How the Autosport Young Driver Award winner gets chosen

Autosport's search for the best young British driving talent has been pretty successful over the past 30 years.

David Coulthard became the inaugural Award winner in 1989, with an on-track shootout between a selected group of finalists arriving the following year. Since then, winners have included 2009 Formula 1 world champion Jenson Button, three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Dario Franchitti, 2014 World Endurance champion Anthony Davidson, and current F1 stars George Russell and Lando Norris.

The process to select the winner has also developed a great deal, and the 2019 Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Award finalists were tested across a wide range of disciplines.

So, how did the judging panel assess them?

The process began by selecting the four finalists, based on their performances during the season. There is often strong debate at this stage, but the panel was unanimous in choosing Enaam Ahmed, Jamie Chadwick, Johnathan Hoggard and Ayrton Simmons for 2019.

Once selected, the slate is wiped clean and the finalists start on a level playing field - only their level of experience is taken into account.

After the finalists announcement, the Award truly began for the drivers, with the fitness and simulator tests at Red Bull Racing. Extensive reports were made, which gave the judges hints at possible strengths and weaknesses and what the finalists are like to work with. Although an Award has yet to be decided on these elements, they are important aspects to modern motorsport and are useful in the feedback sessions the judges will provide to all finalists in January.

Then it was off to the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit for the on-track part of the assessment. After seat fittings and briefings, the judges and finalists went to the nearby Plum Park Hotel for an informal dinner. This - and the formal dinner the following night - is not part of the test, but helps everyone get to know each other.

An early-morning briefing the next day was swiftly followed by sighting laps in Silverstone Driving Experience's Aston Martin Vantages. Then it was on to the MotorSport Vision F2 cars. Each finalist gets their own F2 machine, engineer and mechanics - selected at random - for the two days.

This year, with the circuit slightly damp, the judges decided to send the four cars out on wet-weather tyres. These were quickly chewed up and the finalists were soon put on to slicks for two 'familiarisation' runs.

Given that finalists are chosen from the single-seater ladder, the GT and sportscar are important in taking the drivers out of their comfort zones

Then there were two new-tyre runs, which are essentially qualifying-style sessions. No sessions are any more significant than the others - all count and the progress of each finalist is key, as is the consistency of their performance.

Throughout the running, the judges are positioned around the circuit, in the pits and in the judges' HQ, where live timing data is received thanks to TSL.

With on-track running limited in many categories, the need to figure out a car quickly and get on the pace is increasingly important. That's also true in the Award, although it won't trump the overall speed shown during the tests.

With the F2 runs and debriefs completed, attention turned to the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 and Ligier LMP3 machines. There was one of each and the drivers had to take it in turns, so direct comparison was harder than with the F2s, in which the drivers are all on track at the same time.

But the benchmark drivers - in this case, judges Darren Turner in the Aston and Alexander Sims in the Ligier - provided useful comparisons and could check track evolution, as well as helping the finalists adapt to the cars.

Being benchmark drivers also gave them extra insight when it came to the judging process.

"The most impressive thing was that they came over from the F2 and switched completely into GT3 mode to try and extract the most performance," says Turner. "All of them did an exceptional job in the GT3 car - lap time performance was very good and there were no mistakes.

"It was interesting that the person who did the best was the person who asked the most questions beforehand. The ambient temperature was quite cold. The tyres came out of the oven and then dropped away and then plateaued, so the best lap was generally at the beginning of the run. One driver really understood that."

Given that finalists are chosen from the single-seater ladder, the GT and sportscar are important in taking the drivers out of their comfort zones. Seeing who adapts best gives a good indication into how well the drivers will perform as they progress in their careers.

"It's important to see them in challenging new environments to assess how they adapt their driving and push the new-found limits," confirms Sims. "Often, the drivers have only done a couple of years in single-seaters, so the range of machinery is important."

Day one ran so smoothly that, with rain threatening for day two, there was time for the drivers to jump back into the F2 cars again and have a go with the 'push-to-pass' overboost, providing an extra 50bhp, taking it to nearly 500bhp. This throws an extra variable at the finalists and puts the pressure on in terms of avoiding errors.

