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How the Award winner is chosen

The 2013 McLaren AUTOSPORT BRDC Award was a hard-fought contest as the judges looked for the next British motorsport star. KEVIN TURNER explains how the six finalists were assessed

Autosport Awards

The Autosport Awards are a series of awards presented by motor racing magazine Autosport to drivers that have achieved significant milestones each season. Some of the presentations are selected by the general public via a reader's poll.

The process for selecting the best up-and-coming British motorsport talent has evolved a lot over the history of the McLaren AUTOSPORT BRDC Award. Inaugural winner David Coulthard was simply chosen on the back of his fine Formula Ford performances in 1989, but the system is now rather more complex and analytical.

This year's judges - BRDC president Derek Warwick, double British Touring Car champion Jason Plato, former GT ace and Award winner Andrew Kirkaldy, McLaren head of vehicle engineering Mark Williams, leading commentator Ian Titchmarsh and yours truly - had access to a fantastic amount of data.

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Author Kevin Turner

Kevin Turner is Autosport’s Chief Editor. While studying History at the University of York, Kevin began covering UK club events as a freelance reporter for Autosport and Motorsport News. He joined the Autosport staff as Editorial Assistant on the magazine in 2006, winning what is now known as the Motorsport UK Young Journalist of the Year Award. He became National Editor in 2008 and over the next few seasons covered a range of international events, including the Le Mans 24 Hours, as well as the British Touring Car Championship and British GT. Kevin became Features Editor before switching to edit Motorsport News in 2014.

He returned to Autosport in 2016 to become editor of the magazine, a dream job that is still part of his role.

He became Chief Editor in 2020, helping to plan content for autosport.com and Autosport’s podcast as well as seeing the magazine through the coronavirus pandemic. Kevin also led work on the special publication celebrating 70 years of Autosport and has been a judge on the Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Young Driver Award, formerly known as the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award, since 2008. He lives in Warboys with his wife and two children.