22nd December 2025
John Marlow: “We have real confidence going into 2026!”
Team AlUla Championed by LeBron James has wrapped up its debut E1 campaign after a season defined by steep learning curves, breakthrough performances and the creation of a strong team culture. Despite entering the championship with significantly less preparation time than its rivals, the team finished seventh overall and delivered several standout moments.
Co-Team Principals John Marlow and Barny Whitwham took some time to reflect on their debut season including the shock and excitement of the moment that Catie Munnings and Rusty Wyatt topped qualifying at the season-opener in Jeddah.
John took up the story: “We were bewildered seeing P1 on the timing screens! We’d been together as a team for less than two weeks and were still figuring out the RaceBird. I honestly thought it must have been an error because it didn't seem right that our brand-new team would come in and top their first competitive session. It proved that we were here to perform, and that the group had gelled immediately – I was very proud in that moment.”
Co-Team Principal Barny Whitwham explained that the early rounds were a steep adjustment period. “Those first two events were about finding our feet - the learning curve was vertical,” he admitted. “We made mistakes, but we spent that early break analysing everything. After absorbing learnings from the first two rounds, we arrived in Dubrovnik with greater clarity and it showed with our P3. Dubrovnik felt like the real start of our season and proved Jeddah wasn’t a flash in the pan. To stand on that podium was the most incredible feeling.”
The mid-season run - three European races in six weeks - tested the team’s resilience. According to Barny, this period was when Team AlUla truly began functioning as a cohesive, confident unit. “By Monaco everything was starting to click,” he said. “Our structure, our pace, our ways of working - they were all coming together. The results didn’t always reflect it due to circumstances outside our control, but as a group we were getting on top of things.”
Monaco also brought one of the season’s biggest off-water highlights as team owner LeBron James attended his first E1 race. “Having LeBron on site was huge for the team and the series,” John explained. “We wanted the podium for him, and even though we narrowly missed out with a P4, he saw the effort that goes into preparing the RaceBird. It was a proud moment for everyone.”
Beyond the on-water performance, both John and Barny highlighted the internal growth of the team as the year’s most meaningful achievement.
Barny praised the group’s collective spirit, built from a diverse mix of backgrounds and experiences: “The team we’ve built is incredible,” he explained. “We can be proud of what we’ve achieved, but we’re also humble enough to know the job isn’t done. The competition is fierce and we have to keep improving.”
John echoed this, emphasising that finishing seventh did not reflect the full story of the team’s progress. “We beat teams with a full year’s head start and a few unlucky weekends cost us a much higher finish,” he reflected. “But the way the group learned and improved together gives me huge confidence. The foundations we built this year are what will deliver results.”
With a deeper understanding of the RaceBird and a full year of racing under their belt, Team AlUla now turns its attention to converting lessons into results. John summed up the mood heading into the off-season: “All the hard lessons from this year give me real confidence going into 2026.”
Barny concluded:
“Motorsport doesn’t wait - the session goes green when it goes green, and you have to be ready. Thinking back to where we were last year, things feel calmer. And we’ll be ready.”
Round 1 of the 2026 E1 season will get underway in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, from 23-24 January.
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