Aston Martin Lagonda announced Johnathan Hoggard as the 2019 Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Award winner.
The 19-year-old Briton, from Spalding in Lincolnshire, was awarded the most prestigious honour in junior motorsport during the gala Autosport Awards ceremony held at the Grosvenor House Hotel, on London’s Park Lane.
Hoggard, who finished runner-up in the 2019 BRDC British F3 Championship with seven victories, earns a full test in an Aston Martin Red Bull Racing Formula 1 car on the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit, as well as a run in the Aston Martin Racing Vantage GTE FIA World Endurance Championship challenger. He also received a cheque for £200,000 presented to him by Aston Martin Lagonda President and Group CEO, Dr Andy Palmer, a full membership to the BRDC and an Arai crash helmet.
Hoggard joins a star-studded list of former winners that includes 2009 Formula 1 world champion Jenson Button, three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Dario Franchitti, and several Le Mans 24 Hours class winners including Aston Martin’s Darren Turner. The roll of honour also includes current Formula 1 drivers George Russell and Lando Norris.
To win the Award, Hoggard had to compete against three other talented finalists, Japanese F3 race winner Enaam Ahmed (19), W Series champion Jamie Chadwick (21) and BRDC British F3 race winner Ayrton Simmons (18), in an intensive two-day shoot-out at Silverstone in four 550bhp Motorsport Vision F2 cars, Garage 59’s Aston Martin Vantage GT3 and a Ligier LMP3 prototype.
Moreover, the finalists were subjected to an extensive fitness and simulator assessment at the Red Bull Racing headquarters in Milton Keynes, prior to their on-track examination.
“I’m over the moon and a little lost for words,” said Hoggard. “It’s been over a month I’ve been waiting to find out about this [since the end of the assessment], and it’s been agonising. I’m thankful for everyone who’s helped along the way; family, sponsors, judges and the organisers Aston Martin, Autosport and the BRDC. I knew it was a very tough competition and it’s amazing to have actually won it.”
The judging panel was led by Judges’ Chairman, 1992 World Sportscar champion and former Grand Prix driver Derek Warwick and included Turner, 24 Hours of Le Mans-winning engineer Leena Gade, Garage 59 team owner Andrew Kirkaldy, Jason Plato, Alexander Sims, Ian Titchmarsh, Autosport editor Kevin Turner and Mark Williams. They concluded Hoggard the winner after a fiercely-contested event that shone a bright light on the outstanding talent of all four finalists.
This year marked the first time in the 37-year history of the Award that Aston Martin Lagonda has been the title partner alongside the world-renowned Autosport media platform, which celebrates its 70th anniversary in 2020 and the British Racing Drivers’ Club, owner of Silverstone, the home of British motorsport and also Aston Martin’s High Performance Test Centre.