Five Motorsport UK Academy stars have been selected as finalists for the prestigious 2023 Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Award.

Looking to follow in the footsteps of 2022 winner and Academy Team UK member Luke Browning are Arvid Lindblad, Tom Mills, Abbie Pulling, Matthew Rees and Callum Voisin, who will be evaluated alongside five other leading lights on the British motorsport scene.

The Award has run since 1989 and continues to be one of the most invaluable for a young driver to win. This year’s prize includes £200,000 and a Formula 1 test drive with the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team.

Motorsport UK Academy drivers selected as finalists for the 2023 Award:

Arvid Lindblad (Futures) is currently leading the highly-competitive Italian F4 championship for leading single-seater outfit Prema Racing. The 16-year-old Red Bull junior has won six races so far and, with just two rounds remaining, has a comfortable points buffer at the top of the table.

Matthew Rees and Callum Voisin (Futures) are proving that consistency is key in the British GT-supporting GB3 Championship. Voisin leads the series for Rodin Carlin and JHR Developments driver Rees is sixth in points, but neither have taken a race victory yet. Voisin was an Award finalist in 2022.

Tom Mills (Futures) races on the same package as he contests – and dominates – his second full season in the GB4 Championship with his family-run Kevin Mills Racing team. The squad is an eponymous name in Formula Ford racing and, unsurprisingly, that’s where the 17-year-old cut his teeth in his first season of cars in 2021. He was a multiple race winner and has continued that trend in GB4 as he leads the way with eight wins from the first 14 races.

Abbi Pulling (Futures) is the leading Motorsport UK Academy representative in the new-for-2023 F1 Academy championship. She’s fifth in the standings with six podiums and a highest finish of second to her name, with just the Austin season finale in October to go. The 20-year-old is also an Alpine Academy member and previously raced in Ginettas, the Motorsport UK ROKiT F4 British Championship certified by FIA, and the F1-supporting W Series, where she finished fourth in the championship last year.

The other five contenders are Taylor Barnard (FIA Formula 3), GB3 frontrunners James Hedley (a graduate of the Futures programme) and Joseph Loake, and British F4 standouts Louis Sharp and William Macintyre.

Past Award winners are a ‘who’s who’ of British racing greats, including 2009 Formula 1 champion Jenson Button, multiple race winner David Coulthard, 2014 World Endurance champion Anthony Davidson, this year’s Formula E victor Jake Dennis and two of the UK’s current Formula 1 standouts in Lando Norris and George Russell.

The ten hopefuls for 2023 honours will be whittled down to just four over the coming weeks as the British racing season reaches its final stages.

The successful quartet will advance to a Silverstone GP circuit test day later in the year to drive a MotorSport Vision Formula 2 car, as well as GT3 and LMP3 machinery. They will also be assessed by the experienced panel on their off-track performances.

The winner will be announced at the annual Autosport Awards on 3 December.