• McLaren

McLaren signs 14-year-old to development programme

Nyck de Vries has been will join McLaren's young driver programme © Sutton Images

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McLaren has recruited a 14-year-old karting champion from the Netherlands to its young driver development programme.

Nyck de Vries will be managed by Lewis Hamilton's father Anthony and will receive a similar level of support from McLaren as the 2008 champion did in his early career. Anthony Hamilton is confident that his new signing has what it takes to make it right to the top of motorsport.

"Nyck is an extremely promising youngster," he said. "His father Hendrik has been fantastically supportive of Nyck's career, and has been instrumental in raising him up to not just be a great young racing driver, but also a fine young man. Together, we both believe that, with the right level of support, we can take his career to the highest level. We'll be working very closely with Dino Chiesa, who will be running Nyck in Italy this year. Dino is an old friend, who previously ran Lewis and Nico [Rosberg] in Team MBM, so he knows everything about nurturing and developing young talent."

He will join Oliver Rowland, Oliver Turvey and Alex Alban as the youngest driver on McLaren's programme. Team principal Martin Whitmarsh said his latest recruit will get the necessary backing to help him achieve his goals.

"McLaren has a long-held commitment to assisting young talent - we believe it's part of the responsibility of the motor racing community to encourage and nurture junior racers, and we are committed to doing just that," he said. "Nyck appears to be a very exciting prospect, and we are looking forward to assisting his junior career, providing him with the support and training he requires to succeed."

De Vries has won the World KF3 karting championship for the past two years as well as winning at European and German national levels. After visiting the McLaren Technology Centre he said: "I am very honoured and grateful for the support of McLaren in helping to develop my career. The resources they have are incredible, and I believe they'll be able to provide me with the perfect framework for improving my skills, my fitness and my motorsport experience."

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