Gil Membrado Icart, at 15 years, 3 months and 19 days, has broken a new precociousness record in Spanish motorsport. The child rally prodigy, son of the former driver Josep Maria Membrado, became the youngest rally driver in Spain this past weekend when he participated in the Lloret de Mar Rally, a scoring event for the Catalan asphalt Championship.
He supersedes the Madrid driver Óscar Palomo, who made his debut in rallies in 2019 at the age of 16 behind the wheel of a Peugeot 208 R2.
Member, a native of Olost (Lluçanès, Barcelona), at the wheel of a Ford Fiesta Rally4 he signed a creditable 18th overall place, among 150 registered, in the asphalt rally on the roads that formerly hosted the Rally Catalunya World Cup event. For this rally, its premiere on asphalt and in Spain, it had the collaboration of co-driver Carlos del Barrio (former co-driver of Dani Sordo and Chus Puras, among others).
Gil Membrado (25/October/2007), who learned to drive at the age of 8 from his father, 10-time Catalan rally champion, has had to train until now in rallies in the Baltic countries, in Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania, where it is allowed to compete from 13 years of age. Thus, during the last year and a half (between mid-2021 and all of 2022), the young Catalan contested 13 rallies, with more than 1,300 timed km.
This accumulated experience has allowed him to force the regulations of the Spanish Automobile Federation, which limited access to rallies to drivers over 16 years of age. Since Gil does not meet them until October 22, he would have stayed 10 months of 2023 without competing, having experience to do so. They discussed the matter with the Federation, which has readjusted its regulations and has established -in an ad hoc review- that pilots who in the year of turning 16 accredit a minimum of 600 km in rallies can participate in tests in Spain.
Of course, it has a limitation, nothing banal: not having a driver's license -only a competition license-, you can only get behind the wheel in the sections, not in the reconnaissance passes, so your tutor and advisor must drive Dani Balasch, while he watches the route and takes notes that he dictates to his co-driver. That is to say, Membrado has no contact with the asphalt or the ground until the visor is lowered to run. Without a previous feeling, like the rest of the rivals.
Gil Membrado is following a brilliant trajectory. He learned to drive at the age of 8; At just 14, in November 2021, he already became the earliest FIA European champion by winning the FIA Cross Car Academy Trophy, his first title in rally training competitions.
Previously, in May 2021, at just 14 years old, he became the youngest driver in history to contest rallies. For this he had to compete in a test in Latvia, the Karosta minirally, where it is allowed for him to compete at that tender age. He surpassed Pole Hubert Laskowski, who was 14.
Gil Membrado, sponsored by Setram and the RACC, also made his debut at the Lloret de Mar Rally as a new Red Bull athlete, a collaboration initiated by one of his great idols: the two-time Spanish WRC champion, Carlos Sainz, who has sponsored his irruption on the Spanish scene. The man from Madrid gave him the helmet with which he ran in the asphalt test on the roads of Girona.
The young Member, already established again at his home in Olost and in the CAR of Sant Cugat as an elite athlete, will have a complete program this 2023 season in the Spanish Rally Super Championship, the S-CER, with the PCR team Sport. He will play nine events in total, 5 on asphalt and 4 on land. It will premiere at the Sierra Morena Rally, in Córdoba, on March 17-19.
In addition, to complete his training, he will compete in two more rallies of the Spanish asphalt Championship, the Cantabria Rally in August, and another of the Spanish Gravel Championship, the Auga rally, in Galicia, in March.
