Table of contents for Summer 2025 in AUTOSPORT

Welcome to a special issue celebrating 75 years of Autosport. As well as all the usual sections, from Formula 1 to the vibrant UK scene, we’ve added an extra element this month to look back at some of the designers, drivers, constructors and categories that have helped shape motorsport since Autosport first appeared as a weekly magazine on Friday 25 August 1950. Just like Autosport, the sport we love has changed a great deal in those 75 years, but the excitement and passion remains. There’s a common thread that links all the game-changers in this issue (from page 124), from Colin Chapman to Alan Gow, and that’s the enthusiasm to improve and push the boundaries to achieve better things than what has gone before. Not every development has been successful…

For someone in no real mood to discuss the penalty that had cost him victory at the British Grand Prix, Oscar Piastri nonetheless composed himself before making a few pointed barbs when it came to the stewards’ view of his restart approach. And, as much as Lando Norris can be credited for converting the colossal opportunity that plopped into his lap, he’d been trailing his McLaren team-mate before the first of two safety cars emerged on course. Still, Norris luxuriated in the glory of a home win. He’d got into contention when it mattered, played the conditions and, knowing Piastri had time to serve in the pitlane, ensured he’d stuck close enough to his team-mate as the circuit was drying up to emerge in front. While Piastri remained incensed by…

Formula 1 fandom is growing; therefore it makes sense that the support for teams and drivers is also increasing. Keeping track of fans, for specific teams, is therefore difficult. There is social media, of course, but a million followers might only lead to a handful of engagements; it is not an exact science. Haas is therefore working with its new official partner – Infobip, a global communications platform based in Croatia, with revenue exceeding $1.8billion last year. It provides tools to the likes of Google and Uber, while also helping to deliver content on WhatsApp, Apple Messages for Business and others. One of Haas’s unique selling points has always been the fact that it is American – but it loses that exclusivity in 2026 when Cadillac enters F1 as its…

PRIORITISE VERSTAPPEN AND HADJAR JAKE BOXALL-LEGGE How do you end the perpetual state of flux in Red Bull’s driving line-ups? There are two distinct options here: either keep what they have in 2025 and hope that the 2026 rules a) bring out the best in Yuki Tsunoda, and b) encourage Max Verstappen to stay, or start afresh, and do something different for 2026 with the sweeping overhaul to the regulations. Priority one: keep Verstappen. Scour the back of the sofa for any loose valuables, then write a cheque for hundreds of millions of pounds if the misplaced family heirlooms don’t quite pass muster. Should that fail, be proactive in finding a replacement. Oscar Piastri? George Russell? Lando Norris? Charles Leclerc? Any of them will do. Priority two: stick Isack Hadjar…

It’s been a good few weeks in Formula E if you’re a winner of the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award. First of all, 2017 pick Dan Ticktum claimed his maiden FE race victory in Jakarta. Then, in Berlin, 2011 find Oliver Rowland wrapped up the 2024-25 title. The return to the Indonesian capital after a year away was well worth the wait. Ticktum’s breakthrough for Cupra Kiro, its first win since Moscow in 2015 (in its China Racing guise), was a great story for the championship, with the team going from zero to hero after new investment over the offseason and the addition of a Porsche powertrain. After qualifying in fifth, Ticktum made up positions, took his Attack Mode effectively and benefited from a crash between Nyck de Vries and Jake…

Colombian Salim Hanna starred as British Formula 4 supported the British Grand Prix for the first time with two non-championship races. After a win on his series debut at Thruxton, the 15-year-old Virtuosi Racing driver was the class of the field at Silverstone. Rowan Campbell-Pilling thrust his JHR Developments car through from row two to snatch second from Ethan Jeff-Hall before diving past Hanna for the lead of race one at Brooklands. But he only got as far as Chapel before a suspected suspension issue pitched him into a spin, with the rest of the 26-car field somehow avoiding the stricken Tatuus. Jeff-Hall and series leader Fionn McLaughlin gave chase to Hanna, but neither could make a decisive challenge and had to settle for second and third. Red Bull junior…

Alex Lynn had just taken pole and yet wasn’t confident of converting top spot in qualifying into a race victory. “A podium will be a good result,” he reckoned. What could be interpreted as pessimism turned out to be misplaced. Come the end of the Sao Paulo 6 Hours, the Briton and Jota Cadillac team-mates Will Stevens and Norman Nato were celebrating a first World Endurance Championship victory for the US manufacturer at the head of a 1-2 finish. What changed in the 24 hours or so from qualifying to the mid-point of the race, when it became clear that the Cadillac V-Series.R LMDh was the dominant car around Interlagos? First off, the Caddy was even better in race conditions than Lynn and his team-mates were hoping for. Secondly, the…

