The Race For The First Female F1 Driver Is Ramping Up

Jessica Hawkins, a professional race car and stunt driver, has become the first woman to drive a modern Formula 1 car in five years. The last woman to test an F1 car was Tatiana Calderon, who tested a Sauber after the 2018 Mexican Grand Prix.

Hawkins is 28 years old and has raced in multiple formulas, most recently in the now-defunct W Series. She's also a British Karting Champion and joined the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula 1 Team (AMF1) as a driver ambassador in 2021. She was blessed with an Aston Martin DBX707 as a company car and began prepping for her test in the actual car by using AMF1's racing simulator.

Finally, she got the chance to drive the AMR21 (Aston's F1 car from the 2021 season) in Budapest, joined by Aston's test and reserve driver, Felipe Drugovich, the reigning Formula 2 champion.

Does this mean AMF1 will soon remove Lance Stroll from his seat and put Hawkins in there? Unfortunately, the answer is no. Instead, Hawkins is paving the path for women to line up on the grid to partake in modern Formula 1 races.

We use the word "modern" because women have raced in F1 before. A few ladies entered various Grands Prix, but only two ever qualified to partake in the race. Lella Lombardi holds the record for most F1 entries for a woman, with 17 entries and 12 starts. Her best result was at the Spanish Grand Prix in 1975, when she raced for three different teams. She scored half a point for finishing sixth in a Lavazza March powered by a 3.0-liter Ford Cosworth V8. Half a point isn't much, but it's still more than Nikita Mazepin and Logan Sargeant ever scored.

According to Aston Martin, Hawkins' test "represents a significant moment in Jessica's role with AMF1 Team and offers valuable perspective as she prepares to support the team's entry into the all-female F1 Academy series in 2024."

Hawkins drove 26 laps of a drying Hungaroring, and the team was more than happy with her performance. According to Mike Krack, AMF1's team principal, they were really impressed with Hawkins' preparation for the test and her commitment to the task. The results she posted in the sim gave the team the confidence they needed to put her in the car. "Jessica approached the opportunity with great maturity; she was up to speed quickly and found a nice rhythm," said Krack.

"Jessica progressively built up speed on a tricky track while managing flawlessly the complexity of the AMR21 car. Her feedback was precise and correlated with our data. After three runs, the track had dried, and she was already matching the reference lap speeds," said Robert Sattler, F1 Evolution Program Director for the AMF1 Team. "Overall, Jessica executed an excellent test program with a very professional attitude, and we hope to see her in the car again soon."

It feels wrong to say that putting Hawkins in the AMR21 was a publicity stunt because just look at the video. I certainly can't handle an F1 car, and neither can you. Even though it was a publicity stunt, it doesn't take away from the accomplishment.

What Hawkins has done here is disprove two of the prevailing theories for why women can't race in Formula 1. The next big step is Formula 1's new feeder series, the F1 Academy. It's commonly touted as a replacement for the W Series, but comparing it to the underfunded and defunct series is doing the F1 Academy a massive disservice.

For the first time in history, Formula 1 is finally throwing its weight behind the ladies. The F1 Academy will follow the main F1 circus to select Grands Prix in 2024, which means these races will be broadcast for the first time.

The F1 Academy grid comprises five teams (ART Grand Prix, Campos Racing, MP Motorsport, PREMA Racing, and Rodin Carlin), each with three cars and three drivers. For 2024, each of the main F1 teams we know and love will sponsor at least one female driver. Even though the cars are exactly alike (unlike F1, where the car plays a huge role but is not the only reason drivers win), the racers chosen by the various F1 teams will race using their livery. Every single big-boy F1 team has signed up for this program, and we can't wait to see who they select to drive their sponsored car.

And to manage all of this, F1 chose Susie Wolff. Thanks to Drive to Survive, Susie is best known for being married to Toto Wolff, but in a straight-up race, she'll hand him his ass. While Toto also raced before he became part owner of the Mercedes F1 team, his resume is not as impressive as Susie's. She raced in Formula Renault, Formula 3, DTM and was a development driver for Williams F1 from 2012 to 2015. She's spent more time in an F1 car than Toto ever has. In short, she knows how to stand her ground in what is still very much a man's world.

The main argument against women in F1 has always been the ability to cope with extreme G forces and a lack of aggression. Red Bull's Dr. Helmut Marko made these comments in 2019, and the macho men soon latched onto this utterly stupid argument. (Can we please stop asking Marko for his opinion on stuff?)

If anything, women are better suited to G forces because they tend to weigh less than men. G force is basically the weight of your body multiplied by the G force reading. Let's explain using an example. Yuki Tsunoda is the smallest person on the grid, and he weighs 120 pounds. If he pulls 4G through a corner, the force on his body is 480 pounds. Nico Hulkenberg is the largest driver on the grid, weighing 172 pounds. If he goes through that same corner, the force is 688 lbs.

That's why drivers constantly have to work out, with a special focus on their core and neck muscles. There's no reason women can't do the same.

As for the aggression, tell that to my wife. She usually gets a kick out of hypermiling, but once she gets in my Miata, she becomes a tire-destroying demon. Seriously, I don't think she even knows the car is capable of going in a straight line. Then there's our reviews editor, who came within a second of beating my ass the last time we went to an autocross event. She promised to kick my rear the next time we went out, and to be honest, I'm afraid. The aggression and precision she displays from behind the wheel of her hot hatch are inspiring.

These BS arguments need to die. The only thing standing between these ladies and the F1 grid is exposure. Now that they'll be part of the F1 circus broadcast (there are several races over the course of a Grand Prix weekend, in case you're not aware), they'll get more exposure.

More exposure leads to more inspiration. Next year, when the family tunes into an F1 Academy race before the Grand Prix, a little girl somewhere in the world will see that it's possible, and her parents will go out and buy a go-kart. And the first female Formula 1 world champion will start her career. If she hasn't already...