The FIA Rally Star programme will provide extra support to rising star Romet Jurgenson and has opted to retain Taylor Gill and Max Smart to contest the 2025 FIA Junior WRC.

The three drivers have impressed after earning selection into the FIA’s fully-funded programme that aims to unearth future WRC talent.

Jose Caparo (Peru), Gill (Australia), Jurgenson (Estonia) and Smart (South Africa) impressed judges to earn fully funded drives in this year’s Junior WRC.

This year was intended to be a learning year although Jurgenson and Gill found themselves locked in a fight for the Junior WRC title with the former coming out on top.

As a result, the 24-year-old will receive a fully-funded drive in the WRC’s second tier WRC2 class. FIA rally Star has now confirmed it will extend its support from four events to six next year. Jurgenson will pilot an M-Sport-build Ford Fiesta Rally2 although his event schedule is yet to be announced.

“We were already looking forward to doing four WRC2 events with M-Sport as our prize for winning the Junior WRC title but to get two extra events thanks to the support of FIA Rally Star is really great and I can’t thank the FIA enough,” said Jurgenson.

“As in 2024, I am trying my best to add some events with my own sponsors, but the overall target is to get the maximum out of the year in terms of experience and developing as a Rally2 driver. It’s a new category for me, new car, new speeds, new events…

“Everything is different, but I still want to show my potential at some point in the year so it’s not all about gaining experience, but also to show my speed, which is really important for continuing my career.”

Romet Jurgenson, Oja Siim, Ford Fiesta R3

Photo by: Jaanus Ree – Red Bull Content Pool

After analysing extensive data and considering the recommendations of the FIA Rally Star team of experts, the FIA Rally Star Committee agreed that Gill and Smart will embark on their second seasons in the Junior WRC in 2025. Caparo and co-driver Esther Gutierrez will no longer be part of the programme.

“Since they were selected for the FIA Rally Star programme, Max, Romet and Taylor have not only demonstrated their talent but also their determination and it’s only right they have been rewarded with further opportunities to learn and progress in 2025, said FIA Deputy President for Sport Robert Reid.

“At the same time, it’s a further demonstration of the success of FIA Rally Star that young hopefuls with limited experience who came through from grassroots level via selection events organised by FIA Member Clubs are preparing to embark on their second seasons in the FIA World Rally Championship.

“This will incentivise other aspiring WRC champions to start their motorsport adventures by joining their FIA Member Club and discovering the possibilities that exist.

“I’d also like to thank Abito and Esther for their contributions to FIA Rally Star and I look forward to seeing how the learnings and experience from this programme help them in their future motor sport journeys.”

Whatever way you slice many of the controversial overtaking clashes in Formula 1 of late – particularly those involving Max Verstappen – there’s one element that cannot be denied.

When it comes to drivers fighting hard, title rivals going toe to toe, the best racing machines on the planet being thrown at each other – it makes a great television spectacle. TV can’t replace the buzz of the crowd and the raucous response to great or contentious overtaking moves, but F1 – really more than any other – is a sport designed for broadcasting.

And yet, there is one development in all the excellent output Formula One Management (FOM) produces for its world feed coverage that needs to be undone for the sake of the championship’s sporting sanctity.

And it’s pertinent to the current furore over Verstappen’s driving towards Lando Norris at Austin. In that case, there was a healthy dose of deja vu from Brazil 2021 and the Dutchman’s controversial clash there with Lewis Hamilton.

This is how, in both episodes, the live onboard feed from Verstappen’s car was pointing backwards at the time of each incident (in 2021 it cut there seconds before the clash Turn 4 occurred).

This meant that the respective stewards of those meetings had to make their calls without a very important piece of evidence, which showed the Dutchman’s full attempts to make the corner in real time. They do have steering lock data available as part of their telemetry assessments, but this is rarely explained for watching viewers.

A forward-facing onboard is generally the best view of a drivers’ perspective in any racing move, but when the opposite angle is being used for the live broadcast (including on FOM’s OTT offering, F1 TV) the critical view can only be accessed by the officials and teams when cars return to the pits and recordings from every onboard camera are downloaded.

In Brazil 2021, this was what formed Mercedes’ doomed right-of-review request regarding why Verstappen wasn’t even assessed for a penalty there.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB16B, battles with Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W12

Photo by: Charles Coates / Motorsport Images

For McLaren’s own similar attempt this time around, however, Motorsport.com understands that the forward-facing feed from Verstappen’s car, when viewed after the Austin weekend, played little part in how the team put together its own unsuccessful legal argument against Norris’s Austin penalty.

