
Autosport's owner, Motorsport Network, has acquired the well-known Sutton Images photographic agency.
Founded by Keith Sutton in 1980, Sutton Images has worked in Formula 1 and other motorsport categories, amassing a huge digital image collection.
The company will continue all of its trading activities under its own identity under the management of LAT Images.
Keith Sutton said: "I am happy to entrust what is my lifetime's work to the stewardship of Motorsport Network, so its value will be fully realised and the archive will be visible worldwide, ensuring that it has a great future."
Sutton's contemporary Formula 1 library is complemented by the Phipps Archive, featuring iconic imagery from the 1960s and 1970s.
Combined with the LAT archive, it means Motorsport Network - which also owns Motorsport.com, F1 Racing and Motorsport News - has more than 17million images covering motorsport all the way back to 1895 in its unique collection.
Motorsport.com chairman Zak Brown said: "As an integrated operation, we now have the world's richest motoring and motorsport image archive by some margin, plus now having an extended operational capability as a specialist photo agency.
"This makes a persuasive case to anyone in need of any image references to the entire history of Formula 1 in particular as well as the wider automotive or motorsport sectors."