Indice dei contenuti per October 2025 in AUTOSPORT

That Oscar Piastri has become a frontrunner in Formula 1 is not a surprise. A brilliant junior career and flashes of his potential in 2023 showed that he could become the formidable championship challenger we are seeing in 2025. But the cool Australian is not always easy to read. Come success or failure, his demeanour remains largely the same. So what is he really thinking? We decided to find out, and McLaren obliged by allowing Jake Boxall-Legge to head to Woking to interview the 24-year-old for this issue. Piastri talks about his own development, rivalry with Lando Norris and his attitude to the title contest from page 22. Following his seventh win of 2025 and Norris’s late failure at Zandvoort (p12), Piastri is surely now well placed to follow Jack…

If, say, I was to ask which of the two Alpine drivers has the yellow T-cam, would you know what I was talking about, never mind firing off the answer as soon as one of the blue cars comes into view? In the grand scheme of user-friendly Formula 1, you’re supposed to use the flash of neon yellow on the camera cover as a means of instantly deciding who the driver is. In truth, you don’t have much choice. The driver’s number, lost in a swirl of corporate colour, is difficult to find when the car is stationary, never mind when passing at speed. And don’t dare suggest having the drivers’ names in block capitals and stuck somewhere useful – like on the sides of the cars they’re sitting in.…

Newly crowned 2025 IndyCar champion Alex Palou and his Chip Ganassi Racing crew leave no doubt as to the number of titles he’s now racked up at the pinnacle of American open-wheel racing, after finishing third in Portland. “It’s crazy,” Palou enthused. “I couldn’t be happier right now. This has been an amazing season. I can’t believe I’m a four-time IndyCar champion. I’m going to enjoy every single second of it.” Chip Ganassi added: “I’ve never seen a guy work so diligently at his craft. I said in the beginning of the year we’re just scratching the surface of his talent.” See Opinion, page 81. Photographer Michael L Levitt/Lumen/Getty Images Where Portland, Oregon, USA When Sunday 10 August 2025…

The Formula E silly season was in full swing as we went to press. Nick Cassidy’s move to the Stellantis fold (see p92) means he will line up at what looks set to be a team rebranded from Maserati to Citroen alongside two-time champion Jean-Eric Vergne. Vergne has hopped over from DS Penske, where he is set to be replaced by star 2024-25 rookie Taylor Barnard, who was out of a drive following the closing of the McLaren team. The young Brit is expected to partner Maximilian Guenther, who stays on at the team. The big speculation at Porsche is that Antonio Felix da Costa has jumped ship amid a testy relationship with favoured son Pascal Wehrlein, and that the amiable Portuguese will replace Cassidy at Jaguar. Andretti driver Nico…

Formula E star Nick Cassidy will race for Peugeot in next year’s World Endurance Championship. But the move shouldn’t be regarded as a switch of motor racing codes for the New Zealander. Rather, it’s an expansion of his programme. The 31-year-old’s deal with the French manufacturer is set to be part of a wider one with its parent company, Stellantis. Expect him to turn out with the team hitherto known as Maserati MSG Racing in FE in 2025-26. Cassidy was confirmed by Peugeot at the start of September, more than a month on from a cryptic Instagram exchange between the manufacturer and driver. It invited him to a test at Austin in September and to discuss plans for the future in the immediate aftermath of the announcement that he had…

10 2020 LE MANS 24 HOURS ASTON ‘BRAKES’ FERRARI’S CHALLENGE This one was Aston Martin versus Ferrari all the way, first two of the Italian cars going at it hammer and tongs with the British machine for GTE Pro honours. And then just the one. From the moment it became a two-horse race less than a third of the way through, there were no fewer than 27 lead changes. The Prodrive-run Aston Martin Vantage GTE shared by Alex Lynn, Maxime Martin and Harry Tincknell ultimately prevailed in a race that turned on what happened in the pits. Or rather didn’t. The factory AF Corse-run Ferrari 488 GTE shared by James Calado, Alessandro Pier Guidi and Daniel Serra changed brakes in hour 18. The Italian manufacturer was waiting for the Aston…

