Aston Martin F1 team signs W Series star Hawkins as driver ambassador

W Series returns for 2021 after a year off in 2020 to the ongoing pandemic, with it now acting as a support series for F1 at eight grands prix this year.

Hawkins finished 11th in the inaugural W Series season and will again compete in the series when it kicks off in Austria next month.

Alongside her professional racing career, Hawkins was a stunt driver in Fast and Furious Live and the new James Bond movie, No Time To Die.

Speaking of the announcement, Hawkins said: “I am incredibly excited to be joining Aston Martin Cognizant F1 Team as its new driver ambassador, and I am really looking forward to working with Lance Stroll, Sebastian Vettel, Nico Hülkenberg and the rest of the team. In fact, although it will surely be a hell of a lot of hard work, it is a dream come true for me. Besides, I am definitely not afraid of hard work.

“I also want to pay tribute and say thank you to W Series, which is a brilliant championship without which I would simply never have got this unbelievable chance to work within such a great Formula One team.

“I would particularly like to say a big thanks to W Series’ three most senior people, Sean Wadsworth, Catherine Bond Muir and Dave Ryan. Without their amazing efforts to put W Series on the motorsport map in such a brilliant way and in such a short time, female drivers like me would never have found our way onto the radar screens of the likes of Otmar Szafnauer, to whom I should also say a massive thank you.”

Aston Martin CEO Otmar Szafnauer believes she will be a great addition to the Silverstone-based outfit.

“We are delighted to welcome Jessica Hawkins as Aston Martin Cognizant F1 Team’s new driver ambassador. She has not had it easy in her racing career so far, always having to fight for drives as all young drivers do, especially young women, and her determination to beat the odds is as obvious as it is admirable.

“We are sure that Jessica will work very well with everyone in our team, across a variety of disciplines, both at Grands Prix and in between them, and also with our many partners.”