In the team-driven world of circuit racing, can a privateer really make an impact? Will Gray spoke to Radical rookie Marcus Littlewood to find out.

Having achieved all his ‘bucket list’ goals by the end of last year – top three finishes in the British X30 Senior Championship and Kartmasters – Marcus Littlewood decided it was time to move on to racing cars. Seeking a new challenge and determined to continue his progress towards his dream of becoming a professional GT racer, he had to choose his path carefully.

After pulling together a limited budget, he opted to join the Radical SR1 championship as a privateer, becoming one of just two non-team-based entrants in the paddock. It would be a step up for Steve Littlewood, his dad, as the former kart racer who had been on the spanners through Littlewood’s karting career, would now oversee running an entire race car.

Littlewood got to know about the series through friends Daryl DeLeon and Theo Micouris, who were the two previous champions. “It looked like a really good option” he explained, “because it is a very good entry level into high downforce cars, and it leaves your future options open to both singleseaters or GT cars.

“I definitely wanted to do it but I didn’t think I would have enough budget. Then I started talking to a few people, and they made me realise that if we didn’t go with a team, and could somehow make it work as a privateer, then the budget was not too ridiculous compared to what we were spending in karts. So, we decided to go for it.

“My parents bought the car. I had a donation from one of the dads of a karting driver I coach, plus a bit of sponsorship from Bailey MK, a roofing company that have supported me since 2020, but the rest came from my own salary. I worked as many seven-day weeks as I could, doing weekdays at iZone Performance and also weekends kart coaching for Jade Racing.

Budgeting

Although Littlewood was on a more ‘modest-to-medium’ budget for his karting, he says that the move to car racing as a privateer was almost double that. However, with plans to sell the car once he has finished, he believes his net car racing budget for the season will end up just a little more than he spent in karts.

In comparison, to take the series on with one of the many professional teams that offer their services in that category – including the use of a car and all the support services that go with it – he estimates the costs would have been closer to double, maybe triple the cost of his karting budget, with no car resale to benefit at the end of the season. That is a significant difference but, as discussed in our recent article on race teams (Revolution, June 2024), the benefits
of professional support can be extremely valuable. However, as the Radical SR1 is designed to be an entry level car, Littlewood committed to enter in the hope that he and his dad might have enough mechanical know-how and racing experience to get by.

Buying the car

The first – and arguably most crucial – step on the journey of a privateer is to find a reliable car, at a reasonable price – because if you pick wrong, your season could be spent fixing issues rather than focusing on performance. To do that, they reached out to historic F2 owner and long-term Radical expert Keith Bisp.

“He was a great help, because he knows everything about all the cars,” recalls Littlewood. “We spoke to Radical and to quite a few teams and eventually a 2021 car that was run by RSR came onto the market. The chassis was good and although the engine mileage was high and would likely need a rebuild halfway through the year, that kept the cost down a bit.”

With Steve as mechanic and Ellen (mum) on hand to help too, the family-run team started the season with “literally no expectations”, says Marcus, knowing that they would be on a steep learning curve. However, Littlewood was also quietly confident that the limited set-up options on the car would at least make it a little easier to get their heads around.

Thanks to a sealed engine and gearing and the use of a treaded tyre – which also helps to keep the cost down – the main set-up challenge for all teams is on the suspension. There are 25 different settings on the dampers – and although that may sound complicated, they are one-way dampers – and there are only three different roll bars to use on the front and the rear.

“People instantly assume that with loads of teams involved, the cars must be really hard to set up,” says Littlewood. “That’s what we thought too when we started, so Dad just began with the baseline from the Radical manual. It worked pretty well, and we ran with that, with a few changes from my feedback and dad’s previous knowledge from working in a British GT team.”

There was no soft start for Littlewood Motorsport, arriving at Donington Park for their first car race in April in front of grandstands packed with fans out to watch the British Touring Car Championship. In front of the ITV cameras, however, Littlewood was immediately on the pace and began what would become a season-long battle with DW Racing’s Sam Shaw. From their pop-up awning, the small privateers punched well above their weight against the team-run rivals, but Littlewood admits: “The biggest disadvantage was not having all those hands on the car. Most teams have a lot of mechanics that can hop on, and I’m pretty useless on the spanners, so dad is on his own most of the time.”

That lack of hands, however, only became a massive challenge twice in the season – once during a huge downpour at Snetterton, when they had just 10 minutes to change to wet tyres and alter the entire set-up, and once in the last round, when one of the water pipes fell off in the practice session
before qualifying and the water was boiling hot. In those times of need, however, there was often support available and Littlewood adds: “RSR, who we bought the car from, guided us a lot during the season, helping us out and warming us into the paddock. When we went to Paul Ricard, for example, they took the car down for us and let us use their awning – which was a nice change from our little gazebo!

“The support from Radical was excellent too. Every race weekend, they have an engine team that goes around the paddock and plugs into everyone’s ECU after every session to keep track of engine hours and what needs changing. There is also a central parts truck that carries everything you might need during the race weekend – so you don’t have to.”

Running on your own, rather than alongside team-mates, also has a few advantages and one in particular may have played a crucial part in Littlewood’s success. “You don’t have to share data if you don’t want to,” he smiles. “That was quite an advantage this year, because we found ourselves to be quite quick at some rounds. At the last round of the season, some of the teams actually asked me if they could see some of my data and because they were not my direct championship rivals, I let them, just to help them out. Data sharing can work both ways though, because if you’re not fast or you’re struggling at a particular track, as a privateer you don’t have other data to help you.”

That lack of data can also be a hindrance when it comes to set-up, particularly on more complex cars, as many teams employ data engineers to eke out more potential performance. Perhaps, then, being in a team could have made him even faster? “Potentially, but I don’t know if there’s too much in it,” responds Littlewood. Most of it is driver feedback at the end of the day, so they can have a baseline setup, but if the driver isn’t good enough to give them the feedback, they can actually go in a downward spiral with the setup. So, in that area, I wouldn’t say there was much of a disadvantage as a privateer – not in SR1 at least, but maybe when it gets more complicated, in the SR3.”

And the Radical SR3 is where Littlewood hopes to head next, having signed off from his debut SR1 season last month at Brands Hatch, where the battle with Shaw reached a dramatic conclusion. “It was double points for the last round of three races and after Sam won the first and I won the second, it all went down to the last one,” recalls Littlewood.

Season Finale

“I started that final race in third but quickly passed the two guys ahead, including Sam, then heading out of the last corner at the end of the first lap, we had a bit of contact. It was a controversial ending. I ended up in the gravel, he got a penalty, and I got the title – but I can understand him for going for the move because I would have probably tried it as well!”

Littlewood has been helped for the last three years of his motorsport journey by his experience in the Motorsport UK Academy, where after two years following the DiSE programme – during which he won the Driver of the Year in 2023 – he was selected to move into the UK Futures programme for this year and beyond.

“It has taught me mental resilience and work ethic and that really helped me as a privateer,” he says. “The training at iZone taught me that I have a lot of work to do to be a professional, but it really gave me motivation, a new mentality, and a pathway to think, even if you don’t have the budget, you’ve got to work for it and see what can come out of it. If I can get the budget, my vision for next year is to go to SR3 and continue on my route towards GTs. Ideally, I would go with a team this time because it’s hard graft as a privateer. You must sacrifice a lot of time, set up your awning, do your prep and transport, but if that is not an option, I’d definitely give it a go on my own again, because that’s the sort of people we are.”