Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2025 i Motor Sport Magazine

It’s going to be hard to miss Formula 1’s celebrations this year. Twenty twenty-five marks the 75th anniversary of the World Drivers’ Championship (as distinct from Formula 1 itself which was created four years earlier, as readers regularly remind us) and it will be doing so with all the glitz and hyperbole you would expect. A taster of the tone was seen at the launch of the season itself which took place at London’s O2 Arena at the end of February and you can read James Elson’s report from behind the velvet rope on page 57. Such an extravaganza may divide opinion but certainly it presented an image to the world of a sport fizzing with energy, ideas and humour. Understated it was not, but we must accept that F1…

1 WEBBER’S ‘PODIUM’ (2002) A Minardi on the podium? Well, not exactly. But fifth place was a near-miracle for home hero Mark Webber on his Formula 1 debut. Protocol be damned: with the Italian team now under the control of salty Aussie Paul Stoddart, an impromptu and crowd-pleasing extra podium was allowed, just this once. Quite right too. “When we got to Melbourne we’d done precisely 17 laps of testing, because the thing was so unreliable,” Webber recalled. The performance did Webber wonders. He’d land a Jaguar drive for 2003. 2 VILLENEUVE’S AMAZING DEBUT (1996) New race, new F1 hero. At the first Albert Park GP, Williams debutant Jacques Villeneuve proved a chip off the old block and nearly embarrassed Damon Hill. From a sensational pole, Gilles’s boy led, lost…

US sports car racing went through its own ‘split’ starting in 1999 that thankfully created far less-lasting damage than the CART/IRL IndyCar schism. Since the American Le Mans Series and Grand-Am merged under the IMSA banner in 2014, sports car’s popularity has been on an upwards trend, accelerating since John Doonan became IMSA president in 2019. Doonan and his team created the LMDh (Le Mans Daytona hybrid) platform that gives IMSA manufacturers and teams the ability to compete against the likes of Ferrari and Toyota and their bespoke Hypercars at the Le Mans 24 Hours and other FIA WEC events. The cost-effective LMDh formula has already attracted six manufacturers to the SportsCar Championship including Porsche, BMW, Cadillac and Honda (Acura); Genesis (Hyundai) and Ford have announced future participation. Eighteen carmakers…

BRIGHT SPARKS April 1967 We’re at Brands Hatch for the 1967 Race of Champions, although with no Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart or Graham Hill on the grid it’s short of champions. “However,” spots Jenks, “it was a race of Champion plugs; they were used by the first three drivers.” GRUB’S UP April 1981 An AA book listing 999 places to find a meal for less than a fiver gets a thumbs up. It includes Applejack in Ledbury run by former F1 driver Bob Evans. Over in the test section, editor Bill Boddy is on wintry roads in a Porsche 924 Turbo: “It justifies the term ‘thoroughbred’.” GET A GRIP April 2005 Sir Jackie recalls first meeting Jochen Rindt, who would become a great pal: “I remember thinking he didn’t walk…

email: editorial@motorsportmagazine.com Chris Harris’s appreciation article of Luca di Montezemolo in the 2025 March issue [The Luca I know] brought back a happy memory. Fifty years ago, I set off for Silverstone to attend the 1975 F1 Daily Express Trophy meeting. I sidled my way through one of the lesser pit garages and into the pitlane, then moved carefully towards the Ferrari pit. Positioning myself against the wall I was able to take photos and caught Lauda making a practice stop. When he looked me straight in the eye, I panicked slightly, especially as Luca di Montezemolo was running to greet and debrief Lauda and I suspected I was about to be ejected from the pitlane. No such thing. The Ferrari principal nodded at me to acknowledge my presence and…

McLaren MCL39 The next step beckons, to win a drivers’ title for the first time since 2008 LANDO NORRIS Car No 4 Wins 4 Poles 9 Starts 128 2024 position 2nd Aim in 2025 Simple. Win the world championship (and keep team-mate at bay) OSCAR PIASTRI Car No 81 Wins 2 Best grid position 2 Starts 46 2024 position 4th Aim in 2025 Win the internal war and build a genuine title campaign Ferrari SF-25 Time to win a first championship since 2008. Preferably both of them CHARLES LECLERC Car No 16 Wins 8 Poles 26 Starts 147 2024 position 3rd Aim in 2025 Lead Ferrari’s title charge and win it. Put team-mate in his place LEWIS HAMILTON Car No 44  Wins 105 Poles 104 Starts 356 2024 position 7th Aim in 2025…

