Harrison follows in his father's footsteps in chasing a career in motorsport, but has gone for a driving role over that of an engineer.

Speaking to Motorsport.com, Adrian said he supports Harri's decision to race.

“Harri started in karts at age eight," the Red Bull designer said. "The reason for starting him was, really, because I think that karting and motorsport is a very good life skill.

“It teaches you a lot, teaches you competition, teaches you that if you want to do well - you have to think about it, work hard, prepare, communicate about how the car’s doing.

“It is also about how you conduct yourself, marketing, interviews. So, it really gives you a lot of life skills.

"I certainly see that [skill] in drivers as far as in F1, like [Sebastian] Vettel, [Daniel] Ricciardo, [Daniil] Kvyat, they all started at a young age and they are very well-rounded."

After a successful BRDC F4 campaign in 2015, where Newey finished runner-up, the British driver is preparing for the bigger challenge of Formula 3 with Van Amersfoort Racing.

“He is doing very well at this stage,” Adrian said of Harri's career thus far.

“I think [BRDC F4] was a very good performance. So it has been a good start [for Harrison].”

Ready for F3

Frits van Amersfoort, owner of VAR, also hailed Harri's growth as a driver.

"We’re happy that he joins us in F3," he told Motorsport.com.

"He’s ready, so that was the main reason for him to jump. You can’t wait forever to become a champion. He proved in the UK that he’s ready, as he became runner-up [in BRDC F4].

"In Germany [ADAC F4] it was a bit more difficult as the cars were built on different concepts and switching between both is difficult.

"But he is talented, very motivated and delivers great technical feedback to the team.”

The Dutch team made headlines in 2014 when rookie Max Verstappen won ten races and secured a surprise switch from F3 to F1 - but Frits warns that the Dutch driver is not the benchmark.

“The step to F3 is large, we can’t underestimate that. The F3 car is the first real proper vehicle [Newey] will race, so we need to get the most out of testing. And so far that goes as planned," he said.

"Everyone thinks Max Verstappen is the standard, but he is not. The F3 championship is highly competitive and as a driver you actually need two years and that’s the project we’re starting with Harri.”

Additional reporting by Tim Biesbrouck