Roar talent: Mardenborough had never raced a car before 2011. But it is Mardenborough who has emerged as the real star of the project thanks to his potential to push the boundaries of what the program can achieve. A successful sports-car racing career with Nissan's various projects – which in 2015 will include an outright assault on the Le Mans 24 hours with an LMP1 racer against Audi and Porsche – is the easy option, but his age coupled with his success in GP3 has people asking if he could make it all the way to formula one instead. Nissan, which backs his racing, originally placed him in the European formula three series in 2013 to try to speed up his learning curve for prototype sports-car racing (Nissan runs cars in the second-tier LMP2 category that are similar to formula cars). But he has exceeded expectations with his natural talent. He was promoted to the GP3 series to drive with the Arden team, owned by Red Bull Racing team boss Christian Horner, and signed up by the reigning F1 champions to a development program.

At the fourth round supporting the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim, Mardenborough finished eighth in the first race, which gave him pole position for the second race (because the top-eight grid positions are reversed for the Sunday morning event). Although he may have got some help from the rules Mardenborough took advantage of his front row starting position and stormed to a commanding win. His performance was a clinical drive that you would expect from a veteran; he made an early break from the field and then controlled his lead until the chequered flag against a field of rivals who grew up in go-karts. "It was my ideal win I had in my head," Mardenborough tells Fairfax Media. "The more ideal would be to have it in race one, and that is now my personal goal, a podium in race one and following that a race win." He backed up his German win with a third-place finish in the second race at the Hungarian Grand Prix a week later. Since then he's continued to be a consistent front-runner at the daunting Spa-Francorchamps and Monza circuits, which aren't typically kind to rookies. Not surprisingly his recent run of success has left him feeling more confident behind the wheel of a real racing car.

"Last year I would have been thrilled to get a podium in GP3 or F3 and now I've done that twice now I'm onto the next thing," he says. "I feel more at home now, more confident as well. And that's massive. I know I can jump in a sports car, an LMP2 or GT car, and know I can be there or thereabouts." A big part of his rapid success is due to Nissan's development program for the GT Academy graduates. The contenders are tested on everything from physical strength and mental toughness to how well they work in a team. Plus, of course, plenty of driving challenges in a variety of machinery. "It doesn't over-prepare you, but it is an extreme situation," Mardenborough says, talking about his time at the event in 2011. "You're chucked into a car you've never driven before, a circuit you've never driven for real on and you're expected to drive flat out and impress people. It prepares you very, very well mentally what to expect." The lucky winner is then put through a gruelling 12-week program of training, testing and racing to earn their international racing licence.

The prize for winning GT Academy each year is a race in a Nissan 370Z in the Dubai 24-hour sports-car race. But, if the driver proves good enough, Nissan picks them up and signs them to their global racing driver program. His deal with Red Bull Racing has him at the team's English headquarters the week of each race, using the team's state-of-the-art simulator to learn the circuits and training in the gym. It all points to Nissan grooming him for more than just sports-car racing. If Mardenborough has the talent, Nissan has the means to get him all the way from his couch to the formula one grid. "For me it's a win-win situation," he says. "I'm in single-seaters because Nissan put me there because it's the best way to develop as a driver. You get to drive these single-seaters and develop and potentially move up levels at the same time, and that helps in the GT cars and the [LMP2] sports-car stuff, because it's all relative information. And at the same time I could go and jump in a sportscar and still be quick. "I'm not sure which way it's going to go; if it's going to go the single-seater route. I'd be equally happy if it went the sports-car or single-seater route. But I'm going to try and go the single-seater route because it's where you learn the most. But at the same time Nissan's current situation, where it's going next year with LMP1, I want to get in on that as well. But I don't know if I will."