Lamborghini has taken the wraps off the new Temerario GT3 contender due to enter competition next season. The replacement for the Huracan GT3 unveiled at the Goodwood Festival of Speed represents “the first competition model entirely designed and developed by Lamborghini” at its in-house Squadra Corse motorsport department, according to the Italian manufacturer. That is a reference to the joint development of the Huracan alongside Volkswagen group sister marque Audi’s R8 GT3 ahead of their debuts in 2015. Ten years on, Audi has yet to announce a road-going successor to the R8 and delivered the last GT3 race version in November 2024 as it winds down its customer sport operations. The Temerario racer carries over the four-litre twin-turbo V8 of the road-going car launched last year, whereas the Huracan GT3…

Ott Tanak boosted his World Rally Championship title hopes with a stunning drive in extreme conditions to win Acropolis Rally Greece and end Hyundai’s victory drought. Tanak and co-driver Martin Jarveoja beat the Toyota of Sebastien Ogier by 32.8 seconds following an intense head-to-head that concluded with Tanak surviving a gearbox issue on the final stage. The victory ended Toyota’s run of seven consecutive wins, including the first six of the 2025 campaign, while Hyundai sealed a double podium thanks to Adrien Fourmaux finishing third. Crews faced stifling heat as cockpit temperatures rose towards 70C. The gravel roads were also incredibly rough, resulting in a series of punctures suffered by the new-for-2025 Hankook tyres. Tanak initially shared the rally lead with Ogier after Thursday’s superspecial in Athens, before dropping 6.1s…

Shane van Gisbergen leads the NASCAR Cup field at the picturesque Sonoma Raceway. Having won on the streets of Chicago just a week before, the Trackhouse Chevrolet driver started from pole and led 97 of the 110 laps to take his third victory of the season and fourth in the championship since winning on his series debut at Chicago in 2023. The three-time Australian Supercars champion could now be something of a dark horse in the title fight as the playoffs approach. Turn to page 101 for more on the unpredictable 2025 NASCAR season. Photographer Daylon Barr/Red Bull Content Pool Where Sonoma, California, USA When Sunday 13 July 2025…

Everyone enjoys the gossip and intrigue of a British Touring Car Championship silly season, and the series has added to that in 2025 by giving us one in the middle of the campaign. Primarily it’s been one of the four Toyota Corolla GR Sport seats at Speedworks Motorsport under the microscope. Promising Scot Ronan Pearson was forced to call time on his 2025 campaign after just four rounds due to what was described by the team as ‘unexpected commercial challenges’. He was replaced by highly rated reigning Fiesta Junior champion and TCR UK rookie Finn Leslie last time out at Oulton Park. And now the team has made the second of its two permitted driver changes for one entry by putting in another driver from the world of Fiestas for…

10 HOLDEN COMMODORE Major wins 1986 Bathurst 1000 Allan Grice/Graeme Bailey 1987 Bathurst 1000 Peter Brock/David Parsons/Peter McLeod 1990 Bathurst 1000 Win Percy/Allan Grice Back home in Australia, the Commodore was winning races regularly through the Group A period, including ‘the big one’ at Bathurst. It was a relatively simple car, easy for privateers to run, and Allan Grice showed how quick it could be on his visits to Europe. Maybe the Aussies were a bit naive in how the European Touring Car Championship ran and probably weren’t up for the grey areas that the others exploited, but the cars sounded great and the inclusion of Australian names into the 1986 ETCC took the series to a massive audience. 9 MERCEDES 190E The start of the Mercedes touring car era,…

Motorsport UK has mandated that Impact Data Recorders are fitted to all cars competing in British and junior racing championships with immediate effect and is evaluating a wider rollout. The devices, which weigh just 12g, measure the gravitational impact of crashes and secondary impacts and show how much the car has moved forwards, sideways and upwards in an accident. Unlike more expensive Accident Data Recorders, Impact Data Recorders do not require specialist operators to download the data. Instead, they can be easily installed into a car with the data accessible on a phone app via a QR code. The devices cost £50 and are manufactured by Impact Detect, part of the Aim Technologies Group, but the governing body says the price will reduce when it can order them in larger…

