{"id":406795,"date":"2026-04-23T12:49:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T12:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/406795\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T12:49:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T12:49:08","slug":"mclaren-sign-youngest-ever-recruit-to-driver-development-programme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/406795\/","title":{"rendered":"McLaren sign youngest-ever recruit to Driver Development Programme"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">McLaren have announced that British karter Harry Williams has been signed to their Driver Development Programme, making the 11-year-old the youngest-ever recruit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">Williams, from Nether Alderley\u202fin\u202fCheshire, began his karting career in the Super One Series in 2021 before graduating to the Cadet category\u202fin 2022. After signing to Fusion Motorsport later that year, he went on to participate in national and international championships during 2023.<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">In 2024, Williams finished in the top 10 of the Championship in the British IAME Inter Waterswift\u202fcategory whilst also competing in the international karting field. In the year that followed, he became the 2025 British Open Champion, O plate winner in the Italian Waterswift Series and was fifth in the European Waterswift Championship.<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">After switching class to juniors, Williams placed third in the WSK Final Cup in OKN-J. So far in 2026, he has competed in the WSK Super\u202fMaster Series in the OK-Junior category\u202fand will also participate in\u202fthe\u202fWSK Euro Series, Champions of the Future Series\u202fand the FIA Karting Championships in the same category.<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">Alessandro Alunni Bravi, Chief Business Affairs Officer at <a class=\"text-brand-hot-red underline decoration-1 hover:decoration-[3px]\" data-f1rd-a7s-click=\"rich_text_atom_click\" data-f1rd-a7s-context=\"eyJhY3Rpb25UeXBlIjoibWNsYXJlbl9saW5rX2NsaWNrZWQiLCJjbGlja1RleHQiOnRydWUsInBhdGgiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5mb3JtdWxhMS5jb20vZW4vbGF0ZXN0L3RhZ3MvbWNsYXJlbi41TUxxb29lR0RtT3FRcVFzbXVZeUdRIiwicGF0aFR5cGUiOiJpbnRlcm5hbCJ9\" href=\"https:\/\/www.formula1.com\/en\/latest\/tags\/mclaren.5MLqooeGDmOqQqQsmuYyGQ\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">McLaren<\/a> and leader of the Driver Development Programme, said of Williams\u2019 signing: \u201cWe are very pleased to have signed Harry to the McLaren Driver Development Programme.<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">\u201cHarry is a fantastic karter who has impressed on the national and international stage so far, so we are excited to see how he develops as a McLaren driver going forward.<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">\u201cOur goal is to build a consistent pipeline, laddering into our race programmes in F1, IndyCar and the World Endurance Championship for many years to come, and adding Harry as a talented young karter demonstrates this. Welcome to the team, Harry.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">Williams added: \u201cI am really excited to join the McLaren Driver Development Programme. They\u2019re known for developing talent, so it\u2019s great to join the team as I continue to progress in karting and into single-seater racing in the future. I look forward to learning from the team, and thank them for this exciting opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">The youngster joins a line-up that also features Christian Costoya, Matteo De Palo, Leonardo Fornaroli, Ella Hakkinen, Ella Lloyd, Pato O\u2019Ward, Gregoire Saucy, Ella Stevens, Dries Van Langendonck and Richard Verschoor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"McLaren have announced that British karter Harry Williams has been signed to their Driver Development Programme, making the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406796,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-406795","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}