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Macau Grand Prix victor Dan Ticktum was announced as the 29th winner of the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award at the 2017 Autosport Awards in London.
Ticktum will receive the opportunity to test a McLaren Formula 1 car and play a simulator role with the team, as well as full BRDC membership and an Arai crash helmet.
The 18-year-old became a Red Bull junior at the start of 2017, ahead of his first full season following a ban for a clash behind a safety car in '15.
Ticktum's main campaign was in the Formula Renault Eurocup, in which he took a race victory on his way to seventh in the standings with series newcomer Arden.
He also contested the final three meetings of the GP3 Series with DAMS, scoring a podium in Abu Dhabi, and won the Macau GP for Motopark.
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His Eurocup performances were enough to earn him a finalist spot, alongside BRDC F3 champion Enaam Ahmed, fellow Eurocup race winner Max Fewtrell and Euroformula Open dominator Harrison Scott.
The quartet went head to head over two intensive days of assessments at Silverstone in October, featuring on-track tests on the Grand Prix circuit in Formula 2, Mercedes DTM and McLaren GT3 cars, plus fitness tests conducted by McLaren.
"I had an amazing weekend in Macau and this has exceed that," said Ticktum.
"I cannot put into words how proud I am right now to have won this award.
"It's been an incredible experience right from the outset. The two days were incredibly difficult and having to wait six weeks to find out who the winner was was agonising to say the least.
"People know I had a tough career to start with and there have been some very important people who believed in me, particularly Red Bull, Christian Horner, Dr Helmut Marko - they've given me a chance and I hope I can do them proud.
"I fought back and learned from my mistakes and my immaturity and I'm stronger because of it."
The judging panel was led by ex-F1 driver, 1992 world sportscar champion and outgoing BRDC president Derek Warwick, and comprised two-time British Touring Car champion Jason Plato, 1997 Award winner and GT boss Andrew Kirkaldy, ex-F1 designer and engineer Mark Williams, leading circuit commentator Ian Titchmarsh, Autosport magazine editor Kevin Turner and Autosport Plus editor Scott Mitchell.
Spa 24 Hours victor and 2008 Award winner Alexander Sims was the guest judge.
"It's such a big challenge for these guys at this stage in their career to jump into these three different cars," said Sims.
"Dan this year was outstanding."
Sims was joined by McLaren's Eric Boullier, Turner and BRDC chairman John Grant to present Ticktum with the Award.
Other previous Award winners include 13-time GP victor David Coulthard, 2009 F1 world champion Jenson Button and triple Indianapolis 500 winner Dario Franchitti.
