Teen whiz Armstrong working on his strategy

The Toyota Racing Series is only two rounds old but already young Kiwi teenager Marcus Armstrong has figured out a better way of attacking the championship.

The talented 16-year-old, who is signed up with the Ferrari Driver Academy in Europe this year, is the leading New Zealander in the standings heading into this weekend’s third round at Hampton Downs.

Armstrong turned heads in his first qualifying stint in the car when he claimed a win in the opening race of the championship at Ruapuna. But an incident in the final race of the weekend proved costly for the series rookie, removing the advantage he had gained in the first two races.

Consistency is likely to have a big say in the overall outcome of the championship, with leader Richard Verschoor already banking a good haul of points in each of the six races.

“If I were to come back and do it next year, it will be a hell of a lot easier just knowing what to do,” Armstrong said.

“If we could do it all again and start back two weeks ago, I would have had a more consistent run and that would help massively, even if some of the results weren’t quite as strong.

“It started off in almost perfect fashion — we had two qualifying sessions at Ruapuna where we were second in both and extremely close to my teammate Jehan [Daruvala].

“Then we went on to win race one, had a podium in race two and then

We are only two rounds in out of five and there is a lot that can happen. It can bite you pretty hard if you get it wrong.