McLaren announces World Champion’s daughter among new junior signings

McLaren has announced an expansion of its driver development programme and has signed two more female drivers to its roster for next season.

McLaren’s current F1 Academy driver, Ella Lloyd, will be joined by current Vice-Champion in the 2025 British KZ2 Karting Championship, Ella Stevens, as well as Ella Hakkinen, multiple race winner in the Champions of the Future category and daughter of two-time Formula 1 World Champion, Mika Hakkinen.

McLaren expands junior programme as daughter of World Champion signs

Following McLaren’s announcement that three of its junior drivers had departed the programme, alongside the addition of 18-year-old Matteo De Palo, two other drivers will join Lloyd in its academy ranks.

Stevens is set to join Lloyd on the F1 Academy grid next season as McLaren has announced a second car running its colours and using the name F1 Academy McLaren Oxagon, to be operated on the grid by Rodin Motorsport, which will appear in the all-female junior series in 2026.

As for 14-year-old Hakkinen, the youngest of McLaren’s junior drivers, she will add to her family’s long association with the Woking-based team, and will forge her own path with a testing programme that will act with a view to her stepping up to single-seater racing from 2027.

“While I recognise that more remains to be done to increase female representation in motorsport, I’m immensely proud of the progress we’ve made in this space,” McLaren Racing CEO, Zak Brown, said.

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“I hope this signals to all the amazingly talented female karters, drivers, engineers, mechanics, marketeers and accountants out there that our sport is open to all and deeply committed to keeping up the incredible momentum we have seen over the past few years.

“There are so many opportunities both at and away from track and I want to thank NEOM for partnering with us in this space to help us open more pathways for women.

“To now have three talented young female drivers in our Driver Development Programme is really exciting, and I cannot wait to see them hit the track.”

Mika Hakkinen, who won the 1998 and 1999 World Championship titles with McLaren, has previously explained his attempt to not get too overly involved in his daughter’s fledgling career, and how he wants to act solely as a parent rather than adding coaching responsibilities.

Speaking in a promotional video for Hintsa Performance, the Finn explained: “When you are training a young human being, you have to be very careful. You cannot push the young people too hard, because it can influence so many different developments of your body.

“To be a father in the paddock and to be a driver coach, it doesn’t work. I’m too emotional a person to be there, and that’s why it’s great to have Hintsa Performance helping. It’s better to just be a dad.”

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