McLaren have made 11-year-old Harry Williams their youngest ever signing.
Williams is 2 years youthful than F1 nice Lewis Hamilton was when he joined the workforce in 1998.
Ella Hakkinen – daughter of double F1 world champion Mika – was beforehand the youngest driver at present on the McLaren driver growth programme, having joined final yr aged 14.
Seven-time world champion Hamilton joined the programme aged 13, occurring to make his F1 debut in 2007.
Reigning champion and McLaren driver Lando Norris additionally got here via the programme, becoming a member of aged 17.
“Our purpose is to construct a constant pipeline, laddering into our race programmes in F1, IndyCar and the World Endurance Championship for a few years to come back, and including Harry as a proficient younger karter demonstrates this,” stated Alessandro Aluni Bravi, McLaren’s chief enterprise affairs officer.
“For this driver, I feel there isn’t any goal, no stress aside from get pleasure from karting to get most expertise, but in addition to know what does it imply to be a McLaren driver.”
Williams, from Cheshire, first began karting in 2021 and was the 2025 British Open Champion, O plate winner within the Italian Waterswift Collection and was fifth within the European Waterswift Championship.
“I’m actually excited to hitch the McLaren driver growth programme. They’re identified for growing expertise, so it is nice to hitch the workforce as I proceed to progress in karting and into single-seater racing sooner or later,” he stated.
