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The programme was founded in 1998 by McLaren and Mercedes as the McLaren-Mercedes Young Driver Support Programme. The programme notably signed Lewis Hamilton, Nick Heidfeld and Nicolas Minassian as some of its first drivers. From 2019 to 2021, no drivers were part of the program.
In 1998, McLaren became the first Formula One team to establish a driver development program, founding the McLaren-Mercedes Young Driver Support Programme; [1] its initial cohort famously included 13-year-old kart racer Lewis Hamilton, [2] who became the first driver development program alumnus in Formula One to win the World Drivers' Championship in 2008. [3]
The McLaren GT Driver Academy, formerly known as McLaren GT Young Driver Programme is the programme launched by McLaren GT in 2015 to offer greater benefits to a larger pool of drivers who hold a range of different on-track experience.
In 2015, Watson made a switch to the British GT Championship driving a McLaren 650S GT3 for Von Ryan Racing as part of the McLaren Young Driver Programme. [3] He is competing in the GT3 class, a step-up from the GT4 class he previously drove in the 2014 Ginetta GT4 Supercup .
Bustamante is the first female driver signed to the McLaren Driver Development Programme and the second full-time female driver signed by McLaren after Emma Gilmour for McLaren XE. [14] [15] In Round 1 at Jeddah, Bustamante finished fifth in Race 1 and was promoted to sixth (from eighth) in Race 2 due to penalties for other competitors.
In February 2017, McLaren signed Lando Norris to their Young Driver Programme. [132] Alonso did not take part in the 2017 Monaco Grand Prix as he was participating in the Indianapolis 500. Instead Jenson Button returned for the one race as his replacement. [133] McLaren finished 2017 9th with 30 points in total.
A member of the McLaren Young Driver Programme from 2010 to 2013, [13] Magnussen had his first experience of the McLaren MP4-27 Formula One car on track at the Abu Dhabi Young Driver test in 2012. He set a quickest time of 1:42.651.
A member of the McLaren Young Driver Programme since 2013, Vandoorne made his Formula One debut with McLaren at the 2016 Bahrain Grand Prix, substituting for an injured Fernando Alonso and scoring his maiden points finish after outqualifying teammate Jenson Button.