage Hamilton – none more so than in his record-busting ninth British Grand Prix victory – but his season cannot be considered as anything other than deeply disappointing. At times he has clearly been bewildered at his qualifying pace deficit to team-mate George Russell. Hamilton himself added to speculation in Qatar with his mischievous…

Does the story of Ayrton Senna need to be mythologised any more? Apparently, according to a newly released Netflix biopic bearing his name, it does. Following the immense success of Drive to Survive and preceding 2025’s Brad Pitt F1 movie comes Senna – a fictionalised portrayal of Senna’s life from his early karting days right up until his death. The project has been driven by the late star’s family and the Brazilian studio Gullane. This has resulted in Senna having large passages in English, but even more in Portuguese, adding texture to the series. Beginning with what’s good about the production, the show is pretty immersive. At six episodes long, a huge amount of detail is covered, including his early Formula Ford and F3 days when he lived in Norfolk…

LETTER FROM EUROPE JUNE 1968 While I was returning from the Targa Florio I was cruising quietly up the Autostrada del Sol at 105mph, admiring the scenery around Orvieto, north of Rome, when I noticed a red car coming up fast in the mirror. It was a Porsche 911S, and right behind it was a white one. I went up to 125mph and they sat on my tail and I could see in the mirror that the leading one had Stuttgart number plates! We were running comfortably in convoy when suddenly a motor coach pulled out to overtake a Fiat 600. The driver had obviously not looked in his mirror, and unfortunately did not heed my flashing lights and stayed in the fast lane, even though he was quite a…

1 Max Verstappen Across the entire 2024 season, there’s really no doubt that Max Verstappen has been the stand-out driver. This was a very different campaign to his previous three titles. After a season of dominance in ’23, this year started well for Max with four wins in the first five races. From Miami, however, the competition caught up with Red Bull and the team seemed to lose its way in terms of development. This is where the Dutchman really earned his position at the top of the rankings and the world championship in my opinion. There were times when the Red Bull was the fourth-best car and while team-mate Sergio Pérez failed to get on the podium from Miami onwards, Max kept himself and the team in play with…

Created in short order after an outrageously late change to Formula 1’s aerodynamic regulations, Gordon Murray conjured his most beautiful creation – a contender for the most aesthetically pleasing racing car ever seen. Powered by BMW’s bombastic turbo four-pot, this is the chassis in which Nelson Piquet clinched the 1983 world championship. One of only two BT52Bs built, it was also the car Ayrton Senna tested at Paul Ricard after the completion of the 1983 season. It has never previously been offered for sale. A clean sweep by Brabham, Kyalami, Johannesburg, October Being the last race of the season there were a number of important things at stake, not least the destination of the 1983 World Drivers’ Championship and next year’s number 1. The real issue lay between Alain Prost…

‘Replica’ is too often considered a dirty word, but it isn’t when it comes to the beautifully engineered masterpieces created by Dick Crosthwaite and John Gardiner. Ecclestone’s Auto Union is an example, evoking the fabled era of the Nazi-supported Silver Arrows grand prix behemoths of the 1930s. Uncomfortable as it might seem when you step back and think about it, the sinister connection to the most devastating 20th century manifestation of humanity’s worst traits hasn’t dimmed our fascination in these awe-inspiring technical wonders. The sturm und drang sensual barrage – sight, sound, smell – on the rare occasions when collections of 1930s Mercedes and Auto Unions have run together at Goodwood transcend the awkward associations of what, in isolation from what the horrors they ultimately represented, was an astonishing era…

How do you turn a PR disaster into a winning strategy for the future of a racing series? Well, you could do worse than look at what the World Rallycross organisers have done over the course of 2024. Readers may remember the images that were splashed across the internet of the massive fire that ripped through Sébastien Loeb’s Special One team garage at the Lydden Hill round of the World RX in 2023. It destroyed virtually every team asset including both Lancia Delta Evo-e cars and their transporter. But the real damage was done to the reputation of the series. The previous year WRX had announced that it was switching to battery power – a move that chimed well with the imperative to create sustainable motor racing. However, the investigation…

