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In what will hopefully become the norm, Aston Martin confirmed that their driver ambassador Jessica Hawkins completed a test for them last week, becoming the first woman to drive a modern F1 car in almost five years.

The 28-year-old drove 26 laps of the Hungaroring in Budapest last Thursday in the AMR21, the team’s race car from 2021, and judging by the results of the test, there will be no ‘women driver’ jokes any time soon.

Hawkins is a former British karting champion, a podium scorer in the W Series and has worked as a stunt driver on a James Bond film.

She is currently working with Aston Martin to prepare for the team’s entry into the F1’s all-female series, the F1 Academy, next season. All 10 F1 teams will have a representative driver and run a car in the series.

Before her test drive, Hawkins prepped in the team’s driving simulator, with the programme director, Robert Sattler, saying she excelled in her run at the Hungaroring.

“Getting to drive the AMR21 has been a dream come true for me and one I’ve been ready to fulfil for a long time. I’ll keep pushing for more and, in the process, I want to inspire other women and let them know they should follow their dream no matter what it is.”

The last time F1 had a woman start was in 1976 when Lella Lombardi raced in Austria. She and Maria Teresa de Filippis are the only two women to have raced in F1 since the championship began in 1950.

The last woman to test an F1 car was the Colombian Tatiana Calderón, who was a test driver at Sauber and drove their car in Mexico in October 2018.

The all-female W Series folded after three seasons in 2022 due to a lack of financial backing but the F1 Academy, formed and backed by the sport’s owners, has declared its target of building a long-term route through the feeder series to bring a woman into F1.

 

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F1 seems like the kind of sport where women can be on equal footing with men, so hopefully, the F1 Academy will draw the kind of sponsors they deserve. Who knows, perhaps one day F1 can settle the argument about who are better drivers, women or men.

Go girls, go!

[source:guardian]