Racing car driver Jessica Hawkins has been has been competing for more than 20 years, with successes in single-seaters and in touring cars, and she’s even had a stint at being a stunt driver. Jessica is currently the Head of F1 Academy and a Driver Ambassador for the Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team and competing in the British GT4 championship driving the Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4.
In 2023 Jessica became the first woman to drive a contemporary Formula One car completing 26 laps in Aston Martin’s 2021 F1 car, the AMR21, at the Hungaroring circuit. To this day she is still enamoured by the braking capacity and the high-speed cornering ability of that F1 car.
But a career in racing was not something her family pushed Jessica into, in fact it was only by chance that she saw a karting circuit in the distance one day when she was eight years old, and then begged her dad to let her have a go.
“It kind of sparked from there really. It was never supposed to be what it turned into but we were successful early on and followed the advice of the people around us about what to do next, where to race, what were the best championships and here I am over 20 years later still doing it and signed with Aston Martin Formula 1 team. That was never the plan, but I’m very happy that it’s worked out like that,” Jessica told Driven Women Magazine amidst the bustle of the Aston Martin hospitality area in the F1 paddock at the first round of the F1 World Championship in Melbourne earlier this year.
Jessica was sporting the new Breitling Navitimer B01 43 Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team watch, which limited to 1,959 pieces. Breitling has joined Aston Martin and the Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team as Official Watch Partner, connecting Aston Martin’s world of high-performance vehicles with the precision engineering of its F1 program.
On career highlights, Jessica admits that obviously driving the F1 car was huge, but it’s impossible for her to name just one. Winning the British Open Karting championship at aged just 13 years old is also definitely up there, as is being a stunt driver in the latest James Bond movie, ‘No Time to Die’.
But as long as Jessica racing, she is happy, and she’s open and quite flexible to the different options available for achieving her future goals. Competing at Le Mans with Aston Martin is definitely one of them and having started a long journey with Aston, she certainly doesn’t want it to end any time soon, “I would love to be wearing green when I am competing at Le Mans and it would be nice to get a good result, but the first objective is to make it there,” said Jessica.
Being a Driver Ambassador for the Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team means there are lots of media duties, interviews and partnership work to also keep Jessica busy. Driving hot laps is one of her favourite parts of this work, and often you will find Jessica in a Vantage, DB12 or DBX, as it changes weekend to weekend, turning laps much to the joy of her lucky passengers.
As the Head of F1 Academy, Jessica is currently taking on a mentor role for Mathilda Paatz, who is currently representing the Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team in F1 Academy. Mathilda is German, just 18 years old and was a wild card entry at the F1 Academy race last year during Round 4 in Montreal, Canada. After coming through the selection process where they tested a few different girls, it wasn’t an easy decision to make, but it was clear that Mathilda was the correct pick for Aston Martin is Jessica’s view.
“I have a lot of experience that I can pass down to Mathilda as I have seen the good and the bad and the rights and the wrongs and can really help her on her journey. She is very mature, she’s a real racer, dedicated and she is in the seat a lot, which is great. I think she is going to go on and be successful,” shared Jessica.
Leading up to the first race in the F1 Academy, Jessica was making sure that Mathilda had everything that she needed and that Aston Martin had got everything they needed from her, ensuring that they were all aligned on what they are fighting for. This involved leaving no stone unturned and giving Mathilda every piece of the puzzle that she will need to succeed. This is the first of two years with Aston Martin for Mathilda and she needs to perform and the team will give her all the tools to do that, according to Jessica.
The fourth F1 Academy season commenced in Shanghai, China, the first of seven rounds, with all rounds taking place in support of the Formula 1 World Championship. Visiting five countries across three continents, the campaign will see Silverstone make its debut alongside the return of the Circuit of the Americas in Austin for the first time since 2023.
After two rounds Mathilda is currently sitting in fifth place in the F1 Academy championship, with just two points separating her from the third-place runner. Following a strong showing in Canada, Aston Martin Aramco F1 Academy driver Mathilda left Circuit Gilles Villeneuve with her maiden victory in the series. The latest round of F1 Academy will live long in the memory of Mathilda, as she claimed victory in the Reverse Grid Race and picked up three top-five finishes over the course of the weekend in Montréal. Across all three races, Mathilda demonstrated composure and confidence as she highlighted her speed behind the wheel.
“I can’t believe it. I had zero points in Shanghai. To come here and get the first podium for Aston Martin Aramco and now my first win as well on the same day, it’s quite overwhelming. I had to hold back some tears in the car.
I worked really hard for this. It’s great that it’s paid off and we’re getting results. We clearly showed we had the pace to be on top and at the front. We gained lots of points and we’re definitely one to watch out for now. I can’t thank Aston Martin Aramco and PREMA enough. The support has been amazing and I wouldn’t be here without it,” said Mathilda on securing her first F1 Academy victory.
Since the launch of F1 Academy, Jessica believes that the biggest gains seen for women in single seat motorsport have certainly been more females starting at a younger age and in increased numbers.
“That will start to pay dividends as these new racers become older and grow and mature. I think that we’ll start seeing real impact of what F1 Academy has done in a few years,” said Jessica as we sat under the Melbourne sunshine in the F1 paddock.
Jessica admits that Australia is a great place, particularly the weather, as it is much nicer than the weather is in the UK and she loves our accents. She also loves the culture here because it’s a very healthy lifestyle and it’s normal for people to get up and go running, so she’s not running in the dark on her own.
Back in the UK Jessica is competing with MKH Racing in the Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 in British GT4 alongside Will Orton in 2026. This is the latest step in Jessica’s career and follows on from her previous British GT experience, having competed in the GT3 class with Aston Martin in 2024, before moving up to GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS in 2025. After three races in the GT4 championship so far this year, Hawkins and Orton are in second place, just 4.5 points behind the leader.
“I’m excited for the year ahead and let’s see what happens,” concluded Jesssica.
Photographs by Driven Women Magazine.