● Regularly seen at VSCC events, this low-ride-height 1936 RILEY 12/4 ‘HARDIE SPECIAL’, inset right, owes its name to Frank Hardie, an employee at aircraft manufacturer de Havilland. The resourceful Frank used aircraft panels to create his lightweight racing car – it’s a paltry 740kg. In excellent mechanical order, it’s on sale at ASHRIDGE AUTOMOBILES, Billington, Leighton Buzzard: £57,000. ● Motoring business is clearly brisk at CLASSIC & SPORTSCAR CENTRE in Malton, North Yorkshire, which has had to set up NIGHT SHIFTS to cope with demand. “The catalyst for this was needing to keep up with the sales department,” CEO James Szkiler told us. “Four evening shifts per week really makes the difference in easing the pressure.” ● This brutish-looking 1999 ASTON MARTIN VANTAGE LE MANS, left, on sale at…

It says TWR, but that’s no Group C car? Correct! This TWR isn’t quite like the old TWR that created fire-breathing touring and sports cars under the stewardship of Tom Walkinshaw. This new iteration is run by Tom’s son Fergus Walkinshaw and aims to take the company name into a new era of engineering. This is the first car, the souped-up Supercat, a V12-powered reimagining of the Jaguar XJS. So, is it new or old then? A bit of both. TWR took a basic XJS, which it considered to be one of Jaguar’s more unloved models, and set out to create what the car could have been. So, while it’s based on an old chassis design, TWR has gone to town with the redesign. The chassis is restored and bolstered…

RALLY YORKSHIRE, September Here, I was in my own Hillman Avenger. We were 58th overall and third in the 1600cc class, with young journalist Ryan Standen co-driving. The poor lad, his baptism of fire for his first rally was Dalby Forest in the dark. To be fair, he held it all together – and it was me who stuck it on a bank for five minutes. My fault. HRDC SILVERSTONE, October I drove Austin ‘HMS’ Westminster, with a 3-litre Healey engine and overdrive, in the Jack Sears Trophy. It was an absolute treat stretching its legs on the Grand Prix track. It’s Ben Colburn’s car and he did the first stint because it’s always best that way to ensure the owner definitely gets to race. We finished 16th overall –…

Let’s talk about ageing. Not back pain and increasing levels of grumpiness, but rather: when does a collectible go so far beyond its peak that it’s just not desirable any more? We take in a lot of collections at The Signature Store. When we go through items we regularly find what was once a really desirable piece has fallen from grace through deterioration – especially if stored poorly or even changing fashions. Models are a great example. Original die-cast steel models were wonderful, but over time they can degrade, with paint cracking and plastic fading, and suddenly it’s no longer worth much. Also, as technology moves on, these models are often reissued and appear in much better quality than the original. In that case, who is going to pay for…

The Omega Speedmaster chronograph is well known as the ‘moon watch’ on account of its multiple outings beyond the Earth’s atmosphere as part of the equipment list of numerous astronauts. The Speedmaster’s inaugural trip into space was with astronaut Wally Schirra on the Mercury-Atlas 8 mission of October 1962, with its finest hour coming when Buzz Aldrin made it the first watch to be worn on the moon during the 1969 Apollo 11 expedition. Those events (and more) resulted in the Speedmaster being inextricably linked with space – making it easy to forget that it was designed for motorists. One of the first modern driver’s watches, it first appeared in 1957 with a black dial, luminous hands and a chunky 39mm case. “Our picture shows two sports car enthusiasts racing…

