McLaren's Taylor Barnard ahead of 1st Formula E season as a regular driver: "Kind of feel like I made it"

McLaren driver Taylor Barnard is regarded as one of the greatest young talents in British motorsport. The 20-year-old will line up alongside veteran Sam Bird next season, whom he has already had the honour of representing in Monaco and Berlin this year. The move into Formula E is a dream come true for the young driver, who aborted his first Formula 2 season before the race weekend in Monza.

The Monaco E-Prix was a leap into the deep end for Taylor Barnard: After Sam Bird broke his hand in an accident in free practice 1, Barnard took over the McLaren cockpit without much preparation time. The young Briton put in a solid performance. Two weeks later he stood in for Bird again in Berlin and even finished in the points in both races. Certainly one of the reasons why the team hired him as Jake Hughes' successor for the 2024/25 season.

"Obviously, having the little bit of experience that I had this year, I really enjoyed it," Barnard told RacingNews365. "And when I got the opportunity, of course, I took it with both hands. I'm really looking forward to what's coming."

His path to Formula E was anything but easy. "Of course, I've had a bit of a tough career," he looks back. "I've not had much funding, so I've always been trying to scrape the barrel. Obviously, to now be a professional driver, it feels absolutely amazing. I'm just really thankful to my parents and everyone that got me here, because this was always kind of a dream, and now that I'm actually here, it is kind of surreal still."

Formula E contract "something very special" for the Barnard family

"I think as a family, the thing that we wanted the most is for me to be a professional racing driver," said Barnard. "Not just me, but my parents and my sister as well, have sacrificed so much to be able to give me this kind of opportunity. So to finally get a contract across the line, it was, yeah, I think we all reacted in the same way, and it was something very special for us."

On his way into international motorsport, Barnard had countless supporters who helped him. One of them is Oliver Rowland, who in 2017 referred the then 13-year-old Barnard to his former team "Kart Republic" run by Dino Chiesa. Seven years later, Barnard is now working at Nissan customer team McLaren together with works driver Rowland on the development of the Formula E powertrain of the Gen3 Evo.

"I think I have a lot of people to thank, and he's (Rowland) one of the main people that got me from British karting to European karting, and it gave me a bit of a platform," Barnard continued. "To be racing alongside him  (in Formula E) now, it's quite a nice feeling to kind of feel like I made it. But yeah, I think we know each other very well, and we'll work good together. I think it's good."

Fine-tuning of the powertrains for the new season is currently in full swing. The official pre-season tests in Valencia are just over a month away. And on 7 December, the new season will finally start with the first race in Sao Paulo.