Best young British racing driver to be awarded £50,000 and F1 test The countdown to the biggest night of the year has begun for six young British racing drivers who are bidding to become the next Jenson Button.
Five men and one woman, aged 18 to 21, face ten more days of anxious waiting before one of them receives a major career boost at the Autosport Awards, the annual ‘Oscars’ night of the global motor sport industry, at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London’s Park Lane on Sunday 5 December.
In front of an international audience of 1,200 people, including motor sport’s most powerful movers-and-shakers, one of the six young Britons will be announced as winner of the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award - an accolade which brings overnight recognition as motor racing’s next hot property, a £50,000 cash prize and the chance to test drive a McLaren Mercedes Formula 1 car.
Previous winners of the Award include Grand Prix stars Jenson Button (1998) and David Coulthard (1989), and Indy Racing League frontrunner Dario Franchitti (1992). The most recent Award winner to graduate to Formula 1 is Anthony Davidson (2000), who was test driver and official reserve driver this year for British American Racing, the team for whom Button raced to third place in the World Championship.
Button says: “Winning this Award is a real boost for a young driver. It brings you to the attention of everybody in motorsport, including the Formula 1 teams, and presents you with a great opportunity to showcase your talent.”
All six nominees for this year’s McLaren Autosport BRDC Award ran at the front of single-seater championships this season. Tim Bridgman, 19, is a fitness fanatic who also participates in boxing, watersports and wakeboarding; Mike Conway, 21, is a protégé of former Grand Prix racer Martin Donnelly; Paul di Resta, 21, a cousin of Dario Franchitti, works for his family’s Edinburgh night club but says clubbing can wait until later in life, for now he’d rather focus on racing; Jonathan Kennard, 19, captains a 49ers sailing team and plays the saxophone at local gigs; Scott Mansell, 18, is no relation to Nigel Mansell, even though he also hails from the West Midlands; and Susie Stoddart, 21, previously a ski racer, says she wants to be to motorsport what Ellen MacArthur is to sailing
People power to recognise this year’s motorsport stars
As reality TV has shown, the great British public loves the opportunity to choose its own winners and losers - and it will be people power which decides the winners of the other prestigious Autosport Awards, because they are decided by votes cast by readers of Autosport magazine.
Whereas the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award spotlights Britain’s brightest motor racing hope for the future, the other Autosport Awards recognise the stars of today, the competitors (and cars) who have excelled this year.
In the Great Room of the Grosvenor House Hotel, compere Steve Rider will reveal nine Award winners:
International Racing Driver of the Year
Racing Car of the Year
International Rally Driver of the Year
Rally Car of the Year
British Competition Driver of the Year
National Rally driver of the Year
National Racing Driver of the Year (Paul Warwick Trophy)
British Club Driver of the Year
The Pioneering and Innovation Award
Favourites for International Racing Driver of the Year are Michael Schumacher, who scored a record seventh world title this year, and Jenson Button, who led British American Racing’s Formula 1 campaign with confidence.
Button is also a favourite to win British Competition Driver of the Year, although he faces competition from Gary Paffett (who challenged for the DTM saloon car title in Germany with Mercedes), Dan Wheldon (who challenged for the Indy Racing league title), Andy Priaulx (who won the European Touring Car Championship) and Dario Franchitti (who returned to race-winning form after recovering from a back injury).
The British Club Driver of the Year Award sometimes also forecasts stardom (Eddie Irvine won this in 1987, Allan McNish in 1988, David Coulthard in 1989, Dario Franchitti in 1993), as does the National Racing Driver of the Year Award (Martin Brundle 1983, Johnny Herbert 1987, David Coulthard 1991) and the National Rally Driver of the Year Award (Colin McRae 1991 and 1992).