McLaren was and remains convinced that Norris was so far ahead of Verstappen that the stewards were wrong not to consider the latter the attacking car, having had his rival’s MCL38 blast by on the outside with DRS.

The key aspect of its legal challenge was the timing of ‘Document 69’ that announced Norris’s penalty – they feel it simply wasn’t sent out in time to form any defence, which combines with how they wished both drivers had been able to state their respective cases. The onboard camera footage just bolstered their position, rather than established it to the point of driving its right-of-review request.

In Mexico last weekend, the forward-facing onboard feeds added considerably to F1’s spectacle and detracted from it at the same time.

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner put on theatrical display in defending the Dutchman post-race – armed with printed telemetry data.

With it, Horner claimed that in Verstappen’s next (but not last) clash with Norris post-Austin the Briton “would’ve run off track” as “you can see from his onboard steering” regarding Mexico’s Turn 4.

But a view of the McLaren’s onboard actually shows his trajectory was surely on to make the corner with at least some of his car within track limits (fine per the rules). It was Verstappen’s feed that shows the critical, brief, opposite lock that left Norris with no space and having to go off.

And then there was Charles Leclerc’s latest brilliantly wild moment – nearly dropping his Ferrari into the Peraltada barriers as Norris bore down late on.

His car’s onboard feed is looking back at the McLaren throughout. And while the off-board helicopter showed how he held the twin massive oversteer slides towards and through what is a pretty small run-off area running onto the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez’s main straight, the art of his effort to avoid a massive shunt was lost to millions of watching live viewers.

The Shotover F1 camera, which is operated by Lieven Hermans, Aerial Camera Operator for F1, mounted on a helicopter

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

Pontificating over the minor is very F1, but the entertainment factor provided by these feeds just shouldn’t be allowed to interfere with the job sporting officiating, as it currently does. The teams and drivers have at regular times pointed out recently how tough a job the stewards and race officials have in this delightfully complex sporting exercise, so why compromise their efforts for the sake of a camera shot that can quickly become inferior anyway?

Any functioning society wouldn’t expect legal investigators to examine a crime with their view deliberately impaired – so why should F1 be any different? Helpfully, change is afoot.  

Motorsport.com understands that a process to keep the forward-facing cameras broadcasting constantly live – at least for race control officials and stewards – is currently being developed for the FIA. This will combine with the extra analysis tools it has developed with its Remote Operations Centre in Geneva since 2022.

There is understood to be a considerable technical challenge to rolling this out, but if it can be achieved, it will solve one of F1’s glaring problems with ruling on contentious decisions. Small scale, but progress at least and something that would surely save an awful lot of future angst.

Porsche Penske Motorsport could modify its plan to run just two drivers in the regular six-hour World Endurance Championship races next year. 

The team will go into its 2025 WEC campaign with a “flexible approach” after opting to downsize from three to two drivers in each of the factory Porsche 963 LMDhs, PPM managing director Jonathan Diuguid has revealed to Motorsport.com. 

That could involve the WEC squad drafting in drivers from its IMSA SportsCar Championship operation if it feels that a three-driver roster makes sense for certain tracks. 

Mathieu Jaminet and Matt Campbell are scheduled to bolster the regular WEC crews for the Le Mans 24 Hours centrepiece round of the series as well as the 10- and eight-hour races in Qatar and Bahrain that bookend the season. 

They will respectively join Michael Christensen and Julien Andlauer in the #5 963 and Laurens Vanthoor and Kevin Estre in #6. 

“We have significant flexibility how we approach the season,” explains Diuguid.

“There is only one conflict, which is Spa [and Laguna Seca in May], and outside of that if we think it was the wrong decision for tracks A, B or C, we can go back to three drivers pretty easily.”

Race winner #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Kevin Estre, Andre Lotterer, Laurens Vanthoor

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

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Diuguid pointed to the Austin round in September as a potential race at which bringing in a third driver is a possibility because of likely hot conditions.

He explained that Penske’s “one-team” approach across the WEC and IMSA gives it this flexibility and was also a key factor in its decision to go to two drivers for five of the eight WEC rounds next year.  

For that reason Diuguid believes that PPM will not be compromised at Le Mans, as well as at Qatar and Bahrain, when a third driver is added. 

“A big part of our decision is that we are one global operation,” said Diuguid. 

“All of our drivers know all of the engineers and processes, and the cars and tyres are the exact same with the exception of a few small aero differences [resulting from the different windtunnels used for homologation in the two series]. 

“It is not as though we are taking someone from an LMP2 and putting them in the car — it will be someone who is used to racing the 963.”

Diuguid suggested that PPM would not have opted for line-ups of just two permanent drivers if this option wasn’t available to it. 