It’s a hot Thursday in late 1985, and the sleepy city of Adelaide is about to be changed forever. Nineteen eighty world champion Alan Jones, only the second Australian to win a Formula 1 driver’s title, is given the honour of completing the very first F1 lap of the brand-new Adelaide Street Circuit in his Lola-Hart THL1. Some 40 years later, on the eve of the 2025 F1 season opener in Melbourne, stars of the Adelaide era will gather 500 miles away at the annual Adelaide Motorsport Festival to celebrate one of the great street circuits. This year’s festival will see Jones reunited with that very same Lola-Hart, and he’ll be joined by past winners Damon Hill, Thierry Boutsen, Stefan Johansson and David Brabham – the only other Australian to…

Nick Tandy had carried a very special target around with him for a while. Yet as the opening exchanges of the Daytona 24 Hours in January unfolded, it didn’t appear that he was going to hit his mark this time. “We looked horrendous!” reckoned the Porsche stalwart. Yet just under a day later, he was celebrating his first outright victory in the early season Florida enduro. And with it a unique motor sport record. The Brit became the first driver to win all four of the major 24-hour enduros around the globe. That’s win them outright. He added victory in the opening round of this year’s IMSA SportsCar Championship to his triumphs at Le Mans in 2015, the Nürburgring in 2018 and Spa in 2020, all notched up at the…

Even when McLaren and Williams were vying for which could dominate F1 back in the 1990s, Williams was a less structured place, much more of an artisan workshop than the shiny, super-organised scientific and technical powerhouse of McLaren. Back then, an F1 team was small enough that a strong technical director such as Patrick Head at Williams could still wrap their arms around the whole project. But the size and resource of a top F1 team was becoming bigger and McLaren’s Ron Dennis had led that transition. It was up to the others to keep up – and Williams failed to do so. For as long as Williams had the creative force of Adrian Newey on board, it had been able to balance the scales to McLaren’s greater resource and…

That looks lively. It certainly does. Just when you thought Renault had gone all sensible, it rolls out something that looks like this. We guess there’s only so many humdrum MPVs a French engineer can take. Plus, let’s not forget Renault has a history of creating bizarre things, such as cramming a V6 into the middle of a Clio, or a 3.5-litre V10 F1 engine into an Espace. So, it’s a Renault 5? Well, that’s what Renault says, but certainly not as we know it. The original Renault 5 emerged in 1972 and was really the car that put the marque on the map. King of them all was the mid-engined 5 GT Turbo, which became a hot hatch icon in the mid-1980s. So, when Renault relaunched the 5 as…

ABU DHABI, JANUARY 15-19 First stop in 2025: Yas Marina, coaching and racing with Ben Curry in a Radical SR3 in the UAE Gulf Radical Cup. I race in America with Ben in a Porsche Cup car, but we are after some winter training and chasing signatures so Ben can upgrade his race licence with the Le Mans Classic in mind. We rented the car from Dream Racing. It was my first time at Yas Marina – a remarkable facility and way better as a circuit than I expected. PORTIMÃO, JANUARY 21-22 Flew back to Heathrow on Monday, wife Nikki picked me up, then we headed to Gatwick to fly to Portimão for two days of coaching and testing with John Emberson in his SR3. The Radical helps John get…

There was perhaps more than a hint of wannabe reality television ‘star’ about Lewis Hamilton’s tailored style in his first on-site public appearance with Ferrari on January 20. Immaculately suited, dark overcoat draped somewhat sinisterly over his shoulders, he certainly looked the part. Quite of what, perhaps, remains debatable. But motor racing prowess depends upon so much more than superficial appearance. As the eight-time – so far as I am concerned – World Champion driver makes his Ferrari debut, I instinctively wish him well. Those press photos taken in what is apparently now known as the Piazza Michael Schumacher before the former farmhouse at Fiorano will either feature in some future celebration of a great conclusion to Hamilton’s stupendous career, or in memory of a sadly disappointing swansong. Declaring a…

