British F3 race winner Lando Norris claims prestigious McLaren AUTOSPORT BRDC AwardLando Norris, a four-time race winner in this year’s BRDC British Formula 3 Championship partnered by Duo, has been named the winner of the prestigious McLaren AUTOSPORT BRDC Award at the end-of-season Autosport Awards ceremony held at Grosvenor House in London last night (Sunday 4 December).
The 17-year-old saw off three other rivals and was selected as the victor by a panel of judges consisting of motorsport industry experts to claim the prize package, which includes a paid simulator role with McLaren, a test in one of the Woking-based team’s F1 cars and BRDC membership. He also claimed the British Club Driver of the Year Award earlier in the evening.
Norris follows in the footsteps of the two previous winners, Will Palmer and George Russell, to win the award when competing in the UK’s leading single-seater series, which was previously named BRDC Formula 4 and renamed to BRDC British F3 this year. The Glastonbury-based racer saw off fellow British F3 rivals Ricky Collard and Toby Sowery, along with former BRDC F4 race winner Sennan Fielding.The four nominees underwent fitness and simulator assessments before facing a rigorous two-day test on the Grand Prix Circuit at Silverstone in Formula 2 single-seater, DTM Mercedes and McLaren 650S GT3 machinery. The quartet then faced interviews with a panel of experts before the judges, consisting of BRDC President Derek Warwick and two-time British Touring Car Champion Jason Plato among others, selected Norris as the winner.
After collecting the Award, Norris said: "I've been pretty nervous coming up to it. It's been great, the racing success this year, but this has really topped it off. I need to give a lot of respect to the other drivers - Ricky, Sennan and Toby. I've raced against them for the past few years, we've given each other a lot of respect and they've made my life hard."
Norris enjoyed a stellar 2016 season, taking four wins in a partial British F3 campaign with victories at Snetterton and Rockingham, before the Carlin man scored a brace of wins on the legendary Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium. He also claimed the Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup and Northern European Cup titles, to accompany his Toyota Racing Series crown which he secured at the start of the year.
The McLaren AUTOSPORT BRDC Award was established in 1989 to help progress the careers of outstanding young single-seater British racing drivers, with previous winners including F1 race winner David Coulthard, three-time Indy 500 winner Dario Franchitti and F1 World Champion Jenson Button.