The Caterham Graduates Racing Club will join forces with the British Racing & Sports Car Club next season, having previously run under the wing of the British Automobile Racing Club since its formation in 1998. The new tie-up follows the CGRC’s Sigma 135 and Sigma 150 divisions making a guest appearance at a BRSCC event on the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit in May. The move means the CGRC will no longer be in the same stable as the factory-backed Caterham championships, which joined the BARC portfolio in 2023. CGRC chairman Matthew Willoughby stressed “we have retained a good relationship with BARC” and “are extremely grateful for their support over the past 25 years”. “We are determined to leave the BARC on a high, while viewing 2026 as a fresh start,”…

Anglo-American Formula Junior driver Horatio Fitz-Simon will race a Tojeiro Bristolin the Freddie March Memorial race at the Goodwood Revival. Fitz-Simon will complete a family circle by driving the 1950s car, raced in period by Chris Threlfall, at this weekend’s event as his father owned the first car built by John Tojeiro. “I’m racing it for the owner, and it’s the first time I will have driven it,” said Fitz-Simon. “My father owned the first Tojeiro, chassis 1, about 20 years ago in California, so it’s rather special.” Fitz-Simon will then stay in Europe to compete in the Formula Junior races at Spa at the end of September. At the recent Silverstone Festival Fitz-Simon finally achieved his ambition of winning a Formula Junior race at the event. Previous attempts had…

Amateur motor racing is peppered with unsung heroes, weekend warriors who put their heart and soul into competing for the fun of it. While some never tire of the fanfare of hollow victories in cars of wildly disproportionate performance to those of their rivals, the concept of pot hunting is anathema to Mick Harris, whose success has always been crafted in sheds, then on level playing fields. Perhaps British club motorsport’s quietest achiever, Harris, 70, started racing in the 750 Formula championship 50 years ago and has won it a phenomenal 10 times. As an inestimable bonus he met his fellow adrenaline-junkie racer wife Sue along the way, teaming up to become Im ‘n’ Er Racing after she crashed her Darvi 597 heavily at Snetterton in 2001. Having racked up…

GRID TO GLORY – 75 MILESTONE FORMULA ONE MOMENTS mombooks.com RRP £20 Alex Jacques makes us all feel old in his introduction to this book when he describes watching his first grand prix at the age of nine – it was Spa 1998. But the F1 TV commentator tackles all the world championship’s inflection points with verve and authority in this witty and fast-pacing book. He even makes the interminable subject of when Formula A become Formula 1 interesting, which is quite a feat. ULTIMATE FORD GT40 VOLUME 2 porterpress.co.uk RRP £325 Shore up your coffee table and sort out that overdraft because the second of three volumes chronicling the history of this seminal race car has arrived, and it’s a heavyweight. Written by John S Allen, Graham Endeacott, Mark…

1997 McLAREN F1 GTR ‘LONGTAIL’ The McLaren F1 GTR is the last Le Mans winner genuinely based on a road-car design, scoring success on its 24 Hours debut in 1995. GT racing was just taking off again and, by 1997, Porsche and Mercedes had raised the stakes. McLaren’s answer was the ‘Longtail’, which produced more downforce and had a sequential gearbox. One of 10, chassis 027R was sold to Parabolica Motorsport and won first time out in the British GT Championship at Silverstone in April 1997. As well as appearing in British GT and the FIA GT Championship, the car also ran at Le Mans under the Team Lark banner, driven by Akihiko Nakaya, Keiichi Tsuchiya and Gary Ayles, but Nakaya crashed out. Raced briefly in British GT by AM…

Champions celebration Renowned motorsport snapper Jakob Ebrey took this fine shot of the Silverstone Festival’s World Champions Collection, featuring 34 cars (and a bike) representing 33 of the title winners since 1950. “I’m really lucky having been tasked with arranging a lot of group images before, but this was a display like no other,” said Ebrey. “It even included the MV Agusta of my hero John Surtees. I’d dread to think about the cost of the collection! The biggest shock for me was the size difference of the cars over the eras.” Which one is your favourite? Photographer JEP/Silverstone Festival Where Silverstone, Northants, UK When Thursday 21 August 2025 Details Canon EOS R3 RF14-35mm lens, 1/100th @F8 Ferrari’s turn for the worse Charles Leclerc’s wrecked Ferrari SF-25 sits forlornly next…

