TG Awards '19: People of the Year

His life was also the story of the car industry itself. As the grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, he was automotive royalty. Still only 31, he commanded the development of the Porsche 917 in a manner that set the template for what would follow: an extraordinary vision, executed with ruthless commitment, with astonishing results. At Audi, he oversaw the quattro. Then to VW, in 1993, when the company was in a parlous state; you can thank Piëch for the platform-sharing strategy that transformed its fortunes. His personal passion project, the Bugatti Veyron, gave the automotive world its Concorde moment. His near despotic management style sowed the seeds for VW’s darkest hour – the Dieselgate scandal was surely the product of a culture wherein failure was not an option – but his legacy remains intact.

Chadwick’s been on our radar since her emergence in the 2015 British GT Championship. But 2019’s W Series proved beyond doubt what a genuine force and, yes, role model she really is. The 21-year old dominated, racking up two wins and three podium finishes in six races. Although some observers – including female ones – argued that a women only racing championship reinforced the gender gap, we disagree. “I believe there is a massive gender imbalance in motorsport that should be redressed,” W Series CEO Catherine Bond Muir told TG. In 2020, the W series expands to eight races, and it’ll award FIA super license points. And as Chadwick notes, “it’s grabbed the attention of women’s sport in general. I’ve been on shortlists for awards that no one in motorsport would previously have got their name onto.”

“Getting the team around you is so important,” Lando told TG a year ago, having been confirmed as Fernando Alonso’s replacement at McLaren. "Growing up I heard about how good [Michael] Schumacher was at it. To get everyone on his side, overcoming his team-mate, that’s how it is with all the best drivers. Maybe you can win a race, but teamwork is important if you want to win championships. I know it’s something I need to work on. It’s not just about driving, it’s about working as a team to develop the car, evolving it race-by-race across the whole season.” Still only 20, Norris has had a quietly stellar rookie season, frequently outqualifying and out-pacing his far more experienced team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr, and happily racing wheel-to-wheel with grid grandees like Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Räikkönen. He’s also a strong, likeable character, not a dreary automaton, with a sharp handle on social media and a quick wit. Not just a future world champion, then, but one we’ll happily get behind.

The VW ID.R was one of the stars of our TG24. But as much as we enjoyed it, we haven’t had quite the year Romain Dumas had with it. First, he set a new EV lap record at the Nürburgring, his 6mins 05.336 time not only bewildering but also the second fastest ever recorded, faster even than Stefan Bellof’s long-standing 6mins 11.11 in the fabled Porsche 956. The car’s aero had been modified (remember, Dumas obliterated Sébastien Loeb’s Pikes Peak record last year in the ID.R), to include DRS on that outlandish rear wing. Less than a month later, another record tumbled: he blazed past the Duke of Richmond’s living room and up the Goodwood hill in 39.9secs, eclipsing the time set by Nick Heidfeld 20 years ago in a McLaren MP4/13. It’s also worth checking out his run up the Tianmen Shan Big Gate road in China. Truly, we are not worthy.

Is there a nicer man in motorsport than Andy Wallace? It seems unlikely. But beneath that amiable exterior is a titanium-plated core, the sort that propels you to a Le Mans 24 Hours victory, three Daytona 24 Hours wins, and a world speed record in the McLaren F1. That was in 1998, when he wrestled some seriously high-speed aero foibles to set a record speed of 240.1mph. Now a Bugatti ambassador, it was Wallace who chased the Holy Grail of road car speeds – 300mph – and captured it (304.77mph, to be precise). Three months of preparation encompassed wind tunnel work optimising the car’s body, while Michelin had to develop new simulation tools to ensure the Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres didn’t vaporise. Four days at VW’s Ehra-Lessien test track saw a peak of 299.8mph, before he figured he could keep his foot in across a newly resurfaced part of the circuit. “You may have driven at 150mph on the autobahn, and can concur it’s actually really fast,” he told TG. “Then 180 is a different world, and 200... well, you get the picture. 300, then, is... what? It gets your undivided attention.”

When engineer and automotive entrepreneur Ian Warhurst found out that the Bloodhound LSR project had hit the buffers, he contacted Richard Noble. Bloodhound had turned into a saga of financial woes and missed deadlines. A deal was swiftly done, “I basically bought it out of a skip,” he says. Warhurst is a successful businessman who wanted to give something back. Vowing to get a move on, he’s been true to his word: last month at Hakskeen Pan in South Africa, the car hit 628mph, the world’s fastest man Andy Green at the wheel. His feedback is highly promising, and the team is targeting the record (763mph) next year. An assault on 1,000mph is in the pipeline. “The goodwill behind this thing is phenomenal,” Warhurst told TG, “and you can’t spend 10 years building something and never even try it out, can you?”