TT 2025: Costello and Smith form new all-female sidecar team

Experienced competitor joining forces with newcomer passenger

Maria Costello MBE and newcomer Alice Smith will form a new all-female sidecar team for this year's Isle of Man TT Races.

In what will be her 17th TT campaign, Costello will combine the three-wheeled ambitions with once again contesting the solo events in the Supertwin class.

Meanwhile it'll be a first experience of the Snaefell Mountain Course for 20-year-old Smith who first started racing alongside Costello in 2023.

On the potential of her sidecar passenger this year, Costello says: "I’m really excited about this year’s TT, as much as I’ve ever been, and I’m equally excited about what Alice and I can achieve.

"We did a few meetings together in 2023 and again in 2024, finishing on the podium and improving our lap times, so we are working really together. 

"Alice is on a super steep learning curve but she has talent and so much potential, and her youthful exuberance rubs off on me."

Since her TT debut in 2002, Costello's best solo finish at the event came in the 2016 Lightweight TT where she secured a 12th place finish.

Three years later in 2019 Costello made her debut in the three-wheeled class and last year took her best sidecar finish to date, claiming 16th in the Sidecar TT Race 2.

Smith will be one of multiple newcomers to the Sidecar class in 2025 - among the others to face the races for the first time are Steve Kershaw, George Holden and Oscar Lawrence.

First-time pairings include James Saunders and Sarah Stokoe; Keiran Clarke and Andrew Johnson; Bruno Mathern and Mathilde Jully as well as Steveens Palacouer and Yann Druel.