As preparation for the Monte Carlo Rally goes, heading for the Middle East to contest a 24-hour race is on the unconventional side. But the news announced shortly before Christmas that Kalle Rovanpera will make his endurance racing debut in next week's Dubai 24 Hours only underlines that he is indeed feeling "recharged" ahead of his full-time WRC return this year, following a partial campaign ... Keep readin
Ford, together with its long-time World Rally Championship partner M-Sport, has designed the new Raptor T1+ to take on the Dakar Rally. With a star-studded line-up including past winners Carlos Sainz Sr and Nani Roma, former Audi star Mattias Ekstrom and promising youngster Mitch Guthrie Jr, the American manufacturer is already seen as a favourite for the 47th edition of the worlds toughest ... Keep reading
The 2024 Formula 1 season may have come to a close, leaving fans jonesing for anything to satiate their racing fix. Luckily, throughout the sports 75-year history, passionate fans who happen to be in the filmmaking business have taken to telling these speed-driven stories through numerous movies, documentaries, docuseries, even YouTube content creators creating a deep back catalog of racing ... Keep reading
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has conceded the squad's previous dominance under Formula 1's ground-effect regulatory era masked "a lot of the issues" with its cars. The Milton Keynes-based outfit failed to hold onto its constructors' championship from 2023 as McLaren and Ferrari surpassed its points total across the season - the former triumphing after a showdown in Abu Dhabi's ... Kee
Oscar Piastri believes he has all the tools he needs to compete for the Formula 1 world championship but has conceded he now must deploy them all the time. Australian Piastri earned his first grand prix victories as part of the McLaren effort that saw the team clinch a first constructors championship since 1998. But the former F2 and F3 champion finished the year 82 points ... Keep reading
Sebastien Loeb says he is 'not obsessed' with winning the Dakar Rally after coming close to clinching the top prize on several occasions. One of the greatest rally drivers of all time with nine titles in the World Rally Championship, Loeb has found it hard to emulate the same success in the cross-country format. The Frenchman finished runner-up in the Dakar on three occasions and set a new ... Keep reading
2024 was the first season in Formula 1's 75-year history that didnt feature a single rookie. In what almost looks like an attempt to make up for that absence, a new crop of talented young drivers are set to refresh the sport and show the old guard what they can do. Six rookies, aged 18 to 22, will line up on the grid in Melbourne come March, all with varying degrees of pressure on their ... Keep reading
World Endurance Championship class race winners Sean Gelael and Darren Leung are moving from BMW to McLaren for a second LMGT3 campaign together in 2025. The duo, who won the Imola WEC round last April aboard a WRT BMW M4 GT3 shared with Augusto Farfus, will race a McLaren 720S GT3 Evo for United Autosports in the coming season. Gelael and Leung will respectively be the silver and ... Keep reading
Lewis Hamilton has outlined the new year as one of "embracing new opportunities" as he begins life as a Ferrari Formula 1 driver. The Briton ended his 12-year association with Mercedes - and a career-long affiliation with the German brand, which had been McLaren's engine supplier during his junior career and entry to the highest echelon of single-seater racing - to join the Scuderia for the ... Keep reading
Pol Espargaro was surprised to see how Marc Marquez was able to tame an increasingly difficult Honda MotoGP bike during their time as team-mates in 2021-22. Having played a major role in building KTMs MotoGP operation from scratch, Espargaro got the opportunity to race for the factory HRC team in 2021 alongside six-time champion Marquez. At that time, Marquez was still not fully fit after ... Keep reading
On the face of it, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff carefully downplaying expectations surrounding rookie driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli seems like a typical piece of off-season noise. Very little of it would provoke angry debate in the sanctified halls of the Oxford Union. If you expect him [Antonelli] to be on pole position in Melbourne, win the race and immediately compete for the ... Keep reading
Carlos Sainz Sr has conceded his chances of winning the Dakar Rally for a second year in a row and fifth time overall are "gone" after a disastrous Stage 2. The Spaniard endured a number of issues during the challenging 48-hour chrono stage, rolling his Ford Raptor on the first day of the test. Read Also: DakarDakar 2025, Stage 2: Al-Rajhi wins 48h test, Lategan takes lead and ... Keep reading
Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur has claimed the appearance of flexi-wings and the FIA's decision not to take a more hardline approach towards them played a crucial factor in 2024's Formula 1 constructors' championship. The Scuderia was one of two teams, along with Red Bull, who sought clarification from F1's governing body over the apparent use of flexing front wings by McLaren and ... Keep reading
Lewis Hamilton is set to make his Ferrari on-track debut in just two weeks time, Motorsport.com understands as the Scuderia makes the most of new, more restrictive FIA regulations surrounding private testing with older machinery. Up to last season, there was no limit on how much running was allowed with two- to four-year-old cars, even for regular race drivers; the rules were tweaked for ... Keep reading
George Russell believes his natural driving style has worked well with the current generation of Formula 1 cars and is another reason behind his excellent qualifying record in 2024. Russell ended the previous campaign with a 24-6 qualifying split against his now former Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton and also finished one place above the seven-time world champion in the drivers ... Keep reading
Alpine's decision to take Mercedes' Formula 1 gearbox for 2026 will give it "headroom" to develop elsewhere for the next series of regulations before building its own in 2027. Despite protestations from the personnel at the Renault Group's Viry-Chatillon powertrain headquarters, the decision was made to shutter the French manufacturer's 2026 engine project and assume a customer deal with ... Keep
Ford insists Carlos Sainz Sr still has all to play for in the 2025 Dakar Rally despite losing heaps of time in a crash during the 48-hour chrono stage on Sunday. Having just crossed the seventh checkpoint at the 325km mark, Sainzs Ford Raptor flipped over and landed on its roof over sand, leaving him stranded in the Saudi desert. His team-mate Mitch Guthrie Jr arrived on the scene soon ... Keep reading
There's no replacement for the real thing, and that goes double for F1. But the best Formula 1 coffee table books are more than just pretty ways to signal your love for the sport. Theyre an all-access paddock pass and a time machine. Theyoffer up rarely-seen snapshots and stories, forgotten lore and clarifying context. They let you get a little closer to a moment you remember or offer a ... Keep reading
Carlos Sainz Sr believes that tactics will be more important than ever in this years running of the Dakar Rally. After claiming his fourth victory in the iconic rally raid last year with Audi, the Spaniard has switched allegiances to Ford this term as the marque enters its new Raptor developed in collaboration with M-Sport. This year's event held in the Saudi Arabian dunes begins ... Keep reading
Front Row Motorsports (FRM) has put its recent triumph in court over NASCAR to good use, signing Zane Smith as the team's third driver for 2025. Last September, FRM and 23XI refused to sign the 2025 Charter Agreement, and instead filed a suit against NASCAR alleging monopolistic practices putting the teams in a precarious position. But on December 18th, Front Row Motorsports and 23XI Racing ... Keep reading
Factory Toyota driver Henk Lategan beat Ford rival Mattias Ekstrom to take victory in Prologue at the start of the 2025 Dakar Rally. The 47th edition of the world's biggest cross-country rally kicked off with a short 29km special in Bisha in south west region of Saudi Arabia, with a total of 64 cars lining up in the Ultimate category. While all eyes were on Ford and Dacia as they made their ... Keep reading
Seventy crews will tackle the 2025 World Rally Championship season opener in Monte Carlo following the release of the events entry list. Monte Carlo will kick off the expanded 14-round WRC season from 23-26 January with 10 entries representing the top Rally1 class for the asphalt curtain raiser. The entry list is headed by new world champion Thierry Neuville, who will pilot one of three ... Keep reading
McLaren Racing has confirmed sole ownership of Arrow McLaren IndyCar Team, which went into effect on December 31, 2024. The full acquisition by McLaren Racing comes after the final phase of its buyout from Sam Schmidt and Ric Peterson. The team that was originally run under the Schmidt-Peterson Motorsports banner was changed to Arrow McLaren SP in 2020, when McLaren bought a 75% stake in the ... Keep reading
In 2024, Jorge Martin became the first rider in the MotoGP era to win the title with a satellite team, beating the same-spec factory Ducati of Francesco Bagnaia. It was a feat not seen in the premier class since Valentino Rossi won the 500cc title with the Honda Europe-managed Nastro Azzurro team in 2001 and Eddie Lawson claimed top honours in 1989 on a Honda entered by the private Rothmans ... Keep reading
Alex Albon has warned Williams not to be relaxed for the 2025 Formula 1 season, despite not having to repeat painful 2024 efforts to improve critical car design and build processes. Williams started the 2024 campaign with its car significantly overweight to the extent it estimated it was losing up to 0.45-second a lap until it could replace parts with lighter components during its ... Keep reading