DC likes to arrive early, so winning the inaugural McLaren Autosport BRDC Award will doubtless be very satisfying. Unlike an appearance as a Bond Girl, winning the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award is not a barrier to future employment. DC went on to enjoy great success in Formula 3, F3000 and a rapid 15 seasons in F1. He won 13 grands prix – including a dozen for McLaren, two of which came in Monaco. Since hanging up his helmet, David has grasped the microphone and put that lowlands lilt to good use as F1’s Mister Schmooooth.

Dario Franchitti won the Formula Vauxhall Junior Championship in 1991 and the main title in 1993. However he would only really hit the big time when he headed out West. The Scotsman was a regular race winner in Champ Car, and later notched up four IndyCar series Championships and three Indianapolis 500 wins, suggesting that he may have made a good career choice to turn down a test driver role with McLaren in 1997 when the ITC folded. ‘Dario Speedwagon’ has also won the Daytona 24 Hours, and tried his hand at NASCAR and V8 Supercars. He’s due to be inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2019.

Of course Jenson Button is a winner of the McLaren Autosport BRDC award. He has, after all, won everything else. Jenson won the award after bunking off school (judging by the pictures) to do the double of British Formula Ford Championship and Formula Ford Festival in 1998. The then world champion came to McLaren in 2010, and took a further eight Grand Prix victories, before retiring – sort of – from F1 at the end of 2016. He made a one-off appearance at the 2017 Monaco Grand Prix (driving Fernando’s car, while he contested the Indy 500 with McLaren), but has now turned his attention to sportscars. 

By the time he won the Award, Gary Paffett was used to winning our trophies, having already secured the McLaren Mercedes Karting Champion of the Future award a few years earlier. After winning, Gary moved in Formula 3, winning the British F3 National Class in 2000 and German Formula 3 in 2002. At this point he had already started compiling the 22,747 testing kilometres he would complete for McLaren before leaving the team in 2013. It is, however, in touring cars that Bromley’s Finest has had his greatest success, winning the DTM Championship in 2005 and 2018.

Anthony Davidson must do testing laps in his sleep. Excellent feedback, wonderful stamina and a refusal to get bored, no matter the provocation were the poisoned chalice that made Ant one of the world’s most sought-after test driver. He notched up over 80,000km [you read that right] for various Honda-powered F1 cars between 2001 - 2008. He’s currently racing in WEC’s LMP2 category, but is perhaps best known to the wider world as the only person at Sky Sports F1 who knows how to use the big touch-screen properly.

Paul di Resta is the second member of his family to win the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award, following in the footsteps of his cousin, 1992 winner Dario Franchitti. Di Resta underlines how the Award spots potential rather than rewarding success. He finished third in the 2004 Formula Renault UK Championship but subsequently went on to achieve greater things. Di Resta moved into F1 full-time in 2011 and completed three seasons with the Silverstone team, then returned to DTM but also became a Sky Sport F1 pundit. 

Oliver Turvey won the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award in 2008, following impressive results in Formula BMW, Formula Renault 2.0 and the British Formula 3 Championship. He’s been our test driver for a decade but most of his work happens deep inside McLaren HQ, piloting the simulator, where his skills as a race driver are complimented by his academic background as a graduate engineer (and thus, he’s also the answer to the pub quiz questions: who’s the first racing driver to be awarded a Full Blue at Cambridge University?). Oliver currently juggles WEC commitments with Formula E.

With Lando, winning the McLaren Autosport BRDC award was more a question of when, rather than if. Lando received the usual glittering prizes of a drive in the F1 car, simulator time and access to the finest driver fitness programme in the land – we then signed him to the McLaren Young Driver programme. Shortly after being announced as our 2019 F1 race driver, Lando highlighted the significance of his McLaren Autosport BRDC Award, saying: "I probably wouldn't be in this situation now without it."