“If PPM was only racing in the WEC I don’t think we would have taken this decision; going in with only two drivers per car would probably not have been the right thing to do because you would have to bring someone in for Qatar, Le Mans and Bahrain and get them up to speed,” he said.

“But because we are racing in IMSA that isn’t a problem.”

Diuguid explained that running just two drivers offers an incremental gain “as the WEC gets tighter and tighter”.

“We think there is a gain to be made because there is always a set-up compromise with three drivers,” he explained.

“Now we will only have to have two drivers run through our long-run tyre plan to understand the degradation profiles. 

“We will be able to prepare for the race a lot better with the information we have.”

Porsche has followed the lead set by the Ganassi Cadillac team, which fielded Earl Bamber and Alex Lynn as a duo in its single V-Series.R for the shorter WEC races this year. 

There was a move led by BMW to mandate three-driver line-ups for all WEC races in the Hypercar division, which was rejected by a majority of participants.

The Jota team that has taken over the factory Cadillac programme is expected to run three drivers in each of its V-Series.Rs next year, while it is unclear if any other manufacturer will opt for two drivers for the six-hour races. 

Peugeot set the pace in the opening practice session for this weekend’s World Endurance Championship finale in Bahrain.

Former Formula 1 driver Paul di Resta set a time of 1m50.837s in the #94 Peugeot 9X8 LMH at a hot and sunny Bahrain International Circuit on Thursday afternoon, eclipsing the previous benchmark of Frederic Makowiecki in the #5 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 LMDh by just 0.049s.

Most of the quickest times were set at the beginning of the 90-minute session, as the track remained relatively green due to dust and high temperatures.

It meant that the pace of the lead cars was about a second down from the corresponding session in 2023, when Toyota led the way with a best time of 1m49.856s amid heavy wind.

Only two cars were able to lap in the 1m50s bracket, the #94 Peugeot and the #5 Porsche, with the #51 Ferrari driven by Antonio Giovinazzi ending up fractionally down in third with a time of 1m51.041s.

Peugeot managed to get both its cars inside the top five, with Jean-Eric Vergne ending up another 0.010s adrift of the Ferrari in fourth place.

The championship-leading #6 Porsche wound up fifth courtesy of Laurens Vanthoor, ahead of the sole factory Iron Lynx Lamborghini of Daniil Kvyat.

Toyota’s charge was led by Sebastien Buemi in seventh place, four tenths down on the pacesetting Peugeot, with Mike Conway ending up 10th in the sister #7 GR010 HYBRID

The two Toyotas were separated by the two factory-entered WRT BMW entries, with Rene Rast in the #20 M Hybrid V8 edging out the #15 car driven by Rafaelle Marciello.

All top 10 cars were able to lap within a second of the outright pace.

The best of the Alpine A424 LMDh entries finished 14th with Jules Gounon, while Cadillac kicked off the weekend in 18th and last place, as Earl Bamber set a best lap of 1m52.302s in the #2 Chip Ganassi V-Series.R.

Lexus fastest in LMGT3

DTM runner-up Kelvin van der Linde propelled the ASP Lexus squad to the top of the times in the LMGT3 class with an early effort of 2m02.079s in the #78 RC F GT3.

That was a quarter of a second quicker than what Alessio Rovera managed in the #55 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3, while Matteo Cairoli was further behind in third on returning to WEC competition in the #60 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2.

Davide Rigon was classified fourth in the second of the two Ferrari LMGT3 entries, beating the top Proton Ford Mustang GT3 of Benjamin Barker by just 0.023s

Klaus Bachler ended up dead last in the #92 Manthey PureRxcing Porsche 911 GT3 that wrapped up the LMGT3 title at Fuji last month.

The session was completed without any major interruptions, although a virtual safety car was deployed with 30 minutes left on the clock to complete some system checks.

World championship leader Jorge Martin says he is a less nervous and a more mature rider than he was at this stage of his 2023 points battle with Francesco Bagnaia.

Pramac Ducati’s Martin heads into this weekend’s Malaysian Grand Prix, the penultimate event of the season, with a lead of 17 points over factory Ducati rider Bagnaia. Last year he came into the penultimate round as the chaser, 14 points behind Bagnaia – and ultimately lost out at the final round.

Speaking ahead of the Sepang weekend, Martin claimed to be far more relaxed as the duo repeat their battle in 2024.

“Last season I was really tense and really nervous,” admitted the Spaniard. “I was really struggling with the situation and I felt a lot of pressure.

