Liam Lawson's career is about to reach new heights. 

The 17-year-old has signed up to the Red Bull Young Driver Programme for 2019, a programme seen as a guiding path to Formula 1. 

It comes only a few weeks after he achieved a triple crown win when he won a maiden NZGP crown, the rookie of the year title, and the 2019 Toyota Racing Series championship simultaneously at the New Zealand Grand Prix at Manfield. 

All of this comes without him even having a driver's license, having been too busy with his racing to get 

Lawson told Mike Hosking that the deal has not settled in yet. 

"Red Bull has always been the one I've always wanted to be a part of, and now actually to be in that team is unbelievable." 

The programme will see supporters invest financially in Lawson and his career.

He says it would have been difficult to get enough money out of New Zealand to bank roll his career. 

In return, Lawson has to give things his all. 

"They want absolute commitment from you, and it is performance based. If you aren't performing at the level you should be or behaviour or something like that, they will drop you, so it's really important."

Whether he reaches the F1 camp, that is up in the air, but Lawson says that "ideally" he'd move through the ranks if he continues performing well, and is eyeing a 2021 entry.

"It's a long way to go before then."

He is committing to this "100 per cent" due to how rare the opportunity for a Kiwi to compete in Europe is. 

Lawson is the first Kiwi to win the Grand Prix since Nick Cassidy in 2014, and the first to win the series since Cassidy again in 2013.