Jessica Hawkins will get her first taste of Aston Martin’s Formula 1 simulator as part of an expanded role with the team in 2022.
The 27-year-old joined the team as a driver ambassador last year prior to starting her second W Series season.
She completed various media work and appearances, such as attending and delivering a talk to primary school students in Saudi Arabia.
In 2022, she is twinning a third season in W Series with a campaign in the domestic touring car series TCR UK.
She begun the year with a maiden W Series podium at Miami and won in her second TCR UK race at Oulton Park.
Hawkins required a few seat adjustments but is soon due to begin her programme in Aston Martin’s F1 simulator, a strong indication that she is impressing the team.
“Very, very few people get to sign with a Formula 1 team,” Hawkins told The Race.
“So, it’s a massive milestone in my career, and not anything that I ever thought would genuinely happen.
“So yeah, that’s great to begin with. And my role keeps increasing really.
“From last year, [I’ve been doing] the comms and media side of things, which obviously I’m doing again this year, but also a dedicated sim programme that’s been added this year that we’re just starting.
“I’ve had a few issues with reaching the pedals to begin with on the simulator, but we’ve fixed those now.
“Very soon we will start the sim programme, which is obviously a huge step for me to be trusted with that.”
Hawkins has been an ever-present in Aston Martin’s grand prix debriefs throughout the past year, and has been able to work alongside four-time F1 champion Sebastian Vettel – “I like his passion” Hawkins says of Vettel, but says she’s “quite passionate anyway and quite hard-working”.
While W Series’ Regional F3 cars are a world away from F1’s new generation cars, junior drivers can learn plenty from the intensity and thoroughness of F1 debriefs.
“Sitting in engineering debriefs and briefs and just building more of a relationship with those people like Andy Stevenson [Aston Martin team manager], he’s probably sick of me asking him questions,” Hawkins added.
“It’s really useful to sit in and listen to those and whilst they’re obviously not directly comparable to a Formula 3 [car] because they’re so far apart, it is useful to see the kinds of things they go over, what they look at, how they look at it, and the reasons why.
“So, everything is a benefit.”
