MSA Formula frontrunner gunning for Red Bull junior status

The 16-year-old, a race winner on three occasions in his debut season in cars, is overseen by Infinity Sports Management alongside the likes of FIA F3 race winner George Russell, endurance driver Harry Tincknell and top prospect Sophia Floersch.

Ticktum, who carries Red Bull's logos on his helmet, commented on possible ties with the Austrian F1 team, saying: "I've got to do very well in the latter half of the season and then who knows what will happen."

"I haven't been promised anything, but if I keep performing, hopefully that could lead to something more - that would be very, very nice."

Running with Fortec in MSA Formula, Ticktum led the championship early in the season, but has been knocked down to fourth in the standings after being excluded from all three races of the Croft round for a collision with fellow rising star Lando Norris.

He responded by winning the first race of last weekend's Snetterton round, inheriting the lead after Colton Herta, son of IndyCar race winner Bryan, spun out.

"I wasn't at all happy with the outcome [of Croft], but these things happen, you've just got to bounce back harder and I think I proved that here," he said after the win.

In the reverse-grid race two, he started tenth and muscled his way into second by the chequered flag. A third-place finish then followed in the final race of the weekend.

With six rounds of the MSA Formula season down and four more to go, Ticktum is 38 points adrift of the championship leader, having been a whopping 70 down just before Snetterton. "The title's definitely within reach," he says. "It's not a massive gap, but the exclusions and the DNFs didn't help. So, if I were to win the title after that, that would be very good."