Deagen Fairclough wins Silverstone Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year

After a record-breaking year for the young Brit where he dominated British F4, he takes home the award for Silverstone Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Award.

The procedure for winning the award is that members of the public are asked to nominate drivers for the award. Six drivers are chosen by that year’s awards judging panel who then spend a few days driving at the Silverstone circuit in a variety of different cars and interview sessions so their performance can be evaluated. By the end of the evaluation, the awards panel make their judgement on which driver is worthy of taking home the award. Fairclough stood out from the rest in an excellent show of skill and talent and becomes the next recipient of the award.

Winning this award meant Fairclough earned himself £200,000 and an Aston Martin F1 test drive alongside a full BRDC membership to go with the award. Fairclough becomes the 35th recipient of the award as it aims to boost rising British stars in single seater racing. He would have to face tough competition for the award though as other finalists like Arvid Lindblad, Louis Sharp and Freddie Slater all had the chance to win the award.

Upon winning the award, Fairclough said: “Honestly, this means so, so much. Thank you to every single person, my mum, my dad, my friends. Thank you to Silverstone for setting this up again, 35 years of it, and I hope to follow on in the footsteps of the rest of the winners. I am speechless. It was a fantastic two days. Even if I didn’t win, I learnt so much, and the other drivers made me put so much into it over the two days. It was weird having no phone, as I was worried about not getting up in time each morning! The faces I’ve seen in this building are inspirational. To test an F1 car at 18, not many get to do that, so it is incredible. I am sorry, I am ranting on a bit!”

After making his British F4 debut in 2023, where he finished third in the standings, Deagen went on to claim 14 victories in 2024 in one of the most dominant seasons in the series proving his worth to a number of top individuals proving himself again in the evaluation for the award. The young British F4 champion joins an extraordinary list of talent including 2009 F1 champion Jenson Button, future Season 9 Formula E champion Jake Dennis, thirteen-time F1 race winner David Coulthard and current F1 drivers and multi-time race winners Lando Norris and George Russell.