The Silverstone Autosport BRDC Award is an award set up in 1989, following the demise of the

Grovewood Awards The Grovewood Awards (later becoming the Cellnet Awards and then the McLaren Autosport BRDC Awards) were a series of British motor racing awards presented each year in the United Kingdom to the year's up-and-coming British and Commonwealth of Nation ...

, to reward and recognise young racing drivers from the UK. As its names suggest, the award is backed by

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 ...

, motorsport magazine

Autosport ''Autosport'' is a global motorsport publishing brand headquartered based in Richmond, London, England. It was established in 1950 at the same time as the origins of the Formula One, Formula One World Championship. Autosport began life as a we ...

, and the

British Racing Drivers' Club The British Racing Drivers' Club (BRDC) is an exclusive invitation-only members club for racecar drivers who are judged to have achieved success in the upper levels of motor sport for a number of seasons. Except under exceptional circumstances, ...

(BRDC). As well as the prestige of winning the award, a test drive in an Aston Martin

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 ...

car and £200,000 – increased from £50,000 in 2010 – cash prize, the award winner is also presented with the

Chris Bristow Christopher William Bristow (2 December 1937 – 19 June 1960) was a British Formula One driver. Bristow was the son of a garage owner from London, and was unmarried. Bristow was called the "wild man of British club racing", as he had spun or h ...

Trophy.

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 ...

ended its longstanding partnership with the accolade in January 2019, and was replaced by Aston Martin. The 2019 winner received a test in a

Red Bull Racing Red Bull Racing, currently competing as Oracle Red Bull Racing and also known simply as Red Bull or RBR, is a Formula One racing team, List of Formula One constructors#Team's nationality, competing under an Austrian racing licence and based in ...

car at

, as Aston Martin was the team's sponsor, and test in an

FIA World Endurance Championship The FIA World Endurance Championship, abbreviated as WEC, is a world championship for automobile endurance racing organized by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) and sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The se ...

Aston Martin Vantage __NOTOC__ Aston Martin has used the Vantage name on a number of vehicles, normally indicating a high-performance version of another model. In one case, from 1972–1973, the Vantage was a distinct model, being a straight-6 powered version of th ...

GTE car. The Award was not held in 2020, but since 2021, the winner has received a test in an

Aston Martin F1 Team Aston Martin is a British car manufacturer that has participated in Formula One in various forms and is currently represented by a team named as Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team. The company first participated in Formula One during the 1959 Formula ...

car and an overall £200,000 prize fund.

Procedure

Members of the public are invited to nominate drivers for the award and a shortlist of six finalists is decided upon by the award's judging panel. The finalists then spend two or three days at a British circuit in mid-November driving different types of car to evaluate their performance as well as interview sessions with the panel. The winner is announced at the annual

Autosport Awards The Autosport Awards are a series of awards presented by British motorsport magazine ''Autosport'' to drivers, constructors, executives and promoters for achievements that season in auto racing and rallying. Select awards are voted for by the ...

in early December.

Past winners and nominees

* A total of 134 drivers have been nominated for the prize since it was first handed out.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mclaren Autosport Brdc Award Motorsport in the United Kingdom Auto racing trophies and awards McLaren Group