{"id":275623,"date":"2025-11-10T15:03:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T15:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/275623\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T15:03:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T15:03:12","slug":"mclaren-signs-de-palo-amid-driver-academy-shake-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/275623\/","title":{"rendered":"McLaren signs De Palo amid driver academy shake-up"},"content":{"rendered":"

McLaren<\/a> has signed the 2025 Formula Regional European runner-up Matteo De Palo to its driver development programme as part of an academy shake-up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 18-year-old secured his best result since moving to single-seaters in 2023 by finishing second to FRECA champion Freddie Slater ahead of his graduation to Formula 3 with Trident next year.<\/p>\n

De Palo will now also contest F3 with the backing of McLaren, whose first act will be supporting the Italian when he competes in this weekend\u2019s Macau Grand Prix.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cJoining the McLaren Driver Development Programme is a great honour,\u201d said De Palo, who also has experience in the respective Italian and British F4 championships.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe team have a fantastic track record for developing talent, so I am excited to grow across all elements of being a racing driver.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you to Zak [Brown], Alessandro [Alunni Bravi] and the entire McLaren team. I am excited to get out on track in papaya.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Podium: <\/p>\n

Podium: second place Martinius Stenshorne, Hitech TGR<\/p>\n

Photo by: Zak Mauger \/ LAT Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

De Palo\u2019s arrival came alongside the news that F3 trio Ugo Ugochukwu, Martinius Stenshorne and Brando Badoer will all depart the McLaren fold at the end of the year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Alunni Bravi, who runs the academy, said: \u201cThe McLaren Driver Development Programme is pleased to welcome Matteo. He is an exciting young talent who has made great progress over the past seasons, showing adaptability, consistency and growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe look forward to supporting his development across driving, as well as the wider aspects of being a professional driver, within our programme pathway.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also thank Ugo, Martinius and Brando for their contribution to McLaren and wish them the best for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

McLaren stated that the aim of its programme is to progress drivers towards its efforts in Formula 1, IndyCar and the World Endurance Championship, which it will enter from 2027.<\/p>\n

The Woking company has among the most impressive driver academy alumni,\u00a0with seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton<\/a>, current F1 points leader Lando Norris<\/a>, ex-F1 driver Kevin Magnussen<\/a> and Formula E champion Stoffel Vandoorne<\/a> all having graduated.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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– The Autosport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"McLaren has signed the 2025 Formula Regional European runner-up Matteo De Palo to its driver development programme as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275624,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,153339,817,813,816,913,160043,153338,85],"class_list":["post-275623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-autu00f3dromo-josu00e9-carlos-pace","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-mclaren","tag-mclaren-signs-de-palo-amid-driver-academy-shake-up","tag-sao-paulo-gp","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}