At the end of the day, the judges received feedback on each of the drivers from the Garage 59 team running the Aston Martin and the Ligier squad. The drivers are ranked in terms of their performance and how they interacted with the team members.

Prior to day two's running, the judges interviewed the finalists to see how things were going and what their plans were. The judges are there to assist as much as possible. The idea is to help each finalist perform to the best of their ability, not trip them up - 'be friends, not policemen' - so asking questions is encouraged.

The four finalists - and the motorsport world - will find out who that person is on Sunday when the 31st winner is announced at the 2019 Autosport Awards

The second day started dry, so there were two more F2 runs with slicks. The final test was a pursuit in which the aim was to cover 10 flying laps in the lowest time. It rained heavily before the session, so the judges got to see the finalists perform in the wet.

Sadly, the conditions worsened so the session was red-flagged after just seven laps, but that was enough to establish a firm order. The engineers then gave their feedback before leaving the judges to deliberate.

Although the Award is judged across the entire process, there have been some standout moments over the years. Button was sensational in the Super Touring Nissan Primera in 1998, Sims outpaced the DTM benchmark driver in 2008, and Dan Ticktum showed star quality on slick tyres on a drying track in '17.

Chairman of the judges, ex-F1 driver and British Racing Drivers' Club vice-president Derek Warwick, believes the average level of the finalists has improved over the years, with all the extra data across three cars sometimes required to really separate the drivers.

"Every year I'm stunned by the organisation, motivation and fitness of the finalists, and how prepared they are," he says. "This year was no different.

"I'm amazed how they can cope so well, going from low-power, low-downforce to beasts of cars. When you come off the back of great winners such as Oliver Rowland, Jake Dennis, George Russell, Lando Norris and Dan Ticktum, you wonder how you can reproduce it, but we had four great drivers. They proved they were worthy finalists and one in particular really surprised me."

The four finalists - and the motorsport world - will find out who that person is on Sunday when the 31st winner is announced at the 2019 Autosport Awards.

The 2019 finalists

Enaam Ahmed

Age 19
Japanese F3 race winner (and 2017 Award finalist)

"I didn't drive the LMP3 car in 2017 and that was my favourite this time around. The steering was super-sharp and you have to get your head around that because the car is very neutral. The GT3 car is very different to what I normally drive, but since then I went and qualified a Vantage third [in his session] for the Kyalami 9 Hours so it was still a really useful experience.

"It was great that we got to do the last day in the wet. I think that was one of my best sessions. The wait is hard, though. At the Awards the winner is revealed right at the end so you just get more nervous!"

Jamie Chadwick

Age 21
MRF Challenge and W Series Champion

"It's such a cool process and you have the full Grand Prix circuit all to yourself. After watching [2018 Award winner] Tom Gamble have his F1 test, that is enough of an incentive. I wasn't expecting to get as much driving as we had - five new tyre runs in the F2 car.

"I think that's not really like anything any of us had driven for a while and I absolutely loved it. With the power and the boost button, it's a very rewarding car. Rain on the second day did make it a bit of a handful, though, as it's such a heavy car. It was also amazing to jump back into a GT car, but the Ligier LMP3 was my favourite."

Johnathan Hoggard

Age 19
BRDC British F3 runner-up

"Coming in I was quite nervous. You have two days to show everything you've got but I think it went quite well. It's hard not knowing how well you've done as there's no data so it's like having one of your senses taken off you.

"Since the shootout I've had to keep myself busy and not worry, but I really enjoyed all three cars and it's a great experience to jump out of one and into something different. I've never driven anything with a roof before, so that was my first taste of a GT car or a prototype. Because of that, I really tried to use the reference drivers."

Ayrton Simmons

Age 18
BRDC British F3 race winner

"I think it went very well, much smoother than I expected for what is an intense two days. Especially in the F2 car, I didn't feel out of place. I've never driven a GT3 car before and considering that I think it went well, but I did struggle in the higher-speed corners with a lack of downforce.

"I was actually looking forward to driving in the wet to spice things up - managing that in a car with double the power to what I'm used to and some turbo lag thrown in there as well. It's been an intense wait and as you get closer to finding out you just want to know more and more."