In seven years of the Precision page, never before have we highlighted a watch that isn’t linked to cars or driving – so bringing news of this latest launch from Patek Philippe is groundbreaking. But the first new watch range to be launched in 25 years by the company that many regard as being the best in the business is worth a mention. So here is the Cubitus. As followers of the watch market will know, the Cubitus first saw light of day back in October when it was revealed – several days before the official launch – through Fortune magazine in a prematurely published advert. The case shape seemed so unlike any Patek that had gone before that this bolting-horse scenario caused a flurry of comment among the quick-to-criticise…

I don’t think there could be a greater expression of confidence in the brand than this. A very broad rule of thumb is that in most premium car ranges the top-dog model will cost approximately twice what you’d pay for the entry level car which, of course, in no way reflects their relative cost of manufacture. But the ‘First Edition’ of this new Defender OCTA costs over £160,000, an entire six-figure sum more than the base car. But here’s the thing. They’re all sold, so if you want an OCTA it’ll have to be the standard £145,000 version, which means you’ll miss out on the chopped carbon fibre interior trim. So what, exactly, is going on here? The quickest and easiest way to understand what this car is, is to try…

What’s the most intriguing question hanging over the 2025 season? Lewis Hamilton’s fortunes at Ferrari, perhaps? Forty years old as he joins the sport’s highest-profile team and off the back of a season in which he was, for the first time in his long career, outperformed by a teammate. Paired now with Charles Leclerc, a man with a reputation as perhaps the fastest of all over one lap and 13 years Hamilton’s junior. But this is Lewis Hamilton and this is Ferrari. Magic can happen. But will it? Or is the bigger intrigue whether Red Bull can prosper despite the loss of Adrian Newey and bounce back after a distinctly sketchy second half of the ’24 season? And if not, what will that mean about the partnership with Max Verstappen?…

1 Australia Albert Park, Melbourne/March 14-16 Back in its rightful place as season opener. Carlos Sainz will not be expecting a repeat of his 2024 win. 2 China Shanghai/March 21-23 Includes first sprint race of the year. Max Verstappen won on Saturday and Sunday last time. 3 Japan Suzuka/April 4-6 Historically, a Verstappen stronghold. He’s won the past three at one of the great circuits. 4 Bahrain Sakhir/April 11-13 Relegated from season opener. But still hosts the pre-season tests at the end of February. 5 Saudi Arabia Jeddah Corniche/April 18-20 Scene of Ollie Bearman’s super-sub Ferrari debut last time. But what can he do in a Haas? 6 Miami Miami, US/May 2-4 Where it all turned for Lando Norris and McLaren in 2024. Includes a sprint race once again. 7…

Rouen-les-Essarts was one of the finest circuits in Europe at one time, both feared and revered by drivers for the challenges it posed. The track, established at Orival near the medieval city of Rouen in 1950, had many different configurations and hosted the French Grand Prix five times before it closed in 1993. In the summer of 1962 Dan Gurney famously gave Porsche its first and only grand prix victory there. Juan Manuel Fangio’s victory in 1957, when he beat the Ferraris in his Maserati, was described in reports at the time as a “driving lesson” and one of his greatest days. Using public roads, this was originally a triangular street circuit covering just over three miles and then, in 1955, it was extended by more than a mile and…

in association with thesignaturestore.co.uk SCALEXTRIC FORD CAPRI Everybody’s favourite slot-car maker has a new range of classic vehicles to ram around your living room. While you can take your pick from a Brabham BT46, Lotus 79 or Ford Mustang, our pick is this 1980s Graham ‘Skid’ Scarborough Capri. £56.99, available at the Motor Sport Shop LEGO TECHNIC WALL MOUNTS Few things beat the feeling of finishing one of Lego’s monster Technic sets (they’re not for kids, you know…) but we’re constantly faced with the issue of where we place them after completion. Wicked Brick has you covered with a range of themed wall mounts. From £34.99 CHILDREN’S F1 BOOK If you have youngsters just getting into F1 this is the perfect book to turbo charge their interest. Written by Motor…

