Adrian Rodney Quaife-Hobbs (born 3 February 1991) is a British racing driver, notable for being the youngest driver to win the

T Cars T Cars was a saloon car-based motor racing series based in the United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western co ...

championship and the youngest ever winner of a MSA-sanctioned car racing series. He currently resides in

Tonbridge Tonbridge ( ) is a market town in Kent, England, on the River Medway, north of Royal Tunbridge Wells, south west of Maidstone and south east of London. In the administrative borough of Tonbridge and Malling, it had an estimated population ...

Career

Early career

Quaife-Hobbs was born in

Pembury Pembury is a large village in Kent, in the south east of England, with a population of 6,128 at the 2011 Census. It lies just to the north-east of Royal Tunbridge Wells. The village centre, including the village green and High Street area is a ...

. He began his career in 2002, racing in the

Honda is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a product ...

cadets category, winning four races in his first season and coming second in the ''Formula 6 Championship''. 2003 saw Quaife-Hobbs move up to the more powerful ''Mini Max'' category where he took several podium finishes and a race victory. Quaife-Hobbs continued racing in the Mini Max series for 2004, winning the ''Bayford Meadows Championship''. At the age of 14, Quaife-Hobbs moved up to the

category where he won both the main T Cars Championship title, becoming the youngest Champion in the series' history at 14 years 8 months old, and winning the Autumn Trophy title as well. In 2006 Quaife-Hobbs competed in the first few T-car races and got a double win in the opening rounds and also won his last race at Rockingham before deciding to focus on a 2007 campaign in Formula BMW. 2006 also saw Quaife-Hobbs win the

British Racing Drivers' Club The British Racing Drivers' Club (BRDC) is an exclusive invitation-only members club for racecar drivers who are judged to have achieved success in the upper levels of motor sport for a number of seasons. Except under exceptional circumstances, me ...

's ''Rising Star Award'', becoming the youngest driver to receive the award at the age of fifteen.

Formula BMW

For 2007, Quaife-Hobbs was promoted to the

Formula BMW Formula BMW was a junior racing formula for single seater cars. It was positioned at the bottom of the motorsport career ladder alongside the longer established Formula Ford category. Like Formula Ford, it was intended to function as the young k ...

class, running in its UK series, racing for the current Champions

Fortec Motorsport Fortec Motorsport Ltd. is a motor-racing team that races in the GB3 Championship. The team was bought in 1995 by current owner Richard Dutton. Past drivers for the team include Juan Pablo Montoya, Gianmaria Bruni, Danny Watts, Jamie Green, ...

. The young Brit established himself in the first meeting of the championship at

Brands Hatch Brands Hatch is a motor racing circuit in West Kingsdown, Kent, England, United Kingdom. Originally used as a grasstrack motorcycle circuit on farmland, it hosted 12 runnings of the British Grand Prix between 1964 and 1986 and currently host ...

, coming eleventh on his debut and running in third for a majority of the second race before tyre issues forced him to yield the final podium place to

Valle Mäkelä Valle Mäkelä (born 2 February 1986, Laitila, Finland) is a Finnish motor racing driver. Career Mäkelä began his kart racing career at the age of five. In 2000 he became Finnish Champion in the ICA-J class. In 2002, he began racing in Formu ...

, the winner of race one. Quaife-Hobbs finished his debut season tenth in the Drivers' Championship with 405 points.

Formula Renault

Following the closure of the 2007 FBMW UK season, Quaife-Hobbs decided to enter the

Formula Renault Eurocup Formula Renault Eurocup was a Formula Renault motor racing championship. Eurocup raced only on European circuits. It served as a support series to the Formula Renault 3.5 Series as part of the World Series by Renault from 2005 to 2015. Renault ...

with BVM Minardi to gain experience in the Formula Renault cars. He did well on his debut, despite retiring in the first race, he finished eighth in the second from thirteenth position, enough to earn him three points. Quaife-Hobbs also competed in two Formula Renault NEC races with Motopark Academy and at Spa, he got his first Formula Renault podium in only his third event. 2007 also saw Quaife-Hobbs win a place on the prestigious MSA British Race Elite scheme run by David Brabham. Quaife-Hobbs entered the Eurocup for a full season in 2008 as well as the Italian championship, both with the BVM Minardi team in which he finished fourth. He returned to Motopark Academy for 2009 campaigns in the Eurocup and Northern European Cup, finishing fourth in both series.

Formula Three

Formel3 Dallara F308 Quaife-Hobbs 2010 amk

Quaife-Hobbs stepped up into the

Formula 3 Euro Series The Formula 3 Euro Series was a European-based junior single seater formula for Formula Three chassis that was launched (in its current form) in 2003 as a merger of the French Formula Three Championship and German Formula Three Championship. The ...

for the 2010 season, staying with Motopark Academy for his graduation into the series. He earned points in first races of the

Circuit Paul Ricard The Circuit Paul Ricard () is a French motorsport race track built in 1969 at Le Castellet, Var, near Marseille, with finance from pastis magnate Paul Ricard. Ricard wanted to experience the challenge of building a racetrack. The circuit has h ...

and

Hockenheim Hockenheim () is a town in northwest Baden-Württemberg, Germany, about 20 km south of Mannheim and 10 km west of Walldorf. It is located in the Upper Rhine valley on the tourist theme routes "Baden Asparagus Route" () and Bertha Benz M ...

meetings, finishing sixth and fifth respectively.

