Martins, 15, has amassed a lot of success during what has been an unusually short karting career.

A former French gymnastics champion, Martins spent two years in national karting championships in 2014 and 2015, taking third in the Cadet category in the latter season.

In 2016, he entered the international WSK and CIK-FIA series, and dominated the OKJ scene in the second half of the season, winning four consecutive events.

He ended up taking third in the European championship before dominating the World championship.

Martins also made his single-seater debut in French F4 in September, taking fourth in his very first race and then also scoring two third-place finishes.

He will enter the seven-round championship full-time this year.

French F4 has been the established entry-level single-seater championship of the country since 1993, and was won by the likes of Stoffel Vandoorne, former F1 drivers Jean-Eric Vergne, Franck Montagny and sportscar ace Loic Duval.

The series has introduced an upgraded car for 2017, although it will retain a 1.6-litre Renault engine and and an F3-standard chassis.

Other notable karting graduates of 2017 are Ferrari junior Marcus Armstrong, as well as 2015 junior World and European champions Logan Sargeant and Christian Lundgaard.