The time has come. This Sunday at the Autosport Awards at Grosvenor House, the winner of the 2023 Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Award will be revealed.
Teenagers Taylor Barnard, Arvid Lindblad, Joseph Loake and Callum Voisin all stand a chance of becoming the 34th winner of the programme to find and assist the best British rising stars in single-seater motorsport.
As well as joining a list of previous winners that includes 2009 Formula 1 world champion Jenson Button, current frontrunners Lando Norris and George Russell, and 13-time grand prix victor David Coulthard, the successful finalist will earn an Aston Martin F1 test, £200,000, full membership of the British Racing Drivers’ Club, an Arai helmet and a Jordan Bespoke personalised helmet bag.
Strong campaigns in F3, F4 and GB3 got the quartet selected, an initial 10 finalists being whittled down by the judging panel led by Derek Warwick in September. Then there’s a reset. The scores for each were zero when they began the process in October: it’s all about what they did during the assessments that followed, though the level of experience each finalist brings into the competition is always considered.
Insight: How to win the Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Award
As usual, the finalists conducted simulator tests courtesy of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team before getting their hands on real racing cars. Each was given 40 laps on the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit with a virtual Mercedes W14. Three runs were done with a baseline set-up, while in the final one a blind set-up change was done to test the drivers’ feedback and ability to adapt.
A full simulator report was sent to the judges, with the finalists scored across pace, consistency, feedback and approach/attitude. As a sign of things to come, this year’s quartet were covered by just three points out of 20, with one scoring 18/20.
Due to tight schedules, the fitness tests – conducted by Athletic Thinking – had to wait until after the driving element in 2023, so the next stop was Silverstone.
Source: Autosport