Lando did it! We have a new British F1 World Champion in Lando Norris, congratulations to him and his family who have been such an important part of his success in racing from the very early days in karting, Ginetta Juniors, and British F4 here in the UK. His win marks the end of a four-year reign by Max Verstappen, who came perilously close to snatching victory from the jaws of defeat – missing out by just two points in a tally of 423 for Lando. It is fantastic that after some 7,320 miles of racing across 24 Grand Prix, it came down to a three-way battle, and thankfully one without mechanical or judicial drama.

It was the first F1 driver’ s title for McLaren since Lewis won his inaugural championship back in 2008. Congratulations to everyone at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking for their historic double title year. Although domiciled here and racing under a Motorsport UK Entrants Licence, McLaren Racing is primarily owned by Bahrain’ s Mumtalakat Holding Company( the sovereign wealth fund) and Abu Dhabi’ s CYVN Holdings, and with an American and an Italian at the helm it is a multicultural enterprise. And yet McLaren is quintessentially British, with this country chosen by Bruce McLaren to set up his racing company in 1963 in Feltham,( before moving to Colnbrook adjacent to the old RAC MSA offices that are long since demolished).

My boyhood hero was Bruce, and I vividly remember reading Motoring News( not Motorsport News in those days) reporting his untimely death in June 1970 and being devastated. So, although there is little in the DNA that directly remains, other than the name over the door and the papaya paintwork,( thanks Zak for bringing that back), I feel a sense of deep satisfaction that this is the first time that the team has won a driver’ s title in Bruce’ s original orange colours. These things matter!

Meanwhile in Saudi Arabia things didn’ t work out as well for Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin who went into the last round of the World Rally Championship( WRC) with a slender margin over multiple champion Sebastian Ogier. It is a challenging aspect of the regulations in the WRC that the running order is set by the championship positions and thus Elfyn had the massive disadvantage of leading on the road for an event that was literally breaking new ground. Although Ogier was right behind him in the running order it nevertheless proved a sufficient disadvantage that Elfyn did not manage to overcome, and he was further thwarted by a greater number of issues with punctures that afflicted all the runners on what proved to be an extremely rough event. Despite all this the championship came down to the last super special of the year and for his ninth crown Ogier clinched the title by just four points. Our sympathies go out to Elfyn and Scott who had put on an incredible show all year, and to be runners up for a fifth time must be incredibly frustrating. We wish them the very best of luck as they prepare to go again in Monte Carlo in just a few weeks’ time.

Future-proofing motorsport

I would also like to congratulate the organisers of the Roger Albert Clark rally, led by Colin Heppenstall, for not only putting on a unique five-day event that has become a wonderful celebration of past and present in stage rallying, but also for being leaders in sustainability. The event was a testbed for a fuel that demonstrated how historic motorsport can adapt to the challenges of climate change. Competitors were offered a highperformance hydrocarbon fuel in which half of the content is produced from renewable waste material rather than fossil crude. Developed by Sustain, it uses second-generation biomass – things like crop residues, food waste and other material

McLaren Racing Media / Getty Images

McLaren Racing Media / Getty Images

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Revolution- December 2025