LUCA MARINONI OSBORNE CHASING COOPER CROWN WITH WESTBOURNE

Luca Marinoni Osborne has his eyes fixed on helping Westbourne Motorsport to defend the Vertu MINI CHALLENGE Trophy title after re-signing with the team for the 2025 campaign.

Having debuted in the series with EXCELR8 back in 2022, Osborne made the move to Westbourne Motorsport last year as part of the team’s expanded line-up, scoring a podium finish at Silverstone on the way to ninth in the championship standings.

Osborne’s return to the grid comes with support from Sauter Automation UK – who took over as primary sponsor mid-way through 2024 – as well as TID Global and AddOn Networks, with the youngster aiming high for the new campaign.

“I’m going into this season with my sights set on nothing but the title,” he said. “I feel like we were a little unlucky to not score a win or a few more podiums last year so we will be all guns blazing to put that right.

“A real highlight of last year was the front-four lockout in qualifying at Silverstone as that was an amazing achievement by the whole team. That really underlined how strong we were as a unit and I’m confident we’ll b even stronger this time round.

“We’ve got all the tools to win and this year I’m going to make sure we do just that. I want to win, I believe I can win and both me and the team will be giving it everything we have to achieve that end goal of being champions.”

Team principal James Colburn said he was thrilled to keep Osborne in the line-up for 2025, with the team once again planning a multi-car entry into the Cooper class.

Olivier Algieri has already confirmed his return after a two-round stint last year, with two more drivers still to be revealed.

“We’re delighted to have Luca back with us for a second successive season – he played an integral part in helping us achieve what we did last year,” he said.

“He achieved a fantastic podium at Silverstone last year, and the next step now is that first win. Once that comes I think that will get Luca and us to where we want him to be. It’s shaping up to be another competitive year so we’ll make sure we give Luca the best possible chance.”