As he looks back over a year that saw him truly stake his claim as one of the most outstanding drivers of his generation, Jordan King has received praise and accolades from far-and-wide – and he insists that he will not be taking his foot off the throttle for even a split-second as he shifts his attentions towards maintaining his upward momentum in 2014.
During a magnificent maiden campaign at Formula 3 level, King was crowned British Formula Three International Series Champion at the first time of asking, placed a superb sixth out of no less than 36 competitors in the fiercely-disputed FIA Formula 3 European Championship – by some margin the leading rookie – and clinched a top five finish and fastest lap in the prestigious end-of-season Macau F3 Grand Prix.
Those remarkable achievements earned the gifted Warwickshire ace the coveted Spencer Charrington Trophy at the glittering British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC) awards ceremony, in the company of motorsport luminaries of the ilk of Sir Stirling Moss, John Surtees and Christian Horner.
King’s eye-catching form was similarly recognised when an elite judging panel – including a former Commonwealth Games gold-medalist – selected him as runner-up in the ‘Sportsman of the Year’ category at the inaugural Birmingham Sports Awards, introduced to celebrate sporting excellence in the West Midlands in 2013.
“Jordan is one of the UK’s most promising and talented young racing drivers and his performances over the past year have seen him firmly establish himself as one of the leading prospects in his sport,” read a judges’ statement. “For this reason, we felt he was a valid and worthy candidate for the ‘Sportsman of the Year’ award and wish him all the luck for the future.”
Taking to his new challenge like the proverbial duck to water, the highly-rated Stoneleigh-based hotshot demonstrated scintillating raw speed from the outset. He immediately set the tone for the remainder of the campaign by lining up an eyebrow-raising eighth on his European debut at Monza, going on to start inside the top ten on the grid for more than 70 per cent of the season’s races and winding up as the championship’s sixth-best qualifier on average – the quickest of Carlin’s five regular contenders.
That quintet included new Scuderia Toro Rosso F1 recruit Daniil Kvyat, who found himself out-qualified by King on no fewer than ten occasions and outraced eight times out of 17 in identical Volkswagen-powered Dallara single-seaters – a sure-fire yardstick of the Briton’s inherent pace and potential if ever one was needed.
Precociously snatching the race lead in only his third F3 outing at Hockenheim ranked amongst the countless highlights, as did impressive podiums at both the Red Bull Ring and Zandvoort. The former McLaren Autosport Award finalist was, moreover, one of just six drivers to score in every meeting, tallying 20 top ten finishes in all.
Macau was indisputably another memorable moment, as King skilfully rebounded from a practice shunt that left him on the back foot to outgun some big-hitters indeed on his way to a tremendous top five finish. But for his early setback, the rostrum would likely have been within reach.
Describing F3 as the ‘natural progression’ from Formula Renault – in which he had competed in 2011 and 2012 – the BRDC SuperStar and recently-promoted MSA Team UK member tailored an increasingly structured approach as the campaign advanced to ensure he maximised every single track time opportunity and every single result. It was a strategy that reaped rich rewards.
“It’s been a great year,” King acknowledged. “I’ve learned more this season than in any other of my career so far, without a doubt. I really gelled with the team right from the ‘off’, and the Carlin boys all did a brilliant job throughout.
“I’ve developed so much in every aspect – from my understanding of the car and what I need from it to extract the maximum performance to working with the engineers and managing safety car re-starts. You have a lot more technical freedom in F3 and I now know what areas to focus upon to make the car faster, rather than persistently trying to fix small problems that will only generate minor improvements.
“It’s so easy as a young driver to get caught up in wanting to be at the top of the timesheets in each session because that’s how you grab the headlines, but sometimes it’s necessary to appreciate the bigger picture and accept that you will end up further down the pecking-order in practice in the interests of saving tyres or fine-tuning your set-up for when it really counts. When you’re up against so many ultra-competitive rivals all every bit as eager to prove themselves as you are, it requires a fair degree of self-discipline to not always push flat-out.
“I’d say the FIA Formula 3 European Championship is probably the most competitive single-seater series outside of F1 right now, with a capacity field and a seriously high calibre of drivers and teams. At Vallelunga, pretty much the entire grid was separated by just a second in qualifying, and at the Norisring, only two thousandths covered the top three.
“There was an awful lot of experience out there, with some drivers in their third or even fourth year at F3 level – and the vast majority were bloody quick as well! Quite a few of the front-runners have top F1 teams behind them, so it was extremely satisfying to not only take the fight to them but actually beat them on occasion, too. That was immensely encouraging.”
It certainly was, and King’s accomplishment in British F3 – triumphing four times and snaring four further podiums en route to the title – was no less noteworthy. The 19-year-old Hugo Boss brand ambassador has achieved a great deal over a comparatively short period since graduating from karting at the tail end of 2010, but he is adamant that he is in no mood to rest upon his laurels.
“Perhaps it wasn’t the strongest year there has ever been in British F3, but I still had to win it and to add my name to the likes of Ayrton Senna and Jackie Stewart on the champions’ trophy felt very special,” he confessed. “It was a tough battle, and the momentum kept swinging back-and-forth.
“At the end of the day, this was only my third season in cars and I’m already nearly halfway up the ladder to where I ultimately want to be. I have a lot more yet to learn of course, but we’re definitely headed in the right direction – 2013 represented a massive step forward and it really felt like all the pieces of the jigsaw fitted perfectly into place.
“Four years ago when I was in karting, I could never have envisioned myself being crowned British F3 Champion and it does feel slightly surreal, in truth – but having worked so hard to get here, I’ve no intention of easing up now.”
“Jordan has been a revelation,” concurred Carlin Racing Director Trevor Carlin. “He showed great pace at the start of the year, and he built upon that steadily with every event and consequently by the end of the season was quite often a pace-setter. He displayed a very mature attitude throughout the year and managed a championship campaign in British F3 perfectly.
“That in-turn gave him more confidence in the final rounds of the FIA Formula 3 European Championship, whilst Macau crystallised the progress he has made; finishing fifth and top rookie – with three laps good enough for fastest lap – just shows the potential he has. He will be one to watch over the next few seasons.”
