Final drivers line up and Teams for the Race Of Champions (ROC) World Final in Sydney confirmed.
Third generation Scottish rally driver Max McRae to represent Team GB with David Coulthard and young French F2 star Victor Martins joins Sebastien Loeb on Team France
The 33rd edition of The Race Of Champions will include superstars from F1, World Rallying, Supercars, Rallycross, NASCAR, Extreme E and Dakar
Accor Stadium to be turned into a spectacular side-by-side 1km asphalt race track when this unique event is hosted for the first time in the Southern Hemisphere
Tickets from $49 on sale now through Ticketek
The final field for the 33rd edition of the Race Of Champions is “locked and loaded” for Sydney’s Accor Stadium on March 7-8 and it is one of the most competitive ever.
No less than 10 of the star drivers who competed in the last ROC Sweden by the Arctic Circle will be making the 15,000km trip south for the first ever ROC World Final in the Southern Hemisphere.
The field will include no less than four-time F1 World Champion Sebastian Vettel, F1 legend and two-time Australian Grand Prix winner David Coulthard, current F1 gun Valtteri Bottas, nine-time World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb, 11-time X-Games Gold Medalist Travis Pastrana and NASCAR legend Kurt Busch.
There will also be Team Australia Supercars headed by seven-time Supercars champion Jamie Whincup and reigning champion Will Brown and Team Australian Off-Road which is made up of rally ace Molly Taylor and two-time Dakar winner Toby Price.
Third generation Scottish rally driver Max McRae and young French F2 star Victor Martins are the final two drivers to be confirmed for the 20-driver field today.
McRae, 20, will partner F1 legend Coulthard at Team Great Britain for the ROC Nations Cup on Friday night, March 7 while Martins will team with no less than nine-time World Rally Champion Loeb for Team France.
The McRae name is no stranger to Race Of Champions with Max’s famous uncle, Colin McRae winning the ROC ‘Champion of Champions’ title in 1998, and having been the teammate of Coulthard several times in the past.
Max’s father, Alister, actually lost the final of the ROC to his brother Colin at Gran Canaria in 1998.
Max, who won the ERC Rally Hungary and Rally Ceredigion in the Junior ERC and Rally4 category, is no stranger to Australia having lived in Perth for many years and competed in the Australian Rally Championship.
Colin and Alister both drove at World Rally Champion level with the former winning the WRC title in 1995, while their father Jimmy (Max’s grandfather) won a record five British Rallying Championships in the 1980s.
This year Max is tackling his first full British Rally Championship (BRC) campaign and is aware of the weight of expectation on his shoulders with eight titles (five for Jimmy, two for uncle Colin and one for father Alister), already in the trophy cabinet.
Martins, 23, had a successful karting career and worked his way through the junior open-wheel ranks before joining ART Grand Prix in 2020 and winning the Formula Renault Series.
He joined MP Motorsport the following year and finished fifth in FIA Formula 3 Championship before re-joining ART Grand Prix the following year and clinching the title.
He finished fifth and seventh in the last two F2 championships and will start among the favourites for this year’s title chase which starts at the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne the weekend after the ROC event.
There will be nine countries represented in the Nations Cup including Australia, Germany, France, Sweden, Norway, Great Britain, New Zealand, USA and Finland.
The ROC teams and drivers will all go head-to-head on a spectacular $A2 million side-by-side 1km asphalt track which will commence its eight-day construction later this week.
The unique venue will be hand crafted by a team of local and international engineers to ensure maximum speed and entertainment for the anticipated 50,000-strong crowd.
The Race Of Champions comes two weeks after the weekend’s 2025 Supercars opener at Sydney Motorsport Park and one week before the opening round of the F1 World Championship in Melbourne (March 13-16), creating a massive month of motorsport in Australia.
2025 ROC NATIONS CUP - FINAL TEAMS LINE-UP
Team Germany
Sebastian Vettel (GER) - 4-time Formula 1 World Champion
Mick Schumacher (GER) - FIA F2 and F3 Champion, Former F1 driver. Current WEC Driver
Team Australia Supercars
Jamie Whincup (AUS) 7-time Supercars Champion
Will Brown (AUS) - 2024 Supercars Champion (AUS)
Team Australia Off-Road
Molly Taylor (AUS) - Australian Rally Champion & 2021 and 2024 Extreme E Champion
Toby Price (AUS) - 2 X Dakar winner on Bikes, 2024 Baja 500 winner in Truck
Team New Zealand
Hayden Paddon (NZ) - 2023 & 2024 European Rally Champion, seven-time NZ Rally Champion
Louis Sharp (NZ) - 2024 GB3 Champion, 2023 British F4 Champion
Team USA
Travis Pastrana (USA) - 11-time X-Games Gold Medalist, 6-time Rally America Champion, Nitrocross Champion
Kurt Busch (USA) - 2004 NASCAR Champion, 2017 Daytona 500 winner
Team Norway (Defending ROC Nations Cup Champions)
Petter Solberg (NOR) - Rally World Champion and 2-time Rallycross World Champion
Oliver Solberg (NOR / SWE)* - 2024 WRC2 runner-up, Winner 2025 WRC2 Rally Sweden
* Oliver will represent Norway in ROC Nations Cup / Sweden in Race Of Champions
Team Sweden
Johan Kristoffersson (SWE) - 7-time FIA World Rallycross Champion,Extreme e Champion
Mattias Ekström (SWE) - 2-time DTM Champion, Rallycross World Champion, 4-time ROC Champion (including Title holder ROC 2023)
Team France
Sebastien Loeb (FRA) - 9-time Rally World Champion, 4-time ROC Champion
Victor Martins (FRA) - 2022 F3 Champion, 2020 F Renault Champion. ART F2 Driver 2025.
