After a two-year hiatus, the Race of Champions returns and in a new location. For the first time ever, Race of Champions will be held in the Southern Hemisphere, taking place in Stadium Australia in Sydney, famously the host stadium of the 2000 Summer Olympics.
Twenty drivers are scheduled to compete in this year's competition from nine different countries. The draw has been set for both the Nations' Cup competition on Friday night and the Champion of Champions competition set for Saturday.
For the Nations' Cup, nine countries have been divided into three groups of three. The two-time defending Nations' Cup champions Norway have received a bye into the quarterfinal round. The remaining seven spots in the knockout round will be determined in the group stage with the top two finishers from each group and the best third-best team advancing.
Nations' Cup
Quarterfinals
Norway
Best Result: 1st (2022-23)
Drivers:
Drivers:
Petter Solberg : Three-time Nations' Cup champion (2014, 2022-23) and 2018 Champion of Champions Runner-Up
Oliver Solberg: Two-time Nations' Cup champion (2022-23), 2024 World Rally Championship-2 Vice Champion
The Solbergs won the Nations' Cup both years the competition was held in Sweden. The only nation to win the Nations' Cup in at least three consecutive competitions is Germany, which won six consecutive from 2007 through 2012. Petter also won the 2014 Nations' Cup as a member of the Nordic team with Tom Kristensen.
Speaking of Kristensen, the Dane is not enters in this year's Race of Champions, the first time Kristensen is not a participant since 2004, ending a streak of 16 consecutive ROC appearances. Kristensen also competed in the Race of Champions in 2000 and 2001. Kristensen is a three-time Nations' Cup winner (2005, 2014 and 2019), and he is famously a five-time Champion of Champions runner-up.
Group A
Finland
Best Result: 1st (1998, 2006)
Drivers:
Drivers:
Valtteri Bottas: Ten-time Formula One Grand Prix winner
Heikki Kovalainen: 2004 Champion of Champions and 2006 Nations' Cup champion
Team All-Stars
Best Result: 1st (2003)
Drivers:
Drivers:
Johan Kristoffersson: 2019 Nations' Cup champion and seven-time World Rallycross champion
Chaz Mostert: 2024 GT World Challenge Australia champion, two-time Bathurst 100 winner and third in the 2024 Supercars championship
France
Best Result: 1st (2000, 2004)
Drivers:
Drivers:
Sébastien Loeb: Four-time Champion of Champions and 2004 Nations' Cup champion
Victors Martins: 2022 Formula Three champion and seventh in the 2024 Formula Two championship
Group Breakdown: This is a group of historic Race of Champions participants. All three teams have won the Nations' Cup previously, but none of them have won in the last 19 years. France and Finland were the first two countries to win the Nations' Cup multiple times.
France's only final appearance since 2004 was in 2012 when Sébastien Ogier and Romain Grosjean were runners-up to Germany. Finland lost the 2007 final to Germany with Kovalainen and Marcus Grönholm. The All-Stars were runner-up in 2023 with Felipe Drugovich and Thierry Neuville as its representatives. An All-Star team won in 2003 with Fonsi Nieto, Cristiano da Matta and Gilles Panizzi.
Group B
Australia (Supercars)
Best Result: Semifinalists (2012)
Drivers:
Drivers:
Brodie Kostecki: 2023 Supercars champion
Will Brown: 2024 Supercars champion
Australia (Off-Road)
Best Result: Semifinalists (2012)
Drivers:
Drivers:
Molly Taylor: Two-time Extreme E champion and 2016 Australian Rally Championship
Toby Price: Two-time Dakar Rally winner (bike class) and 2024 Baja 500 winner
New Zealand
Best Result: Race of Champions Debut
Drivers:
Drivers:
Hayden Paddon: Two-time European Rally champion
Louis Sharp: 2024 GB3 Championship champion
Group Breakdown: Group B is nothing but debutants. All six drivers competing have never competed in Race of Champions previously, and for the first time ever, New Zealand is participating in the Nations' Cup. Paddon is a World Rally Championship veterans with 82 appearance, and he has won the ERC title the last two years. Sharp will enter Formula Three this year with Rodin Motorsport.