“This year, pressure is there but I think I’ve improved a lot. I’m much more mature now. I know I can lose it but I know I can win it. Last year I lost it and nothing happened to me – it’s not the end of the world!

“I try to learn from the pain and the bad moments. I think that’s where you learn more – losing can also be really exciting!”

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

For his part, Bagnaia said he would thrive on the pressure of chasing – and that he needs to cut Martin’s advantage to under 10 points heading into the final round.

“Pressure is always there but it’s nice to be in this situation,” remarked the reigning champion. “I love to be in this situation. It’s a critical situation for [the rider chasing]: you know you have to be fast because you cannot lose points. You have to be the faster one but you cannot make mistakes.

“I will try to win both races and close the gap. We have to try and gain more than the three points we gained in Thailand last weekend. We need to go away from this weekend with a gap of less than 10 points.”

The Italian pointed out that Martin would also face his own brand of pressure trying to guard a lead.

“We’re at a moment where I have to take a bit more risk than Jorge. He can be more calm. He doesn’t need to make mistakes because he can also finish second.

“But I was in Jorge’s situation last year and I know it’s a situation where you feel like you need to be more calm. Being competitive in this situation is not easy.”

Where exactly that final round will take place remains an open question given the doubts around the Valencia venue. The region is currently dealing with a major flood situation that has cost lives as well as heavily damaging at least one of the circuit access roads.

Martin and Bagnaia joined a number of riders to argue on Thursday that the finale should be moved elsewhere.

“Valencia will be difficult even if everything [around the circuit] is solved. It’s a difficult situation [in terms of] respect for the people over there. The best option would be to race elsewhere.”

Asked which alternative venue would be ideal from his perspective, Martin joked: “For sure I wouldn’t want to go to Assen. Pecco is so strong there!”

Bagnaia underlined the ethical issue with racing in Valencia in somewhat stronger terms.

“For me, the ethical side is the most difficult thing. Racing there is like a party…it’s a moment to enjoy. But knowing that the situation is what it is, it’s not correct. It could be wrong to race there.

“If it were my choice, I would prefer not to race there. It’s not my decision, but we have many more options.”

Regarding alternative venues, Bagnaia said: “Assen could be good, but it’s too cold. Mugello, maybe!”

Three-time Le Mans 24 Hours winner Andre Lotterer has not ruled out continuing his relationship with Porsche when he leaves its World Endurance Championship Hypercar squad after this season.

The German, who took his three Le Mans wins with Audi in 2011, ’12 and ’14, has revealed that talks with Porsche to extend his time with the marque are on-going.

But he declined to go into detail ahead of this weekend’s WEC finale in Bahrain in which he can claim a second world championship title together with Porsche Penske Motorsport team-mates Laurens Vanthoor and Kevin Estre.

“There are talks and it is possible [to continue with Porsche],” Lotterer told Motorsport.com.

“There are discussions about what I could do in the future; they have asked me about what I would like to do after this.

“But I want to do this race first and then see afterwards – there is a championship to win.

“I don’t want anything to interfere with that.”

#6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Kevin Estre, Andre Lotterer, Laurens Vanthoor

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

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Lotterer will be out of contract at Porsche at the end of this season and has lost his place in the #6 Penske-run factory 963 LMDh as the German manufacturer downscales its full-season line-up from three to two drivers per car for 2025.

The 42-year-old stressed that he has no plans to retire from driving whether he remains with Porsche or not.

“I don’t want to retire,” said the German.

“When I stop, that is something that I would like to decide myself.”

Lotterer has been linked to a role with Hyundai, which is developing an LMDh to race with the badges of its premium Genesis brand, but he declined to reveal whether he is in talks with a marque expected to enter the WEC in 2026.

“When something comes to an end, people ask what you could do next?” said Lotterer.

“Regardless of whether I am talking to them, there are other other opportunities for sure.”

Lotterer plumped for the current WEC season, which has so far included wins in Qatar and at Fuji as well as a further three podiums, as the highlight of a stint with Porsche that began in 2017 after his switch from Audi following its withdrawal from the WEC.

“Last season when we came back [to the top class of the WEC] was so-so, but this year we have had a winning car and it is my best time with Porsche,” said Lotterer, who won his first WEC title with Audi in 2012.

He also revealed that he took satisfaction from Porsche’s successes in Formula E after his departure from its squad after three seasons at the end of the 2022/23 campaign.

“We worked really hard to have a strong foundation,” he explained.

“What we are seeing now is an evolution of that: it is nice to see the team succeeding.”

Porsche’s factory squad won the FE title in 2023/24 with Pascal Wehrlein after Jake Dennis took the crown in ’22/23 with its powertrain in an Andretti entry.