#FutureStarFriday is back for a full season on Read Motorsport and to start the new season I decided to pick out five stand out talents to keep an eye on throughout 2016, in no particular order.
Ashley Sutton
Age: 22
Nationality: British
Championship(s): British Touring Car Championship
Team(s): Triple Eight, MG
At 22 years old with just a single season of tin top experience, avid Sim racer Ashley Sutton will graduate to one of the UK’s premier racing series with the legendary Triple Eight outfit, and will make his BTCC bow this weekend at the short and technical Brands Hatch Indy circuit.
Sutton graduates as the reigning Renault Clio cup champion switching from the junior side of Triple Eight’s newest rivals Team BMR, who will be running the new Subaru Levorg this season.
Sutton is no stranger to racing high powered front wheel drive touring cars, however, as Sutton made a name for himself as a teenager in the world of racing simulators. The youngster from Harlow regularly can be found honing his skills on a variety of simulations, and has been able to transfer his skills from the virtual world into the real thing.
Sutton made his car racing debut back in 2010 finishing fourth in the 750 Motor Club’s Formula Vee championship, but would not get a full-time seat in another series until 2014. He competed in the final year of the prestigious MSA Formula Ford championship of Great Britain, finishing third overall and top rookie. He then proceeded to win the Renault Clio Cup at the first time of asking and landed himself an MG works drive for 2016 alongside the talented Josh Cook.
A popular driver, especially on social media, and with the speed to match, all eyes will be on Sutton as he lines up for the first of thirty races in what should be his toughest challenge to date.
Sophia Floersch
Age: 15
Nationality: German
Championship(s): ADAC Formel 4
Team(s): Team Motopark
Anyone familiar with the fantastic Ginetta Junior championship in the UK last year will no doubt have heard of this young lady. Floersch may have only completed 10 races in the series, but her explosion onto the motorsport scene is quite simply remarkable.
Sophia’s age meant she could not compete in German car racing, but the Ginetta Junior series allows drivers as young as 14 the chance to race in a highly competitive spec-series in front of one of motorsport’s biggest live free-to-view audiences. Unfortunately, her finances meant she decided against competing in the whole season, concentrating instead on testing mileage for her ADAC Formel 4, one of the toughest junior formula categories in open wheel racing. The German will be up against a driver with the toughest legacy to continue in motorsport, in the form of Mick Schumacher, which would be an astounding feather to have in your cap.
Floersch will be hoping that 2016 will be the springboard for her journey to Formula One, and with minor support from a certain Red Bull, it wouldn’t be too surprising to see Sophia near a Formula One setup within a decade.
Jordan Stilp
Age: 21
Nationality: British
Championship(s): British GT Championship (GT4)
Team(s): Team HARD
In recent times, the art of sportscar racing is in somewhat of a revival, with entry lists across the world stacked with unbelievable amounts of talent, more than some series could even dream of.
Nowhere does this statement ring truer than in the UK, and this year’s British GT, especially in the GT4 class, is set to be one of the best seasons the series has ever had.
Stilp has experience in the Ginetta GT4, where he will be driving but is up against some seriously quick competition. In only his second season in the car, Jordan will face the likes of Ecurie Ecosse’s Ciaran Haggerty in a McLaren 570s, the Maserati Gran Turismo of MX-5 ace Abbie Eaton, Formula Ford legend Scott Malvern in a Porsche Cayman and TOCA graduate Jack Mitchell. Oh and Paul Hollywood, the baker.
Despite the stiff competition, Stilp is certainly in with a chance of chasing top honours for Team HARD, with three seasons of Clio Cup chaos preparing him for the stresses and strains of wheel to wheel GT4 racing against some of the best drivers in the country. In addition, the team has a wealth of experience in many club and professional racing disciplines and a fantastic team spirit to match.
With Jordan’s talent and a proven car beneath him, he will be out to prove himself in the competitive world of high-level sportscar racing, and the future is incredibly bright for both himself and the championship.
Lando Norris
Age: 16
Nationality: British
Championship(s): Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup, Formula Renault 2.0 NEC, BRDC F3
Team(s): Josef Kaufmann Racing (Formula Renault), Carlin (BRDC F3)
Lando Norris’ name has been on the lips of motorsport fans since the age of fourteen, and for good reason. Hailed as one of the standouts of the next generation of British talent, it’s difficult to find a major junior series across Europe he hasn’t competed in, let alone won in.
Lando has already been in action in 2016, and setting records too, becoming the youngest ever winner of the Toyota Racing Series New Zealand with a staggering six wins from fifteen races for M2 Motorsport. In addition, he made the first three starts of his partial BRDC F3 campaign with Carlin, finishing on the podium on all three attempts with a race win under his belt.
Last season, Norris became the first ever winner of MSA Formula, Britain’s FIA Formula 4 category, in addition to podiums and wins in the Italian, German and BRDC F4 categories, the latter being in their winter series which has been renamed BRDC F3.
Norris is regarded as one of the brightest talents in the UK, but will have to prove himself in the highly competitive Formula Renault series, and will be up against former BRDC F3/4 champion Will Palmer, younger brother of Renault F1 driver Jolyon. With drivers like Louis Deletraz becoming part of the Renault young driver’s academy because of their performances in Formula Renault 2.0, the young Englishman will be hoping to turn even more heads as he continues his rapid ascent of the single seater ladder.
Piers Prior
Age: 18
Nationality: British
Championship(s): (Hopefully) MSA Formula
Team: Expected to be Falcon Motorsport.
For every driver unfortunate enough to be lambasted by the term ‘pay driver’, the opposite is often a more tragic case of over-talented but underfunded. Piers fits this description and even travelled to Brands Hatch ready for practice only to be told he won’t contest the season opener with Falcon.
Piers’ assault on the championship has been gathering steam quickly, and his videos of him testing at Rockingham have been shared throughout the motorsport community, with MSA Formula sharing the video on their social media.
Piers, among other things, has won the Henry Surtees Karting Challenge against some very tough competition (Which you can read about here) and was testing with Falcon Motorsport at the MSA Formula Media Day at Rockingham.
Similar to Ashley Sutton, Piers is also a highly skilled sim racer and spearheads the movement alongside Sutton and Nissan’s GT academy that racing simulators are a valid pathway into motorsport.
What Piers lacks in funding he makes up for in talent and commitment and is self admittedly over determined to fight for his seat. A friendly face and a sponsor’s dream, Piers will light up MSA Formula in 2016 no matter how many races he competes in, and on behalf of Read Motorsport we have our fingers crossed that Piers lands himself a competitive drive for the rest of this season.
Did you agree with my top five? Who would you pick as yours? Leave a comment below or get in touch with us @ReadMotorsport or myself @Jakepetrolhead using the hashtag #FutureStarFriday.
