Dries Van Langendonck

Dries Van Langendonck (; born 30 August 2010), also known by his initials DVL, is a Belgian racing driver who competes in the F4 British Championship for Rodin Motorsport as part of the McLaren Driver Development Programme.

Born in Hasselt and raised in Heusden-Zolder, Van Langendonck began competitive kart racing aged eight. After a successful karting career—culminating in his victories at the junior World Championship in 2023 and European Championship in 2024—Van Langendonck graduated to junior formulae. He became the youngest race winner in British F4 history on debut in 2025, before winning the Formula Winter Series.

Early life Van Langendonck was raised adjacent to Circuit Zolder, near the site of Gilles Villeneuve's fatal 1982 accident. Dries Van Langendonck was born on 30 August 2010 in Hasselt, Limburg, Belgium. His father, Frank Van Langendonck, is an administrator and former kart racer, and was once a teammate of Jos Verstappen. His mother, Ester Meeus, is a businesswoman and medical graduate.

The brothers first began rental karting in 2017 at Genk; Tom quit competitive karting after sustaining serious injuries in an accident a year later. His father worked three jobs to pay for his karting career prior to his McLaren signing, describing them as "the poorest sloebers in the paddock". In addition to cutting his karting career short for financial reasons, Van Langendonck used six hours of daily sim racing to account for missed track-time. He was initially managed by 2007 CIK-FIA World Championship runner-up Gary Catt, before Verstappen became his mentor in 2026. In 2019, he won the Dutch Championship in the Rookie class; he further finished fifth and sixth in the BNL Karting Series and Rotax Max Challenge Belgium, respectively. He finished runner-up to Kilian Josseron at the South Garda Winter Cup and Jensen Burnett at the ROK Cup Superfinal, also claiming third in the Italian Championship, where he won the Trofeo Jesolo in X30 Mini; he finished fourth at the WSK Final Cup, sixth at the WSK Champions Cup, and seventh at the WSK Open Cup. With Parolin, he claimed his first major title in Italy at the Andrea Margutti Trophy in 2022, with additional top-fives at the WSK Champions Cup, WSK Super Master Series, and Italian Championship.

2022–2024: Dominance in OK-Junior Aged 12, Van Langendonck progressed to —the premier under-15 international karting category—with Energy Corse, finishing seventh on his World Championship debut at Sarno. In 2023, he finished runner-up to Lewis Wherrell in Champions of the Future—amongst top-five finishes in the European Championship and WSK Super Master Series—before joining Forza Racing. He became the first World Champion from Belgium since in 1975 with his victory over Christian Costoya at Franciacorta, which elevated him into the top-10 of the International Karting Ranking (IKR) for the first time, and he closed the season by winning the WSK Final Cup. Van Langendonck joined the RACB National Team for 2024, opening his campaign with runner-up positions at the WSK Champions Cup and WSK Super Master Series to Niklas Schaufler. His successes in saw him named IKR Driver of the Year ahead of over 1,200 competitors.

2024–2025: Progression to senior class with McLaren and de Grote Belgische F1-Hoop Joining the McLaren Driver Development Programme, Van Langendonck progressed to the senior OK category in September 2024, aged 14. He joined the Kart Republic–backed Prema outfit for 2025, winning the WSK Super Master Series and claiming a podium at Campillos on his OK European Championship debut, where he finished eighth overall after missing half the season. Upon his graduation to junior formulae midway through the season—following consultation with McLaren team principal Andrea Stella—Sporza described Van Langendonck as the "great Belgian [Formula One] hope".