Team Great Britain
David Coulthard (UK) - 13-time Formula 1 Grand Prix Winner
Max McRae (UK) - 2024 ERC Rally Hungary and Rally Ceredigion winner in the Junior ERC and Rally4 category
Team Finland
Valtteri Bottas (FIN) - 10-time Formula 1 Grand Prix Winner
Heikki Kovalainen (FIN) - Formula 1 Grand Prix Winner and ROC Champion
What Max McRae said:
“It is an absolute dream for me to be joining the lineup of legendary drivers for the 2025 Race of champions,” said McRae.
“I am super excited to be joining David Coulthard and to be representing Great Britain.
“Obviously my family has a long history with this event and has had a bit of success.
“Hopefully we can put on a good show. It’s going to be a once in a lifetime opportunity and I can’t wait to get started.”
What David Coulthard said:
“I have great memories of the three years I teamed up with Colin (McRae) at the Race Of Champions in Stade de France in Paris,” said Coulthard.
“From what I hear, his nephew Max has a lot of natural speed, which seems to run in the McRae family.
“Hopefully his youthful enthusiasm and speed combined with my experience will be a good combination in the ROC Nations Cup in Sydney.”
What Victor Martins said:
“I have been watching the Race Of Champions on TV all my life and to compete in ROC was definitely one of my career goals, so I will do everything possible to enjoy it as much as possible, like I was dreaming about as a kid,” said Martins.
“The event has such an amazing history and to represent France with Sebastien (Loeb), who like me did gymnastics at a young age before focusing on motorsport, is truly a dream come true. ”
“ROC Sydney will be a great way to start the season before the opening round of the F2 World Championship in Melbourne the following weekend. Spending a week in Sydney will also be a nice way to get used to the time difference and to the Australian heat and do some physical training with my coach.”
What Sebastien Loeb said:
“I am looking forward to representing France together with a young talent like Victor Martins”, said Loeb.
“The list of participants look very strong for ROC Sydney, but like always when I come to the Race Of Champions the goal is to win both the ROC Nations Cup and the individual competition and of course put on a good show for the fans in the stadium.”
What Fredrik Johnsson, Race Of Champions President and Co-Founder, said:
“It is nice to have the full field finally ‘locked and loaded’ for our first ever Race Of Champions (ROC) World Final in the Southern Hemisphere," said Johnsson.
“Max (McRae) and Victor (Martins) are two extremely talented young drivers and I think they are in for an incredible experience at Sydney’s Accor Stadium as teammates of two legends like David Coulthard and Sebastien Loeb.”
“I think we have managed to bring together one of the highest profile and most competitive fields in the history of the ROC with an exciting mix of youth and experience.”
“The 10 teams will fight it out for National pride on the Friday night and then it’s every driver for themselves in Saturday’s Race Of Champions contest and I think the passionate Australian motorsport fans are going to love seeing every instant of the action.”
ROC SYDNEY 2025
The ROC Nations Cup takes place on Friday March 7, with drivers paired in teams based on nationality to bid for the title of ‘World’s Fastest Nation’.
The Saturday night (March 8) will see the individual Race Of Champions, when all teamwork goes out of the window and it will be a battle for individual glory and the ‘Champion of Champions’ title.
ROC is renowned for gathering some of the best drivers in the world, including superstars from Formula 1, Le Mans, Nascar, Supercars, World Rally and Rallycross.
Hospitality and Track side packages and General Admission Tickets starting from $49.00 for children and $69.00 for adults. Tickets are on sale now through Ticketek.
EVENT SCHEDULE
Friday 7th March - ROC Nations Cup – to crown the world's fastest NationAccor Stadium, Sydney
Doors Open 5:30pm
Show Starts 6:30pm*
Race Starts 7:30pm
Saturday 8th March – Race Of Champions – to crown the "Champion of Champions"Accor Stadium, Sydney
Doors open 5:30pm
Show Starts 6:30pm*
Race Starts 7.30pm