Recently, and in anticipation of the arrival of this very car, I found myself on a hillside with six generations that had gone before: the E28 original, the E34 that was current when I entered the industry, the E39 – the first V8 M-car, the nutty E60 – the first V10 M-car and the F10 and F90, the modern M-cars which, like this G90, featured different versions of the same twin turbo 4.4-litre V8. And, if you’re interested and to be brief, I thought the E28 charming but just a little too quaint, the E34 as fabulous now as it had been 36 years ago, the E39 the perfect blend of dynamic ability and long distance comfort, the E60 wildly overrated, the F10 considerably underrated and the F90 a really…

email: editorial@motorsportmagazine.com Motor racing has much for which to thank Bernie Ecclestone, although I wonder if even he sometimes regrets the hysteria and bling of today’s Formula 1 and the passing of a more sportsmanlike age. The old ringmaster may have retired but perhaps he could perform one last service to enthusiasts. Bernie is planning to sell off his collection of 69 racing cars [see page 76]. I cannot believe he needs to swell further his building society savings, despite a recent eye-watering demand from the taxman. Instead of flogging the cars to a variety of wealthy buyers around the world who will hide them away, could he not donate the collection as the foundation of a national motor racing museum? Alternatively, with the same aim in mind, he could…

The major controversy of the Qatar Grand Prix was Lando Norris being awarded a 10sec stop-go penalty for not lifting off in a yellow zone as he was chasing Max Verstappen’s race-leading Red Bull. The yellows were being shown part-way down the pitstraight for a piece of debris which had originally been Alex Albon’s wing mirror, inset, below. It had fallen off the Williams and come to rest off the racing line. Race control decided to deal with the incident by use of the yellow flag rather than a VSC or safety car. As Verstappen approached the yellows for the first time he briefly lifted but noticed afterwards that Norris had gained significantly on him. He radioed that the team should check to see if Norris had also lifted. Race…

So it’s finally happening. We always wondered when it might. Bernie Ecclestone is selling off his cherished and unspeakably precious grand prix and Formula 1 car collection – arguably the greatest such ever brought together and a living history of motor racing as well as a timeline of its owners’ passion for and involvement in motor sport. The news of the sale came on a Sunday evening in December, mischievously timed to coincide with the penultimate race of the current F1 season. But while the world’s media salivated over the supposed value of the collection (speculation varied wildly from £100m to £500m), Motor Sport was invited to visit the secure hanger in Biggin Hill to see the collection in the flesh – the only publication to merit the privilege. The…

I worked for Bernie Ecclestone at the Brabham Formula 1 team back in the 1980s and then in 1995 he asked me to look after his cars. The collection was quite different back then. There were cars all over the place, some of them at Donington, some were lent to other people, and my job was to bring them all together under one roof. He collected organically, his tastes would change, and over the years I looked after the cars he not only made some changes but also took on another collection which included wonderful front-engined Ferraris. My job as curator was to look after all the cars. We had 120 when I started, and it was always just me. I did everything apart from prepping a race car for…

Controversial? Yes, but only because it was so brilliantly clever. Gordon Murray’s marvel would have changed the game, which is why his boss – with one eye already trained on Formula 1’s bigger picture – diplomatically withdrew it after a single race. Colin Chapman’s ground-effect coup was left in the dust when Niki Lauda won the 1978 Swedish GP by more than half a minute. This is that chassis. It subsequently finished second at the British GP as a non-fan car, but today it’s presented in the spec Murray intended – and in running condition. Perhaps more than any car in the collection, we’re intrigued by what it will go for at its first sale. Brabham-Alfa Romeo win under a cloud, Anderstorp, June 17 The superiority of the Lotus 79…

At Motor Sport’s centenary gala in 2024, Formula 1’s most successful car designer, Adrian Newey, attributed the origins of his engineering genius to a 1:12-scale, build-it-yourself model of a Lotus 49, which was a Christmas gift in 1968. “The car had all the right details, moving suspension, the works,” he said. “But more importantly, I was suddenly able to put a name to all the bits and pieces I’d later see on the garage floor. The lessons it taught me were invaluable.” In the years since then, car modelling has become a gradually more niche and expensive pastime, with customers desiring a level of detail, inset, that can only be achieved by highly skilled artisans. But that is something that Pocher, a brand which built its first 1:8-scale model in 1966,…