“Life without sideways is monotonous.” So goes the motto of off-road legend Ari Vatanen, a driver who might as well have had headlights in the side doors – such was his approach to cornering. Forty years have passed since the spectacular Finn’s final WRC win, scored in the winter wonderland of the 1985 Rally Sweden. At that point in his career, it seemed the affable Peugeot driver could do no wrong, Sweden representing his fifth world rally victory in a row. A few months later Vatanen suffered a near fatal crash in Argentina, putting him out of action for two years. His long road to recovery eventually culminated in a stunning string of Paris-Dakar victories from 1987 to 1991 (if you exclude 1988 when his Pug 405 was nicked and…

Neon signs flicker as young fans gaze up at the enlarged posters of Lewis Hamilton, Lando Norris and Max Verstappen. There’s a sharp chill in the air but for thousands of F1 diehards, there’s nowhere they’d rather be. Attending the championship’s first event of its type, they’re desperate to get a glimpse of their heroes and the racing cars’ new liveries, all packaged up in one glitzy show at London’s O2: F1 75. Celebrating 75 years of the world championship, each team is given a seven-minute slot to show off their new car colour-scheme, do some brand promotion and give sponsors their money’s worth. There will be live music too at the 15,000-capacity event; it’s all a long way from taking the covers off a new car in the Silverstone…

Every team sport has its clash of the titans; Springboks vs All Blacks in rugby, England against Australia for The Ashes, the eternal footballing rivalry of Real Madrid and Barcelona. In Formula 1, McLaren and Ferrari have waged war for half a century, on and off, producing some of the most dramatic, antagonistic and controversial battles in grand prix history. In 2025, a thrilling new chapter should be added. Last year was the 14th time the duo ended the season as the top two points scorers in the constructors’ championship, with honours split at 7-7. Today’s Ferrari is very different to the one that dominated in the Jean Todt/Michael Schumacher era, and is worlds apart from the team Enzo Ferrari directed from afar. McLaren, too, is a profoundly different beast,…

10 Fangio Five-time world champion who set the benchmark for the professional F1 driver “He was the greatest of them all,” said Stirling Moss. Who are we to argue? Especially with another who could also have made this list. When ‘The Boy’ joined ‘The Maestro’ at Mercedes for 1955, he had no fears about going up against the best. He craved the comparison, he wanted to know: what was it about the great man? “The art of driving a racing car is keeping it balanced,” said Moss decades later. “Acceleration, steering and braking are all inclined to unbalance a car but Fangio could somehow go closer to the edge of disaster than anyone else because of his feel.” Moss found out firsthand over a season of one-team domination, and it…

This is as much a tale of two people as two cars, and despite the images on these pages, neither of them is called Bentley. If two cars ever came to represent more accurately the characters of their creators, I know not what they are. Both are famous but one is a legend. He is Sir Henry ‘Tim’ Birkin, a man who won the Le Mans 24 Hours just twice, and only once in a Bentley. The other man’s record at Le Mans – played three, won three – remains unapproached to this day. He was Woolf ‘Babe’ Barnato. Tim Birkin was not a heavyweight boxer, scratch golfer, powerboat racer or Surrey wicketkeeper and Barnato was all of the above and more. But then Barnato never wrote an autobiography, let…

● Although the heart of double F1 world champion EMERSON FITTIPALDI belongs to the Lotus 72, he was no slouch in this 1971 LOTUS 69, below right, which he raced in F2 for two seasons. Emmo’s nine wins with this 69 makes it Lotus’s most successful F2 car ever. Once again it’s in the eye-catching 1971 Team Bardahl livery – and on sale at MITCHELL CURATED in Cheltenham, £POA. ● Nazi salute? Exuberant Roman gesture? It appears that ELON MUSK’s controversial posturing is having an effect on TESLA sales in the UK, according to a survey by Electrifying.com – a website aimed at EV buyers and owners. From 1000 responses, 60% said that the billionaire CEO was putting them off buying a Tesla. In 2024, its sales fell for the…