The Earl and Countess of Wessex enjoyed a day of motor sport when they visited the British Grand Prix and thanked an F1 team for supporting the Duke of Edinburgh’s (DofE) award.

Before the start of the race at Silverstone, Edward and Sophie met McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo and their team which is joining forces with the DofE to encourage the public to take part in the charity’s new fundraising challenge – Do It 4 Youth.

The initiative aims to raise money to enable a million more young people from deprived communities take part in the awards scheme, regardless of their background.

Norris said: “At McLaren, we share many of the same values as the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, with teamwork, commitment, resilience and self-belief important to our success as a team, so it’s great to be working together.”

Both the McLaren cars featured the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award logo during the British Grand Prix weekend.

The driver added: “I’m excited to get involved in this new challenge, Do It 4 Youth, and encourage others to take part.

“The past year has been difficult for so many young people, so this is a great way to get active, challenge yourself and raise important funds to help more young people discover their strengths and support physical and mental wellbeing.”

Norris was recently joined at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking by a group of local young people who are taking part in the DofE.

They toured the facility before taking part in a pit-stop tyre-changing challenge which inspires teamwork and resilience to help them “skill up” – one of the key challenges of the Do It 4 Youth campaign.

The initiative aims to encourage the public to take on one of four challenges – physical, learning a skill, giving something up or volunteering – and complete it over four weeks and raise money for charity.

Ruth Marvel, the DofE’s chief executive officer, said: “It is 65 years since His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh founded the charity and the DofE has had a huge positive impact on millions of lives.

“We want to continue to build on that legacy ensuring every young person, especially those from the toughest backgrounds, can take part in the DofE.”