Matthew Parry (born 14 January 1994) is a British former racing driver.

Career

Karting

Born in Cardiff, Parry entered

karting Kart racing or karting is a motorsport discipline using open-wheel, four-wheeled vehicles known as go-karts or shifter karts. They are usually raced on scaled-down circuits, although some professional kart races are also held on full-size motor ...

in 2006, when he finished second in the Hoddesdon Kart Club Championship Minimax. His biggest success was in the last year of his karting career, winning the Super 1 National Rotax Max Junior championship in 2010.

Formula Ford & InterSteps

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

Parry made his début in

single-seaters An open-wheel car is a car with the wheels outside the car's main body, and usually having only one seat. Open-wheel cars contrast with street cars, sports cars, stock cars, and touring cars, which have their wheels below the body or inside fend ...

, taking part in the

British Formula Ford Championship The British Formula Ford Championship was an entry-level single seater Auto racing, motor racing category, designed to give racing drivers their first step into car racing after karting. Drivers from around the world were attracted to the United ...

with Fluid Motorsport. He finished eighth with eighteen point-scoring finishes in 24 races. For 2012, he decided to switch to the InterSteps championship for

Fortec Motorsport Fortec Motorsport Ltd. is a motor-racing team that races in the GB3 Championship, GB4 Championship, and F4 British Championship. The team was bought in 1995 by current owner Richard Dutton. Past drivers for the team include Juan Pablo Montoya, ...

s. He took thirteen wins and a total of 21 podiums in 23 races on his way to the championship title.

Formula Renault

Parry continued his collaboration with Fortec for the 2013 Formula Renault 2.0 NEC season. He won five races during the season to take the championship title, taking four further podium finishes. His performances earned him a nomination for the

McLaren Autosport BRDC Award The Silverstone Autosport BRDC Award is an award set up in 1989, following the demise of the Grovewood Awards, to reward and recognise young racing drivers from the UK. As its names suggest, the award is backed by Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone, ...

for the first time. On 1 December 2013, after the evaluation tests held at

Silverstone Silverstone is a village and civil parish in the West Northamptonshire unitary authority area of Northamptonshire, England. The village is about south-southwest of Towcester and northeast of Brackley, both accessed via the A43 road, A43 main ...

, Parry was named as the winner of the award, taking the £100,000 cash prize and a

Formula One Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...

test with

McLaren McLaren Racing Limited ( ) is a British auto racing, motor racing team based at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, Surrey, England. The team is a subsidiary of the McLaren Group, which owns a majority of the team. McLaren is best known a ...

. In 2014, Parry continued racing in Formula Renault, this time competing in

Formula Renault Eurocup Formula Renault Eurocup was a Formula Renault motor racing championship. Eurocup raced only on European circuits. It served as a support series to the Formula Renault 3.5 Series as part of the World Series by Renault from 2005 to 2015. Renault S ...

. He again raced with Fortec Motorsports, with whom he competed for in 2012 and 2013. He continued to race as part of the Caterham Racing Academy, of which he has been part since 2011.

GP3 Series

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

, Parry made his GP3 debut with

Koiranen GP Koiranen Kemppi Motorsport, formerly also known as Koiranen bros. Motorsport and Koiranen GP, is a Finnish auto racing team based in Lahti, Finland. The team currently fields a one car entry in the LMP3 class of Asian Le Mans Series and Prototype ...

alongside

Jimmy Eriksson Jimmy Joakim Eriksson (born 14 March 1991 in Tomelilla) is a Swedish race car driver who drove in the GP2 Series for Arden International in the 2016 GP2 Series Career Karting Eriksson made his karting debut in 2005, at the age of fourteen. In ...

and

Adderly Fong Adderly Fong Cheun-yue (Traditional Chinese: 方駿宇; Pinyin: ''Fāng Jùnyǔ''; born March 2, 1990) is a Canadian-Hong Kong racing driver. His career started in 2004. He is currently competing in the Blancpain GT World Challenge Asia racing se ...

. In July 2016, Parry won his first race at the Hungaroring in Hungary after starting from second place on the grid. He had a good weekend overall, topping Friday practice and almost being on pole until he was pipped by

Nyck de Vries Hendrik Johannes Nicasius "Nyck" de Vries (; born 6 February 1995) is a Dutch racing driver, who competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship for Toyota Gazoo Racing, Toyota and in Formula E for Mahindra Racing, Mahindra. In formula racing, ...

. In the second race the following morning Parry crossed the line in P6, later to finish P5 as fellow GP3 driver

Jack Aitken Jack Anthony Han-Aitken (Korean language, Korean: 한세용, ''Han Se-yong''; born 23 September 1995) is a British and South Korean racing driver, who competes in the IMSA SportsCar Championship for Action Express Racing, Cadillac Whelen and i ...

got a 5-second penalty for causing a collision with Parry's teammate

Ralph Boschung Ralph Boschung (; born 23 September 1997) is a retired Swiss people, Swiss racing driver who most recently competed in the 2023 Formula 2 Championship, 2023 FIA Formula 2 Championship for Campos Racing. He is a race winner in the 2016 GP3 Series ...

Racing record

Career summary

^† As Parry was a guest driver, he was ineligible for points.

Complete Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) † As Parry was a guest driver, he was ineligible for points

Complete Formula Renault 2.0 NEC results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Complete Formula Renault 2.0 Alps Series results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) † As Parry was a guest driver, he was ineligible for points

Complete GP3 Series results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Parry, Matt 1994 births Living people Sportspeople from Cardiff Welsh racing drivers Formula Ford drivers Formula Renault 2.0 NEC drivers Formula Renault Eurocup drivers Formula Renault 2.0 Alps drivers GP3 Series drivers GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup drivers Fluid Motorsport Development drivers Fortec Motorsport drivers Koiranen GP drivers R-Motorsport drivers Nismo drivers 24 Hours of Spa drivers