GAMBLEWINS MABAPRIZE
The teenager who scooped them clare n auto sport brdc award. by Kevin turner and Matt kew
Every now and again, drivers come along who can skip some of the usual rungs on the racing ladder. Red Bull star Max Verstappen is the most prominent recent example, jumping from European Formula 3 to F1 for 2015.
At the start of this year, Ginetta Junior champion Tom Gamble made the bold move from the British Touring Car Championshipsupporting, baby GT category straight to BRDC British Formula 3. A more conservative route would have been to go to British F4, but after testing the 230bhp two-litre Cosworth-powered Tatuus, Gamble decided to make the jump.
“F3 has a really good learning car and a lot of people have driven it, for example Lando Norris raced in it, and a lot of other big names,” he says.
“I definitely brought on my driving skills a lot and, coming into the season, I think the same as every young, single-seater driver, I wanted to get nominated for the final four of the Mclaren Autosport BRDC Award.”
Gamble, who was only 16 years old, joined Fortec Motorsports alongside Manuel Maldonado and, initially, Tristan Charpentier. Although Maldonado and Charpentier finished 1-2 in the reversed-grid race at the Oulton Park opener in April, Gamble was soon leading the Fortec charge.
He took pole in a wet-but-drying session in the second round at Rockingham and converted that to a wet-weather win in race one. But, in race three, a clash with Billy Monger led to disqualification.
In some ways, that was typical of Gamble’s season. He often showed impressive pace, taking more fastest laps than anyone else (six, and he also set fastest lap in the rainshortened Silverstone race) across the 24 races and scoring a second pole at Spa, but also made a few errors.
And at Donington Park he was excluded from the second race due to a non-performance-enhancing undertray infringement.
Without those exclusions, Gamble would have been third in the drivers’ standings, behind title protagonists Linus Lundqvist (Double R) and Nicolai Kjaergaard (Carlin), both of whom had more single-seater experience. Those three, plus Maldonado and the highly-rated Jamie Caroline, who contested three meetings, were also the only drivers to win more than twice.
“I could have, should have been better,” Gamble reflects. “But it was good to get two wins, two poles as well and six fastest laps. It was definitely a year of a lot of learning for me.”
His campaign was enough for Gamble to be selected for the Mclaren Autosport BRDC Award, along with Caroline, Formula Renault Eurocup champion Max Fewtrell and British F4 title winner Kiern Jewiss. Given the pedigree of his rivals (Caroline was 2017 British F4 champ) and the fact Gamble was the only finalist without a single-seater title to his name, it’s probably fair to say that he was not the pre-event favourite.
If Gamble had found the jump from the 100bhp Ginetta to the 230bhp BRDC F3 sizeable, the step to 425bhp Motorsport Vision Formula 2, 420bhp Ligier JSP3 LMP3 and 500+bhp Mclaren 650S GT3 machinery was something else again.
“[The Ligier] was a really enjoyable car and, luckily for me, it was really similar to what I’d driven this year,” adds Gamble.
“The GT3 car was obviously very different, ABS, traction control – I’m not used to those sorts of things. I could hit the brake as hard as I could and not need to worry about coming off. I was happy with the way I adapted to that. I felt like I got pretty fast.
“It was probably the best day of my life. That first day, getting to drive three different cars – something with a lot of aerodynamics, something with not much and something in-between – was phenomenal.”
It became clear that Gamble had done his homework, having spoken to as many relevant people as possible, and was ready to throw everything at winning the award. Each finalist had their own MSV F2 car for the two-day Silverstone test and, once he had settled in, Gamble moved up the timesheets to challenge the early pacesetter, again mixing it with his more experienced rivals.
Gamble was even more impressive in the other two cars. The Mclaren – which is heavier and softer than the drivers are used to, and has ABS and traction control – takes drivers outside of their comfort zones and the Ligier was new to the award for 2018.
After runs on used rubber, the finalists were given one new-tyre run in each of the rooved racers. Gamble was quickest in both, his efforts in the Ligier being particularly strong. His commitment into high-speed corners had benchmark driver Alexander Sims reaching for the telemetry…
“Tom was extraordinary in the LMP3 car,” recalls award head judge Derek Warwick. “He was brilliant in the Mclaren and he was there or thereabouts with everybody, a little bit above everybody, in the F2. That surprised us a little bit with his experience and his age. We wondered exactly how he would come out for the second day but he just continued onwards and upwards. It was really impressive.”
The final day of running was entirely for F2 cars, this time with limited access to ‘push to pass’ boosts of an extra 75bhp. Once again, Gamble was quickest on one of the two new-tyre runs, before acing the 10-lap ‘pursuit’ session, which concluded the tests.
He impressed the three teams running the trio of cars, as well as the judges, to once again overcome his experience. He was announced as the surprising, but very worthy, 30th winner of the Mclaren Autosport BRDC Award last Sunday, capping off an impressive rookie season.
“To say I’ve won the Autosport Award, and having beaten some of the best drivers my age in the UK, is phenomenal,” Gamble enthuses. “It’s definitely going to take a while to sink in!
“Having this award on my CV will definitely make me a lot more appealing.” ■