The host nation Australia gets two teams. This is the first time Australia has competed in the Nations' Cup since 2015 when Daniel Ricciardo and Mick Doohan paired to lose to Germany in the first round. Kostecki replaced seven-time Supercars champion Jamie Whincup, who withdrew due to Cyclone Alfred threatening to hit Queensland, and Whincup wished to remain with his family.
Group C
Germany
Best Result: 1st (2007-12, 2017-18)
Drivers:
Drivers:
Sebastian Vettel: Four-time World Drivers' Champion, 2015 Champion of Champions and seven-time Nations' Cup champion
Mick Schumacher: 2020 Formula Two champion and 2023 Champion of Champions runner-up
United States
Best Result: 1st (2002)
Drivers:
Drivers:
Travis Pastrana: 2006 Nations' Cup runner-up
Kurt Busch: 2004 NASCAR Cup Series champion and 2015 Nations' Cup runner-up
Great Britain
Best Result: 2nd (2009, 2010, 2014)*
Drivers:
Drivers:
David Coulthard: Two-time Champion of Champions
Alister McRae: 2011 Asia-Pacific Rally Champion
Group Breakdown: While Germany has the most Nations' Cup championships, it has not won in the last three Race of Champions, its longest drought since it went winless in the first eight Nations' Cups. Vettel and Schumacher were runners-up in 2019 in Mexico when the Nordic team of Tom Kristensen and Johan Kristoffersson took the title.
The United States was Nations' Cup runner-up in 2022 with Jimmie Johnson and Colton Herta. Coulthard's only appearance in a Nations' Cup final was when Great Britain was runner-up in 2014 in Barbados to the Nordic team with Kristensen and Petter Solberg. Susie Wolff was Coulthard's co-driver that year. McRae is replacing his son Max, who injured his hand in the British Rally Championship. This is McRae's third ROC appearance, who competed in 2000 and 2007.
Champion of Champions
For the Champion of Champions competition on Saturday, 18 drivers will be split into six groups for the group stage. A spot in the group stage has been reserved for the eROC competition winner, which pits sim racers against one another in the virtual and real world competitions. The eROC competitions will be held before the Nations' Cup on Friday.
Automatically positioned into the quarterfinals will be four-time Champion of Champions Sébastien Loeb, and 2023 Champion of Champions runner-up Mick Schumacher.
The six group winners will advance to the quarterfinals.
The six groups have been divided in half with the first three groups comprised of rally drivers with the next three groups consisting of circuit racing drivers.
Group A
Johan Kristoffersson
Best Result: Semifinalist (2018, 2023)
Molly Taylor
Best Result: This is his debut.
eROC Winner
Group Breakdown: In the last two Race of Champions held in his native Sweden, Kristoffersson lost in the quarterfinals, to Mattias Ekström both years. Ekström went on to win the competition in 2023, a record-tying fourth for Ekström, who was unable to participate in this year's competition due to illness. Taylor has made 17 appearances in the World Rally Championship, most recently the 2021 Rally Finland.
The Group A winner will face Loeb in the quarterfinals. Each of Loeb's four Champion of Champions title have come in four different countries, but all in Europe. He won the final year on the Canary Islands in 2003 before winning the second year at Stade de France in Paris in 2005. He won the final year at Wembley Stadium in London in 2007, and Loeb won the first year at Piteå, Sweden in 2022.