George Russell, who is set to re-sign with Mercedes when protracted contract talks come to a close, says that his seat at the team was scarcely in doubt amid rumours linking Max Verstappen to a shock arrival. Russell has instead revealed that Andrea Kimi Antonelli might have been the driver to make way had the Dutchman left Red Bull. Both Mercedes drivers’ contracts expire at the end of this year although, in any case, each is managed by team boss Toto Wolff and Mercedes. Following a summer during which Russell wanted to pause contract talks and pick them up in the new year, he spoke of the progress being made to keep him at Mercedes in the time since. Asked if his seat was ever in doubt from Verstappen, Russell…

“We were in a mess because we were short-termist all the way through the last 20 years” “The car, if I had to, I would have moved it from the wind tunnel myself,” said Williams team principal James Vowles of his 2025 contender back in April. The season was but four races old, not even a quarter complete, and yet here was a leader in effect announcing that his team was the first to end development of its current car to prioritise resource on addressing the wide-reaching changes coming next year. This was reported as news, of course, because it was significant. But it was also not news. Vowles told Autosport last October that he was prepared to “compromise” 2025 in order to maximise the opportunities presented by the next…

SOUTH AFRICAN GP East London 1 January 1st (pole and fastest lap) From pole, Clark celebrates the New Year and his recovery from a back injury – the result of a snowball fight in Italy! – by leading all 85 laps. He clocks the circuit’s first 100mph race lap and wins by 29 seconds. He is shown the chequered flag a lap too soon and, after a quick confab with Colin Chapman, completes a banker lap in his Lotus-Climax 33. NEW ZEALAND GP Pukekohe 9 January Retired His one-off Lotus 32B – a Formula 2 monocoque adapted to accept a 2.5-litre Climax ‘four’ held within a spaceframe – wins the Preliminary 12-lap heat. His GP, however, ends on its second lap when his rear suspension is knocked awry by Bruce…

HOCKENHEIM OLEG KARPOV We all sometimes wish for things to happen – even knowing they never will, right? But if Stefano Domenicali somehow managed to hold on to my phone number and call to ask, “Hey, man, we’ve got one free spot on the calendar – which track do you think we need to bring back?”, I’d be like, “The old Hockenheim”. But even if he had that eureka moment, realising how brilliant the idea is, he still wouldn’t be able to fight the Baden-Wurttemberg government to cut down the trees again. He’d eventually give up, stuck in German bureaucracy. Yet he’d probably agree on at least one point: F1 needs tracks with character. And what a character the old Hockenheim was! The twisty stadium section and those four long…

Alex Palou’s quest to match or exceed the record number of race wins in an IndyCar season fell short as he ‘only’ finished third, second and second in the final three races of 2025. But it still added up to a fourth series championship in five years for the 28-year-old Spaniard, this one achieved in crushing fashion with eight wins and five further podiums from 17 starts. It was the most dominant performance in Indycar racing since 1998, when Alex Zanardi won seven times in the CART series and added eight more top-threes. Palou amassed 711 points, a record under the current scoring system, with a 196-point margin over runner-up Pato O’Ward. With questions about his future after 17 years with Team Penske dominating end-of-year chatter, Will Power claimed his…

One driver who is certainly in the mix in the unpredictable IndyCar silly season is Dennis Hauger, who clinched the Indy NXT title with a second place on the Milwaukee Mile oval in late-August. The 22-year-old Norwegian beat Jack Doohan to the 2021 Formula 3 crown, but never quite took off in Formula 2 to the extent expected of him, with five race wins over three seasons from 2022-24. He hopped over the Pond to sign up with Andretti Global for his first campaign in North America this year, and six race wins – including last month at Portland – has been the result. In his second year in NXT with HMD Motorsports, Brazilian Caio Collet – like Hauger a former competitor in the European single-seater scene – ended up…