This month I started my 49th year of writing for Autosport, a journey that has spanned 13 editors, 21 Formula 1 world champions, 11 British prime ministers and two monarchs. I joined on 18 July 1977, from the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. Gregor Grant’s brainchild, published weekly since 25 August 1950, was almost 27 years old. I was just 19, but had gone racing at Silverstone from infancy with my father and godfather, and taken much in. Autosport was my bible, so getting caught reading it under my school desk on Thursdays was not in vain. My exasperated French master might have been tacitly impressed to learn that it would underpin a career and way of life. Autosport’s distribution was by train, and WH Smith at London’s Waterloo station…

The mix of meteorological conditions that was such a feature of the British Grand Prix increased the jeopardy for drivers and it also created opportunity. This image was taken from Village, as the photographer explains: “I shot the start and the first few laps on a long telephoto lens to see if any overtakes happened. The weather was moving quickly and, as the clouds parted after the shower, this let some sun onto the wet track creating a highcontrast shot – I changed lenses to something wider to capture the big storm clouds above the wing.” Photographer Zak Mauger/LAT Images/Getty Images Where Silverstone, Northamptonshire, UK When Sunday 6 July 2025 Details Canon EOS R1 RF70-200mm lens, 1/1300th @ F8…

Reaction among Formula 1 aficionados to Christian Horner’s recent dismissal from his post at Red Bull, after 20 years in charge, has been interesting to browse. Why, some have asked, is Toto Wolff still in charge of Mercedes given its precipitous slide from outright dominance to three straight seasons in the upper midfield? That’s an easy one to resolve: he’s a one-third shareholder, so inviting him to clear his desk is a much more challenging proposition than issuing marching orders to a mere employee. Despite fellow one-third shareholder Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s recent wielding of the axe at the association football club he co-owns, it’s unlikely they’ll be playing Spin The P45 in the Mercedes GP boardroom in the immediate future. But Wolff is shaping up to bet big on that…

Nico Hulkenberg’s Silverstone podium aside, there’s been nothing more pleasing this year than to see Robert Kubica become a winner of the Le Mans 24 Hours. The victory for Kubica and his co-drivers, Britain’s Phil Hanson and Chinese youngster Yifei Ye, was remarkable, but they were not as unfancied as were Jochen Rindt and Masten Gregory going into the 1965 edition with their Ferrari 250 LM. Rindt, a 23-year-old Formula 2 driver, and Gregory, a bespectacled American known as ‘Kansas City Flash’ and 10 years Rindt’s senior, were nowhere after five hours. A 30-minute pitstop to replace a distributor meant Rindt rejoined several laps down in 18th place. With nothing better to do, the pair decided to go flat out and see what happened. The heavy hitters from Ferrari and…

The Nissan team helps Oliver Rowland celebrate after the 32-year-old Briton secured his first Formula E world title in Germany. Already a four-time 2025 race winner, Rowland’s fourth place in the second Berlin race, won by Nick Cassidy, was enough to put him out of reach of Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein with the London E-Prix double-header still to go. Rowland is the fourth Autosport BRDC Young Driver Award winner to secure a world crown, following Jenson Button in F1, 2014 World Endurance champion Anthony Davidson and Rowland’s FE rival Jake Dennis. Turn to page 59. Photographer Andrew Ferraro/LAT Images/Getty Images Where Berlin, Germany  When Sunday 13 July 2025…

McLaren’s Formula E team is set to be closed down at the end of the current season after efforts to find a buyer proved unsuccessful. Following its decision to enter the World Endurance Championship with a Hypercar for 2027, McLaren elected to withdraw from FE after three seasons. As such, team principal Ian James had been looking to secure its future. Despite links to a potential buyout from other manufacturers looking to join the series, with Hyundai one of the marques rumoured to be interested, this proved unsuccessful. The entry of the team, which prior to McLaren ran as Mercedes, will revert to Formula E Holdings. That leaves British driving pair Taylor Barnard and Sam Bird on the market. Barnard, hugely impressive this season and third in the points, has…

