Five things to look out for in the new British GT season

It was Lamborghini’s year in British GT last season as its customer squad Barwell Motorsport produced one of the most dominant campaigns in recent memory.

The Surrey outfit won five of nine races with the Huracan GT3 to clinch the teams’ championship with a round remaining, while the drivers’ title was fought between both of its cars.

The drivers’ crown ultimately went the way of father-son duo Rob and Ricky Collard, who pipped team-mates Sandy Mitchell and Alex Martin by five points.

But the fight should be more open this year. Matt Griffin in the AF Corse Ferrari reckons “there are 10 cars that can win the championship” – a sentiment echoed by many within the paddock.

It therefore promises to be one of the tightest British GT seasons in years and it all commences this weekend at Donington Park. The meeting in the Midlands kickstarts a nine-round campaign spread across seven weekends.

Here are five things to look out for in the new season.

The success of 2024 is hard for Barwell to replicate

There are many deliberate obstacles which stop a sportscar team from dominating, with Balance of Performance being the perfect example. So it cannot be understated just how impressive Barwell was last season… in fact, just how good it has been throughout the years. Consistency is an incredibly difficult feat to achieve in endurance racing.

The Lamborghini squad is the only team across the past decade to have won consecutive British GT3 teams’ crowns as it did a three-peat from 2019 to 2021. There are seasons, 2024 aside, in which it has dominated – it finished 137 points above runner-up RAM Racing in 2021. But if Barwell remains on top again this year, it will go down as one of its best triumphs yet.

That is because of two reasons: one, it is hard to imagine the competition being as far back this year and, two, the team dynamics somewhat changing after a relatively difficult winter. To begin with the former, while Barwell was consistently faultless throughout 2024, its rivals regularly faltered. From needless collisions to strategy blunders, no squad could launch a title challenge.

But Barwell boss Mark Lemmer stated “we’re going to have to raise our game” because, in theory, rivals will have learnt from last season. It must also do it with a changed driver line-up, as there will be an all-new pairing in the #1 Huracan at Donington.

Hugo Cook has been signed from J&S Racing Audi after finishing 13th in his rookie campaign last year and he was initially set for a full season alongside Rob Collard. But two-time series champion Collard is skipping Donington for medical reasons and it is not 100% clear when he will return, so his last minute replacement is Matt Topham, who Lemmer believes “has been thrown in at the deep end”.

It is a relatively inexperienced pairing, but Lemmer has been “really impressed” by the 20-year-old Cook, who’s “been excellent from day one at testing” and “absolutely on the same page with the way Barwell thinks”.

Things are also different in the #78 Huracan because, although Martin and Mitchell return, the Lamborghini factory ace is unavailable to contest the races at Silverstone, Spa-Francorchamps and Brands Hatch. So partnering Martin for those rounds will be Patrick Kujala, who drove for Barwell in 2017 and 2018 before finishing runner-up in his most recent British GT campaign in 2020 for RAM Racing.

Lemmer said Kujala is “part of the furniture at Barwell” and Martin, who was initially upset at Mitchell not contesting a full season, quickly realised why “Barwell is so fond of Patrick”. So, there is no great reason to be concerned by the changes at Barwell and one can understand Martin still saying “we’ve got to be the favourites”. But the pursuit of the 2025 crown should be much more difficult than the last.

Will 2 Seas finally deliver on its potential and challenge Barwell?

2 Seas knows it must find consistency to fight for the title

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The driver crew that finished seventh in the 2024 standings was actually the one most capable of challenging the top two cars. Maximilian Goetz and Kevin Tse were the only non-Barwell pairing to win multiple races, Spa and Snetterton, yet the 2 Seas Mercedes finished outside of the points on more occasions – Oulton Park, Donington and Brands.

It is that type of inconsistency the duo must avoid in 2025. They have the pace, but Tse knows “to be in contention for the championship, you… have to finish” because a title fight is defined by a car’s worst races. Take 2024, for example: Mitchell/Martin won the most races but the Collards always finished inside the top five unlike the sister Huracan.

So the question at 2 Seas is, has its #18 car learnt from the mistakes of last year?

There are no doubts over Goetz. He is a Mercedes factory driver plus a GT Masters and DTM champion after all. But Tse was involved in first-corner collisions at both Donington and Brands in 2024. Not to forget the strategic blunder which cost the pair a win from pole at Silverstone.

But there is still a nagging feeling that things may be different in 2025, because Tse now knows he must be “less aggressive” and “more careful on lap one” so the veteran, who is entering his fifth year, appears to have worked on his game. Goetz, meanwhile, looked as hungry as ever at the Silverstone test day.

“I’ve won DTM, I’ve won GT Masters, and British GT is one of the top championships in Europe, so [to win it] is especially on my bucket list,” he said. “I believe in the team and I fully trust the guys because I know what they can do.”

Jonny Adam is not giving up on a record-extending fifth title

After a learning year at Blackthorn, can Adam and Petrobelli challenge for the title as they hope in 2025?

