I went the apprentice route and I couldn't recommend it enough. By the time you are 19ish you have 3 years experience on the front line, you know about the products and the people and you aware of the world of work and the type of workplace you are going into. It's pretty much the same qualifications you would get studying full time and it dosen't take any longer to complete (well an extra year if you count the NVQ2 in year one but this is a very basic qulification for somone with good GCSE's, at least it gives you an acclimitisation year), it is more interesting and I found it held my attention much better than full time education. If you go as far as a HND you are easily qualified enough to persue a degree on completion and I beleive it knocks a year off your uni course (you can skip the first year of a degree) but you will have to check this as it may vary and it wasn't something I did.
Actually I think you should be eligable for uni with a plain old ND.
Should you wish to complete further education your firm will sometimes sponsor you through uni and it's great to have the people you trained with to call up and ask for info to use in your coursework. Not to mention a bit of summer holiday work if they can use you. Best to check and see if the firm you are applying for has ever done this as some might beleive that a time served apprentices place is in the workshop.
Lotus and Lola sound like splendid firms to work for, also who are
major suppliers to F1 teams in your area does anyone do sub-contract machining? Search local enginering firms and look at their website's for evidence of strong links to F1 teams, try them too. Post there details up here if you are unsure whether they are a good choice for a job appliction. Somone will give you a thumbs up or down.
Plus think of all the apprentice based humiliation you will miss out on if you go to college full time. Requests for long weights, chequered paint, skirting board ladders etc. being physically restrained while parts of your anatomy are zip tied to workshop equipment, returning to find your immaculatly tidy workspace strewn about the floor, having your favorite keepsake in the entire world cut in half on a chop saw, dipped in the acid tank and torched with a heat gun. It's great!
This is what you look back on with a grimace and tell everyone that it made you a more rounded individual.
Whether it did or not is something only you will ever know
Bottom line, I would get your foot in the door as soon as poss. I find knowledge goes in better and stays longer when I am doing, rather than when I am being told.
Having said all that some people are better at being told first, then doing. (it can lead to slightly less embarassing mistakes) If that's you then perhaps the A level route is the answer. You might find it gives you an advantage in the office too in terms of thoretical knowledge (all that time in class has to do something for you, right? and the knowledge of some of the guys on this forum is proof enough that academia rules O.K.). It may also align you more with the upstairs types, it helps to be one of the guys in a job interview if that is your intended direction.
Go to the Factory young man. GO.
Find people, talk to them. Be bold.
Go to reception and ask to speak to someone in personel or human resources. Wait at the desk, be calm, then when they arrive tell them how much you would like to work for them. Tell them you would like to return wih your GCSE certificates, or take them with you in the first place. Tell them what you like about thier company (do research first) Get you mum, dad or gaurdian to come with you if you are bricking it. If you have relevant hobbies or a passion for motorsport talk about it (do NOT talk about big bore exhausts). If they turn you away leave them with something of yours, a name and contact number, a resume of sorts if possible. Find out if they are making appearances at motorsport shows or local events and go and introduce yourself to anyone from the firm who is there, ask them what they do in the campany, show an interest. Again, leave them a name and number, on paper, don't ask them only to put it in their phone, do that as well if you can. Ask for an email address or at least a name from each person you speak to, thank them for their time in talking to you.
Above all these people are human and there are certain things that cannot fail to impress them.
Do whatever you can as soon as possible, do not procrastinate, the A-level option will still be there if you have no luck. You may have to wait some time for an answer but you have to ask the question.
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Oh and I thought I would add, by way of an edit that if you do an apprenteship at a motorsport company the qualifications you end up with are very unlikely to have the word 'motorsport' in them. You will study plain old ENGINEERING. That is a subject which is plenty deep enough by itself and you should always learn the fundamentals before you try to be at the cutting edge.
You can read into that situation what you like but I personlly think that it comes down to the perception, as an individual student that a qulification with 'Motorsport' in the title sounds more interesting and sounds like it might lead to an exiting job! This is why some educational establishments are adding this word, and swapping in a few modules to try and draw normal engineering course go'ers away from rival colleges/uni's without a similar qulification of their own.
With motorsport job losses turning into something of a bloodbath I'm not sure how much longer having the word in the course title is going to be seen as a positive.