Formula 4 (2025–present) 2025: Youngest race winner in British F4 On his fifteenth birthday, Van Langendonck graduated to junior formulae with his appearance in the eighth round of the F4 British Championship at Donington Park. He previously tested Formula 4 machinery across 14 sessions at Fontenay-le-Comte, Navarra, Vallelunga, and Brands Hatch, alongside simulator sessions at the McLaren Technology Centre. he dropped to fourteenth before claiming ninth in the reverse-grid second race.efn-num|In the 2025 F4 British Championship, the top 12 qualifiers were subjected to a reverse-grid in the second race. At Silverstone National, he claimed fifth in both qualifying groups before, in each race, he: was disqualified from sixth for a team administrative error; finished twentieth after receiving opening-lap front wing damage; and returned to the points with seventh. He qualified fifth and seventh in each group at the season-ending Brands Hatch round; starting from the pit lane in race one, he climbed to fourteenth, prior to his sixth-placed race two, and fifth-placed finale, helping Rodin clinch the Teams' Cup. He ended the season twenty-first overall on 38 points—having contested three of 10 rounds—with one victory and pole position.

2026: Maiden title in F4 Van Langendonck opened his 2026 campaign with Rodin in the Iberia-based Formula Winter Series, where he took a double pole position and won his opening race at Estoril in torrential rainfall, before claiming second to Rocco Coronel in race two—solidifying his championship lead—and dropping outside the points in race three after a gamble on slick tyres. He stalled from the front-row in the opener of the wet-weather Portimão round and dropped to twenty-seventh before climbing to seventh in the three racing laps absent of a safety car; he dominated the final two races—the latter from pole—with eight-second margins over Alfie Slater and Oleksandr Savinkov, respectively. A double pole in Valencia was followed by a victory in race one and third in race two, before ending the weekend eighth from twelfth in the closer, extending his championship lead to 61 points. He clinched both the rookies' and main championships with two victories from three podiums at the penultimate Aragón round, making a switchback move on Thomas Bearman and Arjen Kräling to win the final race. Closing his pre-season with three grands chelems at Barcelona-Catalunya, Van Langendonck achieved a record nine victories from 12 podiums and nine pole positions in the 15-race Winter Series, scoring 308 points—149 clear of Bearman in second.

Van Langendonck entered the F4 British Championship as a favourite for the title. Van Langendonck remained with Rodin for his rookie season in British F4. Ahead of the season, Marc Cornelissen of Het Belang van Limburg described him as "the greatest promise that Belgian motorsport has ever known". His campaign opened with a double pole at Donington Park National, where he converted a lights-to-flag victory in the first race, climbed to fourth in the reverse-grid second, and was penalised from victory in the third for ostensibly taking out Theo Palmer. Rodin's early-season struggles with understeer emerged at Brands Hatch Indy, where Van Langendonck took seventh in the opening two races before a gamble on slick tyres in changing conditions saw him overtake 21 drivers to win the finale. Van Langendonck dropped from third to sixteenth with a penalty in the opener at Silverstone Grand Prix, retired amidst first-lap melee in race two, and finished fifth in the showpiece BRDC International Trophy, falling behind Wherrell in the standings. He dominated the Zandvoort weekend with two victories to reclaim the championship lead, after which he was announced as the first protégé of Max Verstappen.

Formula One In July 2024, Van Langendonck joined the McLaren Driver Development Programme, aged 13, in a parallel move to that of Lewis Hamilton 26 years prior, another young kart racer with minimal funding. He later revealed that he had received offers from Alpine, Aston Martin, and Williams following his victory in the 2023 OK-Junior World Championship.

I would only do it with drivers in whom I genuinely see great potential. Drivers this good do not come along every year. That is why [Van Langendonck] is really the first one for me. He definitely has a lot of potential to succeed. — Max Verstappen explaining his decision to sign Van Langendonck with Autosport in 2026 The following year, he set the fastest lap on his way to winning the 24 Hours of Daytona Special Event, regarded as the most prestigious iRacing event.

Complete CIK-FIA results Complete CIK-FIA World Championship results

Complete CIK-FIA European Championship results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap) Did not finish, but was classified as he had completed at least one lap.

Racing record Racing career summary Season Series Team Races Wins Poles Podiums Points Position 2025 F4 British Championship Rodin Motorsport 9 1 1 0 1 38 21st 2026 Formula Winter Series Rodin Motorsport 15 9 9 8 12 308 F4 British Championship 18 4 4 1 7 194* *Source:

Season still in progress.

Complete Formula Winter Series results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)