Reigning GB3 champion Zak O’Sullivan had arguably the weekend of his dreams last week (4-6 February).
On Friday, he was announced as a Williams Racing Driver Academy driver, also confirming his place on the FIA Formula 3 Championship grid with Carlin.
He completed his own ‘Triple Crown’ as he spent his 17th birthday at the Grosvenor House Hotel, London on Sunday (6 February) for the Autosport Awards, and left as the 32nd winner of the Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Award.
He joins an illustrious list of names including David Coulthard, Jenson Button, George Russell and Lando Norris, and is the sixth GB3 graduate to win the award in the last seven years.
O’Sullivan competed with two fellow GB3/British F3 alumni Oliver Bearman and Louis Foster, as well as Jonny Edgar for the Award, during the assessments at Silverstone after the season concluded.
He came out on top across a MotorSport Vision F2 car, an Aston Martin Vantage GT3 run by Garage 59, and a Ginetta LMP3, in front of judges including Derek Warwick, Alexander Sims, Dario Franchitti and Darren Turner.
“I came here with low expectations but I’m really happy to win [the award] and thanks to everyone at the Autosport Awards,” O’Sullivan said.
“It’s been a surreal week for me, earlier in the week I was signed by Williams as an Academy driver and now this. And it’s my birthday, so what a great way to celebrate!”
He wins a £200,000 prize, an Arai GP-7 FRP helmet, a full BRDC membership and a test in the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 car.
O’Sullivan won the 2021 GB3 title by 164 points, with seven race wins and fourteen total podiums. He led the standings after 23 of the 24 races, finishing comfortably ahead of Ayrton Simmons and Carlin team-mate Christian Mansell, the latter joining the Euroformula Open grid with Motopark for 2022.
MSV, organisers of the GB3 Championship announced early in 2021 that champions would receive two complimentary days of testing at the FIA F3 post-season test.
O’Sullivan ran with Carlin for the full three days, as he did throughout his F4 British Championship and GB3 campaigns, running alongside GB3 rivals Reece Ushijima, Roberto Faria and Ollie Bearman.
As such, he stays with the Farnham team into FIA F3, making the same step as 2020 champion Kaylen Frederick and 2019 champion Clement Novalak.