It was a result nobody predicted. Robert Shwartzman’s pole for the Indianapolis 500, his maiden oval outing, was the first achieved by a rookie at the Brickyard in over 40 years. Still more remarkable was his Prema team usurping the US open-wheel elite at its first crack. That Shwartzman didn’t have the luxury of a back-up car only exacerbated the impression that this was a feel-good story of the kind rarely seen in motorsport. Ryan Briscoe fully acknowledges that the feat surpassed expectations. Prema’s Australian-born sporting director, credited by Shwartzman afterwards with calming his nerves and helping him to enjoy the experience, won Indy 500 pole himself in 2012, his last campaign with Team Penske. Briscoe was mentored there by the legendary Rick Mears, and today makes every effort to…

Jenson Button will step down from the Jota Cadillac World Endurance Championship squad at the end of this season. The 2009 Formula 1 world champion has revealed that he has too much on his plate to race full-time in the future, but has insisted that he will not be hanging up his helmet for good just yet. Button, 45, will leave the Jota set-up he joined for last season to drive one of its pair of customer Porsche 963 LMDhs at the conclusion of a two-year contract. He explained that his other commitments, including working as an analyst for Sky TV’s Formula 1 coverage, and family life had resulted in a decision not to continue with a full programme. “It is about time I start thinking about the future a…

The WRT squad is in the running to take over BMW’s attack on the IMSA SportsCar Championship with the M Hybrid V8 LMDh next year. The German marque’s representative in the World Endurance Championship has revealed that it is in negotiations to double up in 2026 after the Rahal Letterman Lanigan team’s contract was not renewed. Rahal unilaterally revealed early in July that it was not being retained for BMW’s GTP campaign after a 17-season stint that began back in 2009 with the M3 GT2, a move that was subsequently confirmed by the manufacturer. BMW stressed that it was still defining its plans for 2026 and that an announcement will be made “in due course”. WRT team boss Vincent Vosse remained tight-lipped on the subject despite his admission that a…

What more tales of the unexpected could the British Touring Car Championship throw at us at Oulton Park, its final stop-off before the summer break? Well, how about an emotional first win of his comeback season for three-time champion Gordon Shedden? Unexpected, because he had a meagre 24 points from his first four weekends with the Speedworks Motorsport-run Toyota Corolla GR Sport, two 10th places his best results. There’s an irony here. Up to and including 2020, Speedworks’ lead driver was Tom Ingram, and Oulton – the Cheshire squad’s local circuit – was a hoodoo venue for the combination. Since Ingram departed for Excelr8 Motorsport in 2021, he has absolutely flourished here, and this time around his Hyundai i30 N Fastback showed a domination on pace over the 2.226-mile Island…

Broc Feeney has put a headlock on the Supercars Sprint Cup crown with five wins across six races at Hidden Valley and Townsville. The Triple Eight driver routed the field in Darwin, taking three wins from three pole positions, but had to work harder on the streets of Townsville. He was, frankly, nowhere in the first, Friday race, starting 14th and finishing eighth. But his team turned his Chevrolet Camaro around and he took two dominant wins in the longer weekend races, which awarded more points and which extended his championship-leading margin to 220. The only driver to interrupt the Feeney Train was Brodie Kostecki. In that Friday afternoon race the 2023 champion took the win from pole, the first since he switched teams to race a Ford Mustang for…

Nigel Mansell watches Mika Hakkinen park the McLaren MP4-13 in which the Finn won the 1998 Formula 1 World Championship at Goodwood House during the Festival of Speed. The 1992 title winner and Hakkinen then joined Sir Jackie Stewart, Emerson Fittipaldi, Mario Andretti, Alain Prost and Jacques Villeneuve on the balcony to be interviewed by Karun Chandhok as part of Goodwood’s celebration of 75 years of the championship. The Sunday Shootout was won by Romain Dumas in a very different machine: Ford’s F-150 SuperTruck. Photographer Jakob Ebrey/LAT/Getty Images Where Goodwood, Sussex, UK  When Saturday 12 July 2025 Details Canon EOS R6m2 RF15-35mm lens, 1/5000th @ F5…

Agricultural equipment and many 1970s Special Saloons had much in common. Devising bespoke tools or hurtling round a track, using whatever V8 hardware amateur budgets allowed, tested ingenuity. Tony Hazlewood, who died in June, designed lawnmowers and rotavators, but speed was his passion. Having raced a Mini, then the ‘Fraud’ Cortina Mk1 V8 that ‘Doc’ Merfield had saddled, Hazlewood had no wish “to produce another Escort, Capri, Vauxhall or Big Yank”. In a pre-CAD era when such hybrids were often crude unruly bolides offering minimal protection, Hazlewood opted for a DAF 55. DAF GB was a High Wycombe neighbour of Hazlewood’s brother Gerry’s Westwood Lawnmowers concern, so Tony, garagiste Tom Cooper and racer son Rob picked up the shell from the Eindhoven factory in 1971. It cost £58, £100 less…