GP3 Series

After the Euro Series opener, Quaife-Hobbs elected to concentrate on the new-for-2010

GP3 Series The GP3 Series, or GP3 for short, was a single-seater motor racing series launched in 2010 as a feeder series for the GP2 Series, introduced by GP2 organiser Bruno Michel. GP3 followed the entire European leg of the Formula One series and th ...

, signing a contract with

Manor Racing Manor Grand Prix Racing Limited, trading as Manor Racing MRT or Pertamina Manor Racing MRT, was a British Formula One racing team and constructor based in Banbury, Oxfordshire in the United Kingdom. The team originally started racing in 2010 un ...

. At

Spa A spa is a location where mineral-rich spring water (and sometimes seawater) is used to give medicinal baths. Spa towns or spa resorts (including hot springs resorts) typically offer various health treatments, which are also known as balneoth ...

he secured his first podium. He finished in fifteenth position in the championship standings. Quaife-Hobbs stayed in GP3 for

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

with Manor. He achieved his first win at

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, Valencia and the Municipalities of Spain, third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is ...

. At the end of the season he improved to fifth position in the drivers' championship, and as he finished as the best-placed Marussia Manor driver in the championship, he received a Formula One test with

Marussia Marussia Motors (russian: Маруся ) was a Russian sports car company founded in 2007. It was the first Russian company to produce a supercar. It designed, and manufactured prototypes of both the B1 and the B2 sport cars. Marussia was led by for ...

Virgin Racing Virgin Racing (subsequently Marussia Virgin Racing) was a Formula One racing team which was under management of Manor Motorsport, Wirth Research and Richard Branson's Virgin Group and competed in with a British licence and in with a Russian ...

Auto GP World Series

In 2012 Quaife-Hobbs graduated to the Auto GP World Series, competing for Super Nova International. Since the start of the season, he has taken victory in Monza and Valencia, notching up two pole positions, five podium finishes from six rounds and currently leads the series by 29 points. He went on to take every pole bar one throughout the season, and took the championship.

GP2 Series

For 2013 Quaife-Hobbs was signed to race for

MP Motorsport MP Motorsport (previously Marcel Peters Motorsport) is a Dutch auto racing team currently competing in the FIA Formula 2 Championship. The team has also participated in Auto GP, Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 and Formula Renault 2.0 Northern Europea ...

in the GP2 Series. The highlight of the first half of the season was a second place at Monaco, before he switched to Hilmer Motorsport from Hungary onwards. Following a second podium in Belgium, Quaife-Hobbs scored his maiden GP2 victory at Monza in the sprint race. He finished the season 13th overall, with a total of 56 points and one win. For 2014, Quaife-Hobbs remained in GP2, but drove for the

Rapax Team Rapax Team was an Italian motor racing team. The team's history can be traced back to when the GP Racing team was founded in 1997, and also to when Piquet Sports was created in 2000 by triple world champion Nelson Piquet. In 2007, Piquet Sports an ...

alongside

Simon Trummer Simon Trummer (born 8 June 1989 in Frutigen, Canton of Bern) is a racing driver from Switzerland. Career Karting Trummer began his motorsport career in karting back in 2003, finishing second in the Swiss Junior Championship. He also finish ...

. For the second season in a row he finished the year in 13th position in the championship standings.

GT3

For the 2015 season, Quaife-Hobbs moved into endurance racing with the

Von Ryan Racing The term ''von'' () is used in German language surnames either as a nobiliary particle indicating a noble patrilineality, or as a simple preposition used by commoners that means ''of'' or ''from''. Nobility directories like the ''Almanach de ...

team. He contested selected rounds of the

Blancpain Endurance Series The GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup, formerly for sponsorship reasons the Blancpain Endurance Series from 2011 to 2015 and Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup from 2016 to 2019, is a sports car racing series developed by SRO Motorsports Gr ...

and

British GT Championship The British GT Championship is a sports car racing series based predominantly in the United Kingdom. The series was originally created by the British Racing Drivers' Club in 1993 and, for its first two seasons, was known as the National Sports GT ...

, driving a

McLaren 650S The McLaren 650S is a British sports car designed and manufactured by British automobile manufacturer McLaren Automotive. It was announced in February 2014 as a new model, but based on the existing MP4-12C with 25% new parts, and was formally ...

in the GT3 class. On his début in the British series, Quaife-Hobbs and his co-driver,

Gilles Vannelet The Gilles are the oldest and principal participants in the Carnival of Binche in Belgium. They go out on Shrove Tuesday from 4 am until late hours and dance to traditional songs. Other cities, such as La Louvière and Nivelles, have a traditi ...

, took victory in the Silverstone 500.

Racing record

Career summary

Complete Formula 3 Euro Series results

(

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

)

Complete GP3 Series results

(

) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Complete Auto GP World Series results

(

) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) ^† Driver retired, but was classified as they completed 90% of the winner's race distance.

Complete GP2 Series results

(

) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Complete British GT Championship results

(

) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Quaife-Hobbs, Adrian 1991 births Living people People from Pembury English racing drivers Formula Renault 2.0 NEC drivers Italian Formula Renault 2.0 drivers Formula Renault Eurocup drivers Portuguese Formula Renault 2.0 drivers Formula BMW UK drivers Formula 3 Euro Series drivers GP3 Series drivers Auto GP drivers GP2 Series drivers Blancpain Endurance Series drivers 24 Hours of Spa drivers British GT Championship drivers Manor Motorsport drivers Super Nova Racing drivers MP Motorsport drivers Hilmer Motorsport drivers Rapax Team drivers Motopark Academy drivers BVM Racing drivers Fortec Motorsport drivers