KSP Reportages

What is it about the UK that consistently delivers motorsport world champions? 2025 is already shaping up to be another one for the record books, with James Calado taking the title in the FIA World Endurance Championship( WEC) with Ferrari, Oliver Rowland Champion in Formula E, and Noah Baglin crowned Junior Karting World Champion. As I write this, Elfyn Evans leads the World Rally Championship( WRC) title race and Lando Norris is sitting on a healthy 24-point lead in Formula 1. Fingers are crossed that they can maintain their momentum.

But back to my question. The answer of course is no one single thing but a raft of elements, that over the past 75 years, have led to an industry and infrastructure that is the envy of the world. As with most enterprise models, it is pyramid shaped, with the base a massive scale of community, infrastructure and engineering that provides a multitude of touch points for people to engage with the sport. To a large degree a country’ s success in a sport is a function of opportunity and nurture. The greater the gene pool, the greater the possibility of finding the rare gems with exceptional talent. But then it is down to the way the system treats those talents, both in terms of enhancing their skills, and in the case of motorsport, opening doors of funding. I noted with interest that Calado, Rowland and former Formula E World Champion, Jake Dennis, are all graduates of the Racing Steps Foundation. Founded by successful businessman Graham Sharp in 2007, it ran until 2017 when it had backed a selection of circuit racers to impressive heights, including those three above. In a 2018 interview, Sharp was proud but philosophical about how far they had come, opining that some had touched the edge of F1, but not made the leap. I wonder how he feels now that at least three are FIA World Champions.

Motorsport UK invests each year in our Academy, and it has had an impressive roll call of success, but what we do not do is provide funding for competition budgets. Our role is about mental and physical preparation and the honing of skills, which is usually in conjunction with an existing management team of experts already employed. However, I have been wondering if there is an opportunity to create an entity that could be more instrumental in providing the financial support to exceptional talent who may be thwarted by a lack of family or other funding. You may say that my earlier comments of continued success obviate the need for such a mechanism – our pathways are full – but I am conscious that not everything revolves around circuit

JEP

Getty Images

Noah Baglin

James Calado

Oliver Rowland

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Revolution- November 2025