McLaren signs 14-year-old kart racer

[Giblet]

I'd personally prefer to see a series supported financially by an F1 team rather than an individual. This aides people without a serious budget to prove they have what it takes.

However lets not forget that Hamilton Snr held down 3 jobs at one point to give his son the opportunities he needed to get McLaren's attention.

That doesn't target the serious talent. It just gives a bunch if kids better karts. If the really good kids moves on to another series, do they drop sponsorship. I like the idea of a team sponsoring a karting series, but not as a driver development tool.

The kids that can drive the balls of their lower end karts deserve better equipment.

You need to separate the grain from the chaff.

[Ciro Pabón]

Well, I haven't read the conditions of the contract, but, in general, I think contracting a kid is hideous and deforms the spirit of kart racing. In the country where I live it is forbidden to hire minors, with or without parent consent.

If McLaren wants to support kids racing, they can sponsor the karts and the expenses and avoid the mortgaging Islam mentions, by supporting the series, not the parents welfare.

More money injected into karting would help to have less young people die because of racing on the streets. As I've said many times, I want to see kart racing included as another sport in schools, that would cost more or less the same amount people invest in football: any stadium costs as much as a track.

However, let's admire the young man abilities (oh, and I wonder how a person named Nicholas de Vries ended being called Nyck de Vries. Why the "y"?):

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiZeaJuYS4Q[/youtube]

[ISLAMATRON]

ffrom those podium pics he seems alot younger than the kids he beat, a child prodigy just like Hamilton was.

[-KMR_NH-]

Imo, McLaren did the right thing because he is extremely fast and talented. So, I would say getting support by an F1 team at the age of almost 15 isn't that bad and it'll help his career, definitely.