INGRAM SAMPLES RS500 POWER Tom Ingram enjoyed a mixed first experience of Group A machinery at Super Touring Power. The 2022 British Touring Car champion struggled to get used to the flame-spitting power of Jeremy Sutton’s Ford Sierra RS500 in initial testing. “It felt too full-on, there was a lot coming at me,” he said. “Then we went onto the GP loop with a new set of tyres, and suddenly it felt fantastic.” Ingram took pole and set a blistering early pace before retiring with fuel pressure problems. Propshaft woes then put him out of the Sunday running. TURKINGTON DENIED SUPER TOURING WIN Four-time British Touring Car champion Colin Turkington’s very first Super Touring outing came in qualifying of the Super Touring Power event. However, his class shone through as…

1968 FERRARI 166/246 DINO Ferrari entered the competitive European Formula 2 championship with the 1.6-litre 166 Dino, and chassis 0010 was one of two cars prepared for the 1968 season. Raced by reigning F2 champion and new Ferrari F1 recruit Jacky Ickx and his future Le Mans-winning co-driver Derek Bell, there were poles and heat wins but neither quite managed an outright success. Tino Brambilla did take two victories for Ferrari at the end of the season, and two cars then travelled to the Tasman Series in Australia and New Zealand. Fitted with a 2.4-litre 24-valve V6 and various other upgrades, the cars took on the works Lotus 49Bs of Jochen Rindt and Graham Hill. Chris Amon took four wins from seven rounds in 0008 to beat Rindt to the…

Despite the rippling undercurrent of its intra-team clash two weeks prior in Canada, McLaren continued to let its two drivers spar on track, thereby laying the battleground pieces for the siege Lando Norris was set to withstand while in the lead of the Austrian Grand Prix. His stout defence across the opening 20 laps from team-mate Oscar Piastri proved to be the decisive factor in a tense affair at the Red Bull Ring, the Briton crucially responding immediately to his team-mate’s lap 11 Turn 3 pass to recapture his lead in the next corner. Much has been made of Norris’s ‘lack’ of mental strength this year. Unflinchingly honest about the self-doubt that occasionally churns around his thought patterns like a tumble dryer full of dirty linen, he doesn’t entirely conform…

FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem will face opposition after all in his bid for re-election this December. Tim Mayer, controversially dropped from the stewarding roster by Ben Sulayem on the eve of last year’s Qatar Grand Prix, used the British GP as a platform to launch his bid. Ex-World Rally champion Carlos Sainz Sr had expressed an interest in running, only to rule it out at the end of June, saying that “the present circumstances are not ideal to set the grounds for my candidacy”. He explained that the campaign would have a negative impact on his Dakar Rally preparations. Paddock insiders have expressed a belief that Sainz was acting as a so-called ‘stalking horse’. Whether the bid was serious or not, it prompted Ben Sulayem to deploy at least…

Perhaps the most exciting moment of the 2025 IndyCar season occurred with six laps remaining at Mid-Ohio, the 10th round. Alex Palou finally proved he is human by running off course at the blind and tricky Turn 9, allowing his Chip Ganassi Racing team-mate Scott Dixon to slip past. Dixon being Dixon, he and his side of the Ganassi team had played the two-stop ‘tortoise’ strategy to perfection from the very start, and a couple of mistakes from threestop ‘hare’ Palou allowed the cagey veteran to steal his 59th career IndyCar win and momentarily slow the Spaniard’s title steamroller. For a couple of weeks in June, it had appeared that someone might actually step up to challenge Palou’s dominance. Kyle Kirkwood won at Detroit for Andretti Global in a race…

Experience prevailed over the most recent two rounds of this gripping Formula 2 season, with feature race wins for Richard Verschoor at the Red Bull Ring and Jak Crawford at Silverstone propelling them to first and second respectively in the points. Verschoor could not get past early leader Leonardo Fornaroli on the track in Austria, with the leading runners on supersoft tyres, but the MP Motorsport-run Dutchman pitted a lap earlier and undercut the Italian once they were on the softs. Rodin Motorsport’s McLaren junior Alex Dunne also quickly passed Fornaroli, and finished just over a second adrift of Verschoor, only for the Irishman’s title hopes to take a hit when he was excluded for excessive plank wear. That promoted the Invicta Racing car of Fornaroli to second, with DAMS-run…

