Motorsport: Doors open for runaway champ

At just 18, Richie Stanaway has clocked up an impressive list of championship wins. Photo / Supplied

Young New Zealand racing driver Richie Stanaway made people who know motorsport sit up and take notice at last year's Hamilton round of the Australian V8 Supercar series.

Stanaway, fresh from his rookie Formula Ford championship-winning season, put noses out of joint when he won the Toyota Racing Series race his first time out in the car.

The next day he proved it was no fluke when he again comprehensively beat the 15-car field, which included far more seasoned open-wheel drivers, and kept the car off the wall.

"It didn't take me as long to adjust to a wings and slicks car as I thought," said Stanaway at the time. "It was still pretty daunting in the first practice session and it took me a few laps to work out how to adapt to the lack of down force on the front when you got close to the car in front."

In 2007, Stanaway won the SpeedSport Scholarship and Rookie of the Year, going on to win the New Zealand Formula First Association's annual one-hour race at Manfeild.

Stanaway moved up from karts into the Formula Ford championship for the 2008/09 season racing a Mygale chassis, seen for the first time in New Zealand. He clinched the title with one race to spare at the last round of the championship at Pukekohe, along with the Ron Frost Memorial Trophy.

Other than Shane van Gisbergen, Stanaway is the only driver to win the series in his rookie year. He has something else in common with van Gisbergen - Stanaway is one of the very few drivers who can make a pass around the outside of turn one at Pukekohe look like he meant to do it.

"After his showing around the streets of Hamilton, there's no doubt he's a talented driver," said former McLaren Formula One team member Bob McMurray. "I'll be even more impressed if he translates the skills he showed in a TRS around a street circuit onto a race track."

Carrying on his winning tradition, Stanaway has just cleaned up in Germany, winning the ADAC Formula Masters series at the Nurburgring with a round to go. After winning 12 of the 18 races so far, the 18-year-old has amassed 315 points, 76 more than his nearest rival Patrick Schranner.

"It's been a good season and wrapping up the championship with one round to go with such dominance puts me in a good position for next year," said Stanaway from his base in Germany. "I may not be doing the last round as I might be doing Formula Three, but I'll find out in the next couple of days. The racing style is a lot different than in New Zealand, it's a lot more aggressive and the drivers seem to be of a lot higher standard. It's definitely a lot to get used to at first."

Now Stanaway has a European championship under his belt, a number of doors will open up for him and some of the bigger players in the sport are already showing interest. Chief among them is Renault's new Formula One team principle Eric Boullier.

"I had a meeting over the weekend at Monza during the F1 meeting there with the Renault F1 boss and he informed that a test was being organised towards the end of October.

"Also, I've got a test coming up with a Formula Three team on October 4 with one of the top teams in the German F3 championships."

In the meantime, Stanaway and his management are looking to put a package together for him to contest the Formula Renault Cup next year. This is the championship that fellow Kiwi Brendon Hartley won on his way to becoming Red Bull Racing's Formula One reserve driver.

A man who has seen more motorsport than you can poke a stick at, Brian Kelly, says: "Richie is as good as, if not better, than Scott Dixon was at the same age."