Joseph Loake claimed his Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year prize on Wednesday, completing 25 timed laps as he got behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car for the first time.
The 19-year-old, who currently competes in Formula 3 for Rodin, was announced as the AMABA winner at the Autosport Awards in December last year, also received £200,000, full British Racing Drivers' Club membership, an Arai helmet and a Jordan Bespoke personalised helmet bag.
Following a single installation lap, Loake enjoyed a nine-lap ‘circuit and car familiarisation’ run before setting a baseline pace on both hard and soft tyres.
To round out the day, two further runs on new hard and then new soft tyres gave Loake the full F1 experience.
“Words don’t really describe how crazy a machine this is,” said Loake.
“It’s just such a special day for me. Obviously, I hope to drive a car like this again and hopefully race one and take one to a world championship one day, but the first time is always the most special and it’s a day that I’ll never forget.
“It’s just so incredible that I got this opportunity.”
The final showdown with Taylor Barnard, Callum Voisin and Arvid Lindblad was completed across two days at Silverstone in late 2023, each of them aiming to impress the judges in MotorSport Vision Formula 2, Beechdean Motorsport-run Aston Martin Vantage GT3 and United Autosports Ligier LMP3 machinery.
Elaborating further on his experience, Loake added: “It was just about enjoying my first time in a Formula 1 car.
“It was definitely very difficult to get up to speed and to speed up my brain and everything that goes on. But once you’ve done the first two runs and have figured it out a little bit, you straightaway are trying to find lap time.
“The racing driver in you comes out and you forget that you’re in an F1 car and you think you’re about to go and qualify, so you try to find all of the time you can.”
This year’s finalists will be announced on Thursday, all of whom will hope to join names including David Coulthard, Jenson Button and Lando Norris on the illustrious list of winners.