British boy wonder Freddie Slater and Italian rival Matteo De Palo were beginning to put some distance between themselves and the rest of the field following the first four of 10 rounds in the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine. De Palo won the first race in the early July event at the Hungaroring, with Slater taking the second in his Prema Racing car to close the gap to Trident driver De Palo to four points. Slater could only finish fifth in the opening race, in which De Palo led throughout from Pedro Clerot and Enzo Deligny. An intermittent problem for Deligny in race two allowed Slater to lead home Rashid Al Dhaheri. Deligny was third on the road, but overtook the top two on the cooldown lap, passed double…

Eduardo Barrichello – son of 11-time Formula 1 grand prix winner Rubens – played a starring role in qualifying for the Sao Paulo 6 Hours to take LMGT3 class pole in the Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin Vantage GT3 he shared with Valentin Hasse-Clot and WEC debutant Anthony McIntosh. On race day, the crew fought back after an error dropped the Aston outside the top 10, a fired-up Barrichello claiming third place – RSL’s maiden World Endurance podium – with just three laps to go. Photographer James Moy Photography/Getty Images Where Interlagos, Sao Paulo, Brazil When Friday 11 July 2025 Details Canon EOS R1 RF100-500mm lens, 1/1600th @ F7.1…

Lamborghini finally ended its Spa 24 Hours hoodoo in June when its Huracan notched up a first victory in the blue riband round of GT World Challenge Europe after multiple near-misses down the years. The win was fittingly sealed by the Grasser Racing Team, the squad that gave the first iteration of the Huracan a debut win at Monza back in 2015 and has claimed two of its three class victories at the Daytona 24 Hours IMSA SportsCar enduro. Factory drivers Mirko Bortolotti, Luca Engstler and Jordan Pepper, racing the Huracan GT3 EVO2 running #63 in tribute to the year of Lamborghini’s foundation, took the win by 8.7s ahead of the Rutronik Porsche 911 GT3-R shared by Patric Niederhauser, Sven Muller and Alessio Picariello. A stall by Bortolotti at the…

One of the many strengths of the IMSA SportsCar Championship is the quality of the tracks on its schedule. From Daytona, Sebring and Indianapolis to classic road courses and unforgiving street circuits, IMSA has it all. The broad variety of race distances, ranging from the Daytona 24 Hours to 100-minute sprints at Long Beach and Detroit, is also popular among competitors and spectators alike. It’s a common refrain shared by drivers from around the globe that IMSA events represent a highlight in their calendars. IMSA most recently visited Watkins Glen and Mosport – two of the most challenging tracks in the world. The Glen Six Hours provided another thrilling contest, with Acura Meyer Shank Racing ultimately claiming a second successive victory following a tough start to the season. This time…

Gregoire Munster’s Ford Puma Rally1 takes a dip in stage seven to cool down, on a Friday when ambient temperatures surpassed 40C in what proved to be one of the hottest and most punishing editions of the Acropolis Rally in recent history. Munster deployed a smart strategy to climb as high as fifth while Rally1 rivals made mistakes or were hit by punctures. Unfortunately, the Luxembourger was denied the prospect of a much-needed top-six result when his Puma was among a group of cars that suffered an unusual fuel-system failure, which triggered an investigation by the FIA. Photographer Marcin Rybak/McKlein Where Elatia, Greece When Friday 27 June 2025 Details Nikon D850 16-35mm lens, 1/4000th @ F4…

When you think of Juha Kankkunen, you conjure images of the moustachioed, straight-talking Finn taming World Rally Championship beasts, such as the firebreathing Peugeot 205 T16, the all-conquering Martiniliveried Lancia Delta and the famous Castrol Toyota Celica to four world titles. But for Kankkunen, competing for world titles as a driver is now merely a memory. Times change, and even the well-trimmed moustache has been consigned to the past. Kankkunen’s passion for rallying is seemingly endless, however, and this year the 66-year-old has become a more established fixture in the WRC service park once again, swapping driving for management as Toyota’s deputy team principal. “I’ve enjoyed it, but let’s say you are more nervous in this role than when you were driving” “It’s a bit different but so far I’ve…

