THE future is bright for a teenage racing driver with his 2025 seat confirmed.

Pontypool's Caleb McDuff, aged 17, who is the UK’s only male deaf racing driver, is set to have the year of his life, after being confirmed as a GT4 driver for a history-making racing team.

The teenager has been signed up as a 2025 driver for Team BRIT for the second year, the world’s only competitive team of all-disabled racing drivers.

Caleb has made rapid progress, and will be driving a McLaren 570S GT4 for the first time, competing in the Britcar Endurance Championship.

This is a significant step up from his first season with the team, when he drove a BMW 1 series.

His 2024 season ended on a massive high, with the team taking an overall championship class win in the 1 series, and with Caleb racing the more powerful BMW M240i for the last race, topping the podium in class in his second race.

He was also named as the Young Deaf Sports Personality of the Year in the national Deaf Sports Personality of the Year Awards.

This year, he will pair up with 20-year-old Noah Cosby, who is paraplegic following a motocross accident.

The team has developed world-leading hand control technology which means that drivers with physical disabilities can compete against able-bodied drivers.

Caleb was diagnosed as deaf when he was two years old, having suffered severe ear infections as a baby, but now has a moderate level of hearing thanks to cochlear implants.

The team has created a technical solution to enable him to use his implants and communicate with the team pit crew, whilst wearing his racing helmet.

Caleb said: “Last year was crazy, and a year I’ll never forget. I learned so much from the Team BRIT crew and drivers and have got more and more confident with every round.

"Now, having the chance to represent the team as a GT4 driver is just incredible and I can’t believe it’s happening so quickly.

“I’ve had such great support from so many people, in the deaf community and beyond. I was inspired by a deaf racing driver when I was very young, so I hope there might be other deaf kids out there seeing what I’m doing and feeling inspired too.

“A massive thank you to my sponsors and everyone who has helped make this possible. I can’t wait to get racing.”

As a young child, his parents were told that he should not participate in contact sports such as football and rugby, so dad Ian began looking for other sports his son could enjoy.

Inspired by Canadian deaf racing driver Kris Martin, he bought Caleb a go-kart for Christmas when he was five.

And in 2019 he won the South Wales Karting Championship and placed third the following year in the Super 1 National Championships, despite missing some races due to a crash.

Ian, who runs a vehicle repair business, then built Caleb a racing car and they spent 2021 testing to get him as much experience as possible.

In 2023 he competed in the Junior Saloon Car Championship, finishing 18th out of 33 and eighth in the rookie class, and was winning awards for the most overtakes by the end of the season.

Caleb’s next season will start with winter testing in Portimao, Portugal, later this month followed by his first race on April 5 at Silverstone, home of the British Grand Prix.