British Formula 4 champion Deagen Fairclough was named the winner of the 2024 Silverstone Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Award at the Autosport Awards in London on 29 January.

The Motorsport UK Academy driver beat fellow finalists Arvid Lindblad, Louis Sharp and Freddie Slater to become the 35th winner of the Award, the biggest prize in junior circuit racing.

As well as the enormous career boost of joining previous winners of the accolade including 2009 F1 World Champion Jenson Button, multiple Grand Prix winner David Coulthard, current F1 stars Lando Norris and George Russell and triple Indianapolis 500 winner Dario Franchitti, Fairclough will take home a £200,000 prize plus a money-can’t-buy Formula 1 test with Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team.

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.

“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!”

Fairclough earned his chance to step into racing with success in ROKiT’s Esports competition. After finishing third in British F4 in 2023, Fairclough dominated the 2024 campaign, taking 14 victories with Hitech.

The finalists faced a simulator assessment with the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team and fitness tests at Porsche Human Performance, over two full days at Silverstone.

Fairclough was also awarded the Rokit Formula 4 British Championship trophy during Motorsport UK’s Night of Champions ceremony last weekend.