Hillspeed has been an ever-present in the GB3 Championship, with Richard Ollerenshaw’s team joining the series when it was created as the BRDC F4 Championship way back in 2013.
Since then, the squad has enjoyed plenty of race wins, with drivers including British GT champion Seb Morris and World Endurance Champion and Le Mans class winner Nico Varrone among those to stand on the top step of the podium.
But Hillspeed cars at the front of the grid in GB3’s new era became increasingly commonplace in 2025, and wins were achieved with four different drivers, a record unmatched throughout the rest of the grid.
Underlining the team’s rise to the front was its fourth place finish in the teams’ standings, its highest result in GB3, made more remarkable by the fact that the squad wasn’t present at the Zandvoort and Hungaroring events.
“The strength of the team has become noticeable from the quality of the drivers we’ve had in the car” Ollerenshaw reckons.
“The team itself hasn’t done anything new, it’s done what we’ve done year on year but we’d not been blessed with filling all three seats. Obviously the drivers we’ve had are those that are well established in their career and were using GB3 to support a dual programme.”
Freddie Slater was the squad’s marquee signing for selected rounds, and the eventual Formula Regional champion made a huge impression across his nine races.
“It was an absolute privilege to work with Freddie, not only in the car but outside of the car. He’s a champion of the future in the making” Ollerenshaw predicts. “His work ethic is exceptional and he’s definitely a standout talent that we’ve had to work with over the years.”
It wasn’t just Slater that shone for the Derbyshire squad though, with further victories for Kanato Le, Lucas Fluxa and Maxim Rehm underlining the team’s instant progress with the new Tatuus MSV GB3-025 car introduced for this year. When asked for reasons why the team performed so well, Ollerenshaw points out two key aspects of the operation.
“It’s twofold, one we got to grips with the new car and had a good package throughout the season.
“But the philosophy that we’ve built Hillspeed on over the years is that a happy driver is a fast driver and we have to give them the environment for them to be happy within. The structure within the Hillspeed team provides that for the drivers and the results speak for themselves.
“If you can give them the environment where they feel that they can grow and flourish, you will get the better results out of them. That is fundamentally what we have done with all our drivers.
“That’s what we pride ourselves on doing, not only the build and the car that we turn out, but the way that we interact with the driver and either their family or the support team around them.”
Hillspeed started the year with a victory in the first race at Silverstone courtesy of Slater, and bookended it perfectly with a triumph for debutant Rehm in the Monza finale. Between that came two more triumphs for Slater, including a last to first virtuoso at Spa-Francorchamps, a weekend which also saw a win for Le, while Fluxa won on his debut with the team towards the end of the season at Donington Park.
“It's nice to be able to look back on the season and be spoilt for choice of the defining moments,” Ollerenshaw beams. “For me personally, the first win with the new generation car was something that we wanted to get. Having seen the pace that we’d had pre-season, you never like to go to any race with pre-conceived ideas or anything else. But it was definitely the one that we wanted.
“The ‘Fred race’ at Spa, it was actually a bit bittersweet, I think we’d had the potential there to win all three races. I don’t think that’s overblowing our own trumpet, the pace that we’d got was phenomenal and unfortunately we had an issue in qualifying which robbed Fred of setting a time.
“But I think had we set the time I think we’d have seen Fred on pole for race one and two, and then starting from 12th [in race three] would have been half the job he went on to do.
“Spa was fantastic, to go from the back of the pack to win is incredible, but you always look at what could have been and I think it could have been something that nobody achieves for a long time, which would be to win all three races.”
After such a strong campaign, driver interest in the Hillspeed squad has boomed, and Ollerenshaw is optimistic of another run at the front in 2026.
“Interest in the Hillspeed seats has never been higher. When there are revisions made to a car you can never rest on your laurels, you have to go out there once pre-season starts and treat it as a new package. We know that the teams we’re fighting against are quality opposition and they won’t give us an inch.
“At the end of the day, we might have been the most underestimated package that was on the grid, but by round three of the championship it had instantly changed, and there were drivers that were wanting to take any available seats that we had.
“We will go into 2026, we’ll do our work over the winter and hopefully put a nice strong line-up together and be back to race at the front again.”