In a well-drilled driver swap for DXDT Racing, Robert Wickens is carried to the team’s Corvette Z06 GT3.R as Alec Udell makes his exit during August’s IMSA GT Challenge round at Virginia International Raceway. You can catch up with paraplegic racer Wickens’s return to top-level motorsport following his catastrophic 2018 Pocono IndyCar crash in the series Robert Wickens: The Next Lap. Episodes one and two are available on Autosport’s YouTube channel, with the next due to appear in late September. Photographer Brandon Badraoui/Lumen/Getty Images Where Alton, Virginia, USA When Sunday 24 August 2025 Details Nikon Z9 NIKKOR Z 14-30mm lens, 1/1250th @F4…

BMW’s M Hybrid V8 LMDh will have a new look for next year. A significant reduction in the size of the German manufacturer’s signature ‘kidney’ grille air intakes are part of an aerodynamic update for the World Endurance Championship and IMSA SportsCar Championship challenger. There are new headlights, too! The changes are designed to improve the consistency of the car’s performance across the range of circuits on which it races and to improve cooling efficiency. The aero revisions for 2026 follow the use of one evo joker performance upgrade for this season to optimise the braking system. The latest changes are also believed to have been made under the evo joker rules. “After optimising the brakes for the current season, it is now time for an aerodynamically improved version of…

Rally Paraguay proved frustrating for Ott Tanak and Martin Jarveoja. They managed to fight back from a slow start to challenge for victory before a puncture dropped the car down the order. Having worked his way back to the podium fight on Sunday, a second puncture hit Tanak. He ended the rally with a wounded i20 N in fifth, which became fourth when Hyundai opted to retire team-mate Adrien Fourmaux for tactical reasons (see overleaf). Photography McKlein Photography/LAT Images/Getty Images Where Itapua, Paraguay When Saturday 30 August 2025 Details Nikon Z8 NIKKOR Z 100-400mm lens, 1/1250th @F5.6…

Racing Hondas has revealed an S2000 machine that has been developed in partnership with sponsor Tegiwa and will form the basis of a new class in the championship next season. It is estimated that the S2000R can be constructed for around £16,000, including the cost of a donor car. The rear-wheel-drive S2000R produces around 240bhp and features a sizeable rear wing and front splitter. Initially, the cars will be eligible for Class B of the Club Time Attack-administered series and a development car will run for the rest of this year before a special S2000 Cup is launched in 2026. The final specification will be determined based upon how the prototype S2000R performs. Tegiwa has also offered a further incentive for those considering entering the contest as the first three…

VSCC LIGHT CAR RACE IS HEAVY ON ACTION A sensational Light Car Race lead duel between William and Harry Irving (1924 1100cc Senechal T52, far left) and Harry Colledge/Eddie Williams (1929 Austin 7 Chummy) was a highlight of the Vintage Sports-Car Club’s visit to Mallory Park. The French cyclecar ultimately prevailed by 2.63 seconds after the 40 minutes. Among the impressive 27-strong field was the terrifying looking 1914 Bedelia BD2 Tandem of William and Richard Marsh, which clocked a 3m09.71s (25.62mph) lap, against the winner’s 1m37.84s (49.67mph)! SPECIAL BIG CATS ON THE PROWL The Jaguar Heritage Trust celebrated the XJS’s 50th birthday with Jock Howe’s high-speed demonstration of the late Tom Walkinshaw’s 1984 European Touring Car titlewinning chassis at Brands Britannia last month. Joining the raucous V12 was another TWR…

On leaving school at 16, Wooburn Greenborn Mick Harris asked for a job with Jim Gleave’s Motor Racing Enterprises concern, which dealt in, ran and ultimately built its own cars, but was turned down as it did not take on apprentices. Instead, he started as a trainee mechanic in the workshop of Ford dealer Norman Reeves, which supported Escort racer Dave Brodie’s ‘Run Baby Run’ car. When his boss Alan Kitchen introduced Mick to a racer building a car in High Wycombe, the course of his life changed. Industrial chemist Dick Harvey was one of those clever men in sheds who, with brother Jon, fabricated chassis, created fibreglass bodies and built engines and gearboxes in a domestic lock-up garage, and garden outbuildings. “Dick taught me how to weld, to braze…

