Jack Aitken

Aitken started his career karting, at Buckmore Park in Kent.

Aitken entered his first full season of Formula Renault Eurocup in 2014[4] with Fortec Motorsports. He won one race at the Hungaroring, and finished on the podium four times. During the first half of the campaign, he had to finish off his A Levels while attending Westminster School. At the start of 2015, he moved to Koiranen GP for the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 season.

Aitken won the title at the final round in Jerez, after winning the Formula Renault Alps title at the same track one week previously.[5]

In 2015, Aitken entered the Formula Renault Alps Championship, alongside his campaign in Formula Renault Eurocup. He won this title at the final round in Jerez.

In January 2016, it was announced Aitken would step up to the series with Arden International. In his maiden season, he claimed a victory in the second race Spa-Francorchamps and claimed six additional podiums to finish fifth in the overall standings. In February 2017, it was announced that Aitken would remain in the series, switching to team champions ART Grand Prix. That year he finished second in the championship, albeit a long distance behind his teammate George Russell.

In January 2018, ART Grand Prix announced Aitken would join their Formula 2 team for the 2018 FIA Formula 2 Championship, again partnering George Russell.[6] He took his first podium finish with second place in the Baku feature race, and later took his first victory in the Barcelona sprint race.[7] He finished 11th in the championship with 63 points.

For the 2019 season Aitken moved to Campos Racing, initially partnering Dorian Boccolacci and later Arjun Maini and Marino Sato.[8] Aitken took his first win of the season, and Campos Racing's first win in Formula 2, at the Baku feature race. He also won his home sprint race at Silverstone, after overtaking Louis Delétraz on lap 17. Aitken also won the Monza sprint race after defending from the MP Motorsport car of Jordan King. King criticised Aitken's defensive driving as he claimed after the race that Aitken was weaving down the straight. He finished 5th in the standings, scoring 159 of Campos' 189 points, helping them to finish 5th in the teams' championship.

Aitken remained at Campos for 2020, partnering Guilherme Samaia. Aitken took a double-podium finish at the second Silverstone round, finishing third in both the feature race and sprint race. He was involved in a high-speed collision with Luca Ghiotto on lap seven of the sprint race at Sochi Autodrom. Both drivers were uninjured, but damage to the barriers caused the race to be red-flagged and not restarted.[9]

In February 2016, Aitken was one of four drivers confirmed to join the young driver program of Renault F1. In September 2017, Aitken sampled Formula One machinery for the first time, testing the Lotus E20 at Jerez. In February 2018, Aitken was appointed as third and reserve driver for Renault.[2][10] For 2019, Aitken was confirmed to continue as test driver for Renault.[11] For the 2020 season Aitken joined the Williams Driver Academy alongside Formula 2 rivals Dan Ticktum and Roy Nissany. Aitken will serve as the team's reserve driver.[12] He drove in the first practice session of the 2020 Styrian Grand Prix for the team, replacing George Russell.[13]

Aitken made his Formula One debut as a race driver with Williams at the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix as a replacement for George Russell, who was promoted to Mercedes following Lewis Hamilton's positive coronavirus test.[14] Aitken stated before the event he had been "ready since Melbourne [March]" for such an opportunity.[15] He chose to race with the car number 89, in reference to a number he previously used in karting.[14] He qualified for the race in 18th place, within a tenth of a second of teammate and regular driver Nicholas Latifi.[16][17] On lap 61 of 87, 15th-placed Aitken spun at the final corner, colliding with a barrier and breaking off his front wing. He returned to the pits for a replacement and was able to continue the race, eventually finishing 16th. He later remarked that he had mixed feelings about the race, stating "I think we were doing a really good job up until my little incident. I can only apologise to the whole team", but that there were "a lot of positives to take from the weekend".[18]

Aitken performed Thursday media duties with Williams ahead of the next race in Abu Dhabi but ultimately did not drive the car, as Russell returned to the team prior to the first practice session when Hamilton was passed fit to return to Mercedes.[19]

^† As Aitken was a guest driver, he was ineligible for championship points.

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate points for the fastest lap of top ten finishers)

^† Driver did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance.
^‡ Half points were awarded as less than 75% of the scheduled race distance was completed.
^* Season still in progress.