Louis Sharp proud of his performance in quest for coveted accolade

As one the four finalists in this year’s Silverstone Autosport BRDC Award, rising star Louis Sharp has just savoured a stellar shoot-out for one of the most prestigious prizes in junior motorsport.

Underlining its importance, previous winners of this highly-prized ‘Young Driver of the Year’ accolade include 2009 F1 world champion Jenson Button, multiple grand prix winner David Coulthard, current F1 front-runners Lando Norris and George Russell as well as triple Indianapolis 500 winner Dario Franchitti.

This year’s victor not only joins that star-studded roster but also receives a career-fuelling £200,000 plus a money-can’t-buy F1 test with the Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team.

Though brought up in New Zealand, Sharp qualifies for an award that aims to find and assist the best junior British racing driver as he was born in Nottingham, England, before his family moved abroad. Moreover, Louis has strengthened his ties with the UK in more recent times having moved back to these shores and earned his spurs by becoming the first young prodigy to win back-to-back British F4 and GB3 titles, both with Rodin Motorsport.

Claiming consecutive crowns was a remarkable achievement which secured the 17-year-old a place among this year’s Award finalists where he was joined by three other highly talented teenagers also boasting stand-out credentials.

In what was one of the strongest shortlists in the coveted award’s long history, fellow finalists were Deagen Fairclough and Freddie Slater, both F4 champions in 2024, and Arvid Lindblad, already a multiple winner in FIA F3 and who is being fast-tracked towards F1 by Red Bull. All four are tipped for future stardom within the sport.

After completing fitness tests conducted by Porsche Human Performance and a simulator element hosted by the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team, the chosen quartet were evaluated over two exhilarating days at the home of the British Grand Prix during which their talents were tested in three very different competition cars from further up the motorsport ladder: MotorSport Vision F2, RLR M Sport Ligier LMP3 and Beechdean Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage GT3.

Building suspense, no lap times were shared or published and the four finalists will have to wait until the Autosport Awards in late January to discover the verdict of the judging panel which includes multiple BTCC champion Jason Plato, Le Mans class winner Darren Turner and is chaired by racing legend and BRDC vice-president Derek Warwick (photo above).

“It was an absolutely incredible experience and, regardless of the final result, one I will treasure for a very long time,” reported a delighted Sharp. “The organisation was ultra-impressive and I learned so much that will stand me in good stead for the future. It was a lot of fun, too.

“The biggest challenge was adapting your driving style to three very different cars in quick succession,” revealed Louis. “More so, as it was the first time I’d driven any of those three cars or a car with driver aids like traction control or ABS braking or, indeed, a car with a roof over my head!”

All three thoroughbred machines were also far more powerful than the junior single-seaters the teenager has raced so impressively to date.

“The F2 car was really good,” he grinned. “It had lots of power and thus wheelspin to manage when you first get on the throttle which was a little tricky to begin with. The LMP3 car needed a totally different driving style and took a little bit of time to adapt to. The GT3, though, was the big surprise. I thought it was going to be big, heavy and have lots of understeer, but in fact it was well balanced and lots and lots of fun. Overall it was a privilege to drive all three of them and there could be few better places for such an experience than on the full Silverstone Grand Prix circuit.”

Louis will now have to wait until after Christmas to find out whether he did enough to impress the judges more than any of his rivals.

“They gave absolutely nothing away,” confirmed Sharp. “At the end of the day, it’s not just about being the fastest on track but also about how you handle yourself when out of the car – being the whole package, in other words. Regardless of the outcome, it was a massive honour to be selected for the final and, most importantly, I can safely say that I gave it my all and I’m proud of what I was able to achieve.”

Having won successive F4 and GB3 Championship crowns, Sharp is now stepping up to contest the 2025 FIA F3 Championship with Rodin Motorsport.