Ayrton Senna adjusts his visor exiting Casino Square en route to victory in the 1987 Monaco Grand Prix – the first of what would become a record six wins in the principality. He had qualified his Lotus behind polesitter Nigel Mansell’s Williams, and they ran in that order until the Briton was forced into retirement by a broken exhaust on lap 29 of 78, allowing Senna to take control to the flag. It was the first F1 win for a car with active suspension. The slow pace of Senna’s final lap gave some of his supporters in the crowd the conniptions, but he was merely taking it easy, enjoying the moment. Lotus team boss Peter Warr wasn’t concerned: “Problems? No, not that I know of. He never mentioned on the…

Lando Norris dominated through practice for McLaren, but it was his unflappable team-mate Oscar Piastri who peaked at the right point at Zandvoort. Piastri was fastest in just two timed sessions before the 2025 Dutch Grand Prix: Q1 and the most important one of all, Q3. Just 0.089 seconds separated them in second practice, but for the other two hour-long track sessions Norris had an advantage measured in tenths. In Q3 the gap was down to milliseconds again but Norris was on the wrong side, 0.012s away. The data traces paint a fascinating picture of their fastest Q3 laps, both set on their first runs. Over their best laps there was a delightful ebb and flow between the two drivers, Norris opening up a slight advantage by carrying more speed…

The Silverstone Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Award will not take place this year, ahead of a re-evaluation of the prestigious competition. The Award, which aims to find and assist the best up-and-coming British single-seater racing talent, began in 1989. The inaugural prize included a McLaren Formula 1 test, and was won by David Coulthard. Since then, the Award has given a boost up the ladder to many of Britain’s most successful drivers, including 2009 F1 world champion Jenson Button, three-time Indy 500 winner Dario Franchitti, 2014 World Endurance champion Anthony Davidson, and F1 stars Lando Norris and George Russell. With big plans to develop the contest, the stakeholders have agreed to a review ahead of the launch of a new-look Award. Le Mans winner and 146-time grand…

Several technical directors have described the 2026 Formula 1 rule changes as the biggest revolution in half a century, with both engine and chassis requirements undergoing a complete overhaul. On the power unit side, the MGU-H disappears, while the share of electrical power will increase significantly. With 350kW coming from the electrical components, the balance will be almost 50:50 between combustion and electric – although in reality, the ratio is expected to settle at roughly 55:45 in favour of the combustion engine. The powerplant rules were signed off first, because the FIA needed to provide certainty to encourage Audi’s long-awaited entry and to keep Honda on board. Only once that was secured did the governing body turn its attention to the chassis side. To make the new engine formula work,…

By April of 1982, Keke Rosberg must have wondered – but could never have guessed – what was coming next. Thrust from lowly Fittipaldi into a prime Williams seat as replacement for 1980 world champion Alan Jones, who had made a snap decision to walk away from Formula 1, life in a topline team was proving something of a soap opera for F1’s first Flying Finn. There had been the drivers’ strike he didn’t particularly agree with, at his first race for the team in South Africa; a maiden podium at his second in Rio, which was then stripped away by disqualification 29 days later; a subsequent boycott of the San Marino Grand Prix. Oh, and amid all of that his illustrious 12 GPs-winning team-mate had upped sticks and stalked…

The IndyCar season ended on 31 August, and Will Power claimed he still had no clue whether he had a future with Team Penske after 17 years, 64 poles, 41 wins and two championships. But his reflective words and defeated body language after a tough final race at Nashville spoke volumes, suggesting he already knew David Malukas is taking his seat. The Penske organisation has always been bad at optics, and its clumsy handling of Power’s situation is par for the course. The team finally went public on its split with the Australian two days after Nashville, and his chances of extending his long and successful American career with a top-line team looked slim until word started spreading that Colton Herta was considering competing in Formula 2 in 2026 to…

