McLaren young driver programme

The McLaren young driver programme, formerly known as McLaren Driver Development Programme and McLaren Mercedes Young Driver Support Programme, is a program created by McLaren. It has been designed to offer year-by-year guidance, assistance and endorsement to help promising young racers – regardless of nationality – to climb the motorsport ladder.

The highlight of the programme is Lewis Hamilton, who is the part of the programme since his karting days and graduated to the F1 team and subsequently winning the driver championship in 2008.

In 2016, Stoffel Vandoorne made his F1 debut with McLaren as a replacement for regular driver Fernando Alonso at the Bahrain Grand Prix after the Spaniard was ruled unfit to drive following a major accident in the previous round.

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