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British GT fans only caught glimpses of the Jonny Adam of old last year, the one who won a record-breaking four titles between 2015 and 2019. That was in no way down to the speed of the Aston Martin factory driver though, but more the inexperienced outfit he had joined.

Adam departed the 2 Seas fold, with which he finished third in 2023, to join Blackthorn – which was only in its second year of the championship and running two cars for the first time. Adam was with Giacomo Petrobelli, who was doing his first full campaign, while Topham and Josh Rowledge were in the sister Vantage.

It was a slow start but Adam and Petrobelli gradually progressed throughout the year and their best results came in their final two races – fifth at Snetterton and second at Donington – before skipping the Brands finale, as Adam instead contested the European Le Mans Series Mugello round.

But at no point last season did the team panic, because Adam revealed “we were all learning each other” and that it was always going to be a “building year”.

“It was all about ’25,” he added. “I think we knew quite early on in the season that we were going to struggle at times, and we had to learn what we needed to learn. We’ve got the info to put that right this year.”

So now is the time for Blackthorn to deliver and there is confidence that it will – Adam says this is the best he has felt at the start of a campaign since his title-winning years. He puts that down to an extensive programme over the winter, competing in the Asian Le Mans Series for example. At Silverstone, Adam was full of praise for how different the team is compared to 12 months ago.

Petrobelli holds the same feeling, saying “we made enough progress over the season to say we can come back and have a crack at trying to win it”. So maybe, just maybe, it will be Adam’s year once again.

What can Ferrari do now it is back in British GT?

The spotlight will be on Spirit of Race Ferrari, as the Italian manufacturer returns to the series for the first time since 2010

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Ferrari dominated the British GT headlines over the winter, as the famous Italian marque is set to end its five-year hiatus from the championship. Its factory squad AF Corse will run a 296 under its Spirit of Race banner and it will be driven by Griffin and Duncan Cameron, who have six series wins together and finished third in 2010.

It is therefore a very experienced and capable driver pairing, but there are still some unknowns as to how the entry will fare considering neither Griffin nor Cameron have contested the series since 2020.

“It’s a tough ask,” said Griffin. “Duncan has been racing in the longer endurance [races], like European Le Mans Series, WEC and GT World Challenge Endurance the last couple of years. British GT is a very different type of racing. It’s much closer, there’s a little bit more wheel-to-wheel combat. So, I think it’s going to take a while to adjust to that.”

Griffin was still full of confidence though, adding “if I didn’t think we had a chance to win the championship, we wouldn’t be here”. But, since the Silverstone test day, news has emerged that the entry will skip the Donington opener due to this weekend’s 4 Hours of Barcelona.

So, it will be tough for the pair to be in contention for the championship come the final round in October, but it’s a Ferrari and no doubt something exciting to watch out for. The Italian marque is also not the only manufacturer coming back to British GT this year, as Honda is featuring for the first time since the 1990s while Team Parker Racing will run the first full-time Porsche GT3 in three years.

Expectations of the Porsche are rather high, considering its line-up consists of factory star Sven Muller and the 2018 British GT4 Pro-Am champion Nick Jones. Porsche is British GT’s most successful manufacturer with 16 championships – in all classes – and looks in good stead to be in contention for another in 2025.

Less is expected of the Honda though, considering the team running the NSX, Bridger Motorsport, and its drivers, Luke Garlick and Johnny Ip, are all series debutants and in the Silver-Am category. Garlick said the team will “build up over the year”.

What about the GT4 category?

Brown and the Optimum Motorsport McLaren look likely title contenders again in GT4

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No driver has ever won two British GT4 titles but with a smaller grid in this year’s championship, down from 18 full-time entries to eight, there is a feeling that that might be about to change.

And do not be surprised if it does, because reigning champion Jack Brown in the Optimum Motorsport McLaren is feeling as “confident” as ever that he can launch another title challenge. A lot of that is down to his new role, as the #90 Artura has gone from a silver-silver pairing to a Pro-Am combination with Marc Warren replacing Zac Meakin.

Considering Brown has the higher FIA driver grading, he believes it is his “responsibility to manage Marc and set a good example to him”. Brown has firmly stepped into the team leader role and it is something he is relishing, still feeling extremely motivated despite having now achieved what he set out to do when he first joined British GT in 2021.

On the face of it, it is hard to see who the nearest rival will be given Optimum’s 2024 title challenger Forsetti Motorsport – the team Warren drove for last year – is no longer on the grid. But there is one big name dropping down to GT4.

That is Phil Keen, who is currently tied with Adam for the most overall British GT race victories on 19. He will drive a Team Parker Mercedes with Jon Currie, who contested the penultimate round last year. Currie, however, thinks “this year needs to be a year of development” having not done a full campaign yet.

Although there are just eight full-time entries in GT4 this year, that number is bumped up to 12 with the all-new Endurance Cup. This is essentially a championship within a championship that formalises the part-time crews who cannot contest a full season. It will initially be competed amongst four cars at both Donington rounds, Silverstone and Spa.

The new British GT season starts this weekend at Donington Park

Photo by: JEP