The new-for-2026 Genesis World Endurance Championship challenger is up and running – and the LMDh prototype appears to have made a flying start to the intensive development programme planned for the remainder of this year. Five days of running at Paul Ricard were completed in two chunks by the first GMR-001 Hypercar over the final weeks of August. The car racked up over 500 laps in the hands of Andre Lotterer and Pipo Derani, the first two signings by Genesis, equating to something in the region of 2000 miles. The first test over three days started on 19 August and, after a week in the Genesis Magma Racing workshops adjacent to the circuit, the GMR-001 returned to the track for another two days at the end of the month. This…

Sebastien Ogier boosted his bid for a record-equalling ninth World Rally Championship title with a stunning fightback from eighth to win the inaugural Rally Paraguay. Ogier and co-driver Vincent Landais bounced back from an early puncture for a fourth win of their partial 2025 campaign with Toyota on Paraguay’s unknown and unforgiving gravel stages, which provided plenty of drama. They sealed victory by 26.2 seconds after surviving a final stage rain shower. Toyota’s points leader Elfyn Evans and Hyundai’s reigning champion Thierry Neuville snatched second and third. Ogier’s hopes were dealt a blow by a right-rear puncture that cost around 40s, dropping him to eighth after stage two. Toyota’s early leader Kalle Rovanpera struggled for confidence and was overhauled by Adrien Fourmaux, the only Hyundai driver relatively happy with his…

Danny Morris upstaged the British marques in his Peugeot 309 Thundersaloon by winning the second Special Saloons and Modsports contest at Brands Britannia. “It has got a British engine,” he smiled sheepishly after his victory in the Cosworth-powered Spirit of RPM machine, competing, as always, in memory of his brother Ricky Parker-Morris. The series was celebrating the 50th birthday of ‘Baby Bertha’, Dealer Team Vauxhall’s Super Saloon synonymous with the late Gerry Marshall. Deputising for Joe Ward, Chris Conoley was twice fourth in the beast (third left). Photographer Gary Hawkins Where Brands Hatch, Kent, UK When Sunday 31 August 2025 Details Canon EOS R3 RF24-105mm lens, 1/640th @ F5…

Power Maxed Racing has rescued its British Touring Car Championship season after its West Midlands facility was razed to the ground in a fire. The popular underdog Independents team suffered the disaster on the Saturday before the mid-August Knockhill round. Its giant-killing Vauxhall Astras, equipment, tools plus TCR and older tin-top machinery were all destroyed in the blaze. Team principal Adam Weaver and right-hand man Martin Broadhurst began to call figures in the BTCC paddock to keep their season on track, with Mikey Doble having an Independents’ points lead to defend. They struck lucky with Cupra Leons from Un-Limited Motorsport, which was looking to downscale to two cars following Stephen Jelley’s Croft outing in place of Max Hall, and Roddy Patterson, father of Un-Limited racer Dexter who owns the car…

More details have been revealed about Motor Racing Legends’ new Generations Trophy that is due to begin next month. The concept behind the one-make MGB series was announced earlier this year (see August Autosport), with two generations of a family teaming up to tackle an hour-long enduro. This could be parents with children or aunts/uncles with nieces/nephews. MRL boss Shaun Lynn stated at the time there would be a sliding scale of pitstop penalties depending upon each pairing’s combined age and the exact details of this have now been confirmed for the inaugural 18-19 October Silverstone event. Crews with a cumulative age of over 100 years will serve two minutes in the pits during their stop, those with a total age of between 80-100 years will serve 2m15s, 60-79 years…

On a weekend when 75 years of the world championship for drivers was celebrated with a unique collection of cars, it was fitting that the Formula 1 races provided one of the highlights of the 2025 Silverstone Festival. Porsche Sprint Challenge frontrunner Tom Bradshaw raced Steve Hartley’s McLaren MP4/1 for the first time and took a brilliant double in the Masters Racing Legends contests for 1966-85 F1 cars. Bradshaw topped the 28-car field in qualifying with the ex-John Watson McLaren, 0.9 seconds ahead of Matthew Wrigley’s Tyrrell 011. While Wrigley was outfumbled at Village on the opening lap of race one by Stuart Hall (March 821), Bradshaw pulled clear. He lost a 9.5s lead when the safety car was called but remained in control over the one-lap restart. Hall held…

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