The British Touring Car Championship has been forced to close off a rules loophole in time for the next round at Croft in early August after a modification on Excelr8 Motorsport’s Hyundais was called into question last time out at Oulton Park. Following Tom Ingram’s pole position performance, Excelr8 technical staff were spotted waiting by the scrutineering bay at Oulton as evening fell on Saturday, owing to the mounting of the flat floor beneath the sump on the i30 N machinery. It was ascribed to an ambiguity in the wording of the regulations, and the cars of Ingram, Tom Chilton, Adam Morgan and Senna Proctor were cleared to run unchanged on race day pending the rule tidy-up. The Independent Hyundais of Restart Racing were not called into question. “We’ve clarified…

British GT4 pacesetting squad Mahiki Racing has switched to Ginetta machinery for the rest of this season following a succession of Lotus Emira reliability woes. The Mahiki Emira driven by Josh Miller and Aiden Neate set the pace in all but one 2025 British GT4 race’s qualifying order prior to June’s Spa event. But the reliability problems, which included eight gearbox failures, meant that Mahiki’s three entries placed a distant sixth, ninth and 10th in the drivers’ standings. The switch to Ginetta G56s comes after Mahiki fielded the Lotuses since debuting in the series in 2024. Mahiki owner Steven Lake said: “We discussed it all with Lotus and it was a very friendly decision, but we decided, ‘OK, enough’s enough, we can’t carry on this way.’ “Ginetta, they’ve come to…

Motorsport in the 1950s is discussed a few times in this special 75th anniversary edition of Autosport – it was after all the decade in which the magazine was founded. For many, it seems a very different, distant era. But veteran club racer Tony Skelton provides a rare link to that post-war period. The remarkable Kentishman was due to turn 90 shortly after this issue of Autosport closed for press and first began racing in 1957. While still cycling 35 miles per week on average, he is now the second oldest of the near-10,000 active race licence holders in the UK. Skelton has always been interested in cars and recalls listening to the Le Mans 24 Hours on the radio for “hours and hours” during his school days. Having visited…

A MULTIPLE WORLD Rally Championship event winner, a history maker, a trailblazer for women in motorsport, and a pioneer for improving rally safety. Over a career spanning 50 years, there are few who can lay claim to having as big an impact on motorsport as Michele Mouton. In every sense of the phrase, Mouton is one of motorsport’s game-changers. As a driver she disrupted a male-dominated scene. The fact that no woman has been able to emulate her achievements to win an FIA world championship-level event demonstrates how special Mouton was as a driver. But her passion and dedication to give back to rallying after her driving career is equally as impressive. Mouton is one of life’s achievers, determined to succeed no matter what. But away from a competitive environment…

SUBSCRIBE TODAY AND ENSURE YOU DON’T MISS OUT ON: ◼ EVERY ISSUE DELIVERED ◼ SAVINGS OF UP TO 58% ◼ AWARD-WINNING JOURNALISTS ◼ DETAILED INSIGHT ◼ EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS ◼ STUNNING IMAGERY ACCESS EVEN MORE ONLINE Our print + digital bundle includes Autosport Plus, giving you access to exclusive long-reads, in-depth analysis, technical insight and expert opinion on autosport.com. The print + digital bundle also gives you access to the digital magazine on your devices, so you can enjoy Autosport anytime, anywhere. GET THIS EXCLUSIVE OFFER HERE: autosportmedia.com/offer/ASPSUMMER25 Terms and conditions Offer valid for UK Direct Debit subscriptions only. For the print and digital bundle package, your subscription will continue at £6.99 every month. Direct debit rates are valid for one year after which they are subject to change. Should you wish…

A chaotic chain of events was set in motion on lap two of the 1975 Italian Grand Prix following Jody Scheckter’s decision to take to the escape road at Monza’s first chicane when his dispute over third place with the McLaren of Jochen Mass went belly-up. Scheckter’s Tyrrell is seen (top left) rejoining, followed by Harald Ertl’s Hesketh and the Shadow of Jean-Pierre Jarier. Taking a wide berth on the far left is Arturo Merzario’s Fittipaldi. Meanwhile, stranded in his spun Hill, Tony Brise faces the looming Hesketh of Brett Lunger and Renzo Zorzi’s Williams. Six retirements were to result from the melee. Not visible here, the Parnelli of Mario Andretti was an immediate casualty, while Ronnie Peterson (Lotus), Rolf Stommelen (Hill) and Mass didn’t get far before succumbing to…