Group B
Travis Pastrana
Best Result: Quarterfinalist (2006-07, 2017)
Heikki Kovalainen
Best Result: 1st (2004)
Oliver Solberg
Best Result: Quarterfinalist (2022-23)
Group Breakdown: This will be Pastrana's tenth appearance in the Race of Champions while Kovalainen makes his ROC return for the first time since 2010. Kovalainen defeated Pastrana twice in the 2006 Nations' Cup final to take the title for Finland. Pastrana competed in the Nations' Cup solo that year and went 5-4 over the three rounds, defeating Germany and Scotland to make the final. Solberg won the WRC2 event at Rally Sweden last month.
Group C
Petter Solberg
Best Result: 2nd (2018)
Toby Price
Best Result: This is his debut.
Hayden Paddon
Best Result: This is his debut.
Group Breakdown: Solberg failed to make it out of the round of 16 in the two Swedish editions of Race of Champions. He lost to eventual winner Sébastien Loeb in 2022 and his son Oliver in 2023. Price made his first Dakar Rally start in the car class this year with Toyota, but retired. Paddon's only World Rally Championship victory was the 2016 Rally Argentina over Sébastien Ogier and Andreas Mikkelsen.
Group B and Group C winners will face-off in the quarterfinals.
Group D
Sebastian Vettel
Best Result: 1st (2015)
Brodie Kostecki
Best Result: This is his debut.
Louis Sharp
Best Result: This is his debut.
Group Breakdown: Though famed for his six Nations' Cup championships, Vettel has only won the Champion of Champions competition once. His only other finals appearance was in 2022 when he lost to Loeb. His semifinal lost in 2023 to fellow German Mick Schumacher was the third time Vettel has lost in the semifinal round. He lost to Mick's father Michael in 2009 and the eventual Champion of Champions in 2010, Filipe Albuquerque. Kostecki won the Bathurst 1000 last year. Prior to his GB3 championship last year, Sharp won the F4 British Championship in 2023.
Group E
Valtteri Bottas
Best Result: Round of 16 (2023)
Kurt Busch
Best Result: Quarterfinalist (2014)
Chaz Mostert
Best Result: This is his debut.
Group Breakdown: Busch competed in the 2014 competition in Bushy Park. He was undefeated in his group, defeating Petter Solberg, Barbadian Rhett Watson and Susie Wolff, but then lost to Jamie Whincup in the quarterfinals. In 2017, Busch failed to get out of his group, with losses to David Coulthard and Tom Kristensen and his only consolation was victory over Ryan Hunter-Reay. In Bottas' ROC debut two years ago, he lost both legs of his first round matchup against Kristensen. On three occasions did Mostert compete in Supercars on the Homebush street circuit, which went around the Sydney Olympic Park. His best finish on that track was fifth in 2014.
Group D and Group E winners will meet in the quarterfinals.
Group F
Will Brown
Best Result: This is his debut.
David Coulthard
Best Result: 1st (2014, 2018)
Victor Martins
Best Result: This is his debut.
Group Breakdown: Coulthard is probably thankful the ROC is out of the Arctic. He failed to get out of the preliminary round in 2023, and lost in the round of 16 in 2022. Brown opened the Supercars season last week with finishes fifth, third and second at Sydney Motorsports Park. Martins has two Formula Two victories, the 2023 Silverstone feature race and the 2024 Barcelona sprint race.
The Group F winner will face Schumacher in the quarterfinals. Prior to last year's runner-up performance, Schumacher lost to Jamie Chadwick in the preliminary round in 2022, and he lost in the 2019 quarterfinals to Esteban Gutiérrez.
There will be six vehicles used in this year's competition. There will be an FC2 rallycross car as well as a Supercar Lite rallycross car. The KTM X-Bow Comp R will be used, ten years after the KTM X-Bow was last used in the competition. The Polaris RZR Pro R is back after being used in Sweden.
Suburu makes its Race of Champions debut with the BRZ tS and Toyota is back with the GR86. The Toyota GT-86 was used in the 2012 competition from Bangkok.
The Nations' Cup will begin at 3:30 a.m. ET on Friday March 7 with the Champion of Champions competition taking place at 3:30 